Jan. 26, 2026

Evan Peters & Rebecca Hall talk The Beauty

Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall discuss their new Ryan Murphy series, The Beauty.

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This week on Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon, Kyle sits down with Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall to talk all about The Beauty, Ryan Murphy’s stylish, unsettling new series for FX and Hulu that will make you rethink mirrors, skincare ads and society’s obsession with perfection.

The trio dives into what it’s like working inside the Ryan Murphy universe, why The Beauty feels especially relevant in the age of influencer culture and how the show blends glamour, horror, and psychological unease into something you can’t look away from - even when it makes you uncomfortable.

Evan opens up about returning to yet another Ryan Murphy project (yes, he’s basically a resident now), Rebecca talks about her first experience collaborating with Murphy, and both discuss the frighteningly plausible ideas at the center of the series - including beauty as power, control, and commodity. Stylish, provocative, and designed to spark conversation, The Beauty is one of those shows that sticks with you long after the credits roll - and this conversation goes just as deep. The Beauty is streaming now on FX and Hulu.

If you dig the show, subscribe, rate, and share - and tell your friend who's always stealing your streaming passwords.

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WEBVTT

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In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, I talk with

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Evan Peters and Rebeccah Hall all about their brand new

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Ryan Murphy show, The Beauty. Let's go.

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Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from iHeartRadio,

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your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on

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all the movies, TV music and pop culture u CRABE Weekly.

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Here's Kyle McMahon.

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Nitt nana, no, nit nana no. Welcome back to pop

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Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon,

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and this is the show where we celebrate pop culture,

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question our life choices, and once again ask the important

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question do I really need another Ryan Murphy show in

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my life? And that answer is always yes, Even when

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I know it's going to emotionally damage me, that answer

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is yes. Today it's all about The Beauty, the new

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series on FX and Hulu that stars Evan Peters and

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Rebecca Hall that is from Ryan Murphy. And The Beauty

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is stylish, of course, It's unsettling, of course, and it

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makes you feel weird about mirrors in a way you

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didn't expect. And yes, I'm talking to both Evan and Rebecca,

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so let's be honest. Let's talk about Ryan Murphy for

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a minute. He doesn't just make TV shows, right, like,

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he creates entire moods. You don't just watch a Ryan

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Murphy series. You enter it. You know, American horror story,

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American crime story, Nip Tuck, Ratchet which I absolutely loved,

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Grotesquery which I absolutely loved, Feud, Glee, I mean, he

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screamed Queens. I could go on and on, but like

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I said, you really just enter a Ryan Murphy show.

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It's like you live in that universe, and it's you

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always know that everybody's gorgeous, traumatized and wearing incredible coats,

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and they're absolutely hiding a secret that will be revealed

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in episode five. His shows are bold, they are messy,

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they're addictive, and you know, if you've ever finished a

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Ryan Murphy series and thought I need to sit quietly

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for a moment, then congratulations, you're doing it right. His

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shows just have that I don't know how else to

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describe it. So the Beauty takes that signature Ryan Murphy

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energy and it kind of points it directly at our

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obsession with perfection, with beauty and youth and image and control.

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You know, all the things that society tells us are

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totally healthy and definitely won't destroy us psychologically. The Beauty

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it's not a comfort show, that's for sure. And it's

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not like I'm half watching while I'm scrolling on TikTok show.

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It's a why do I feel judged by my TV?

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Kind of show. It's very sleek, it's very creepy, as

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all of his shows are. It's smart. Well, I shouldn't

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say all of his shows are creepy. Glee wasn't creepy,

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but a lot of his shows are. It's smart. You know,

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his shows are often smart, and it's definitely the kind

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of series that makes you rethink skincare ads forever. And

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at the center of The Beauty is Evan Peters and

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Rebecca Hall love them. This is Evan peters first time

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on the show and Rebecca Hall's second. Evan is a

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man who has played more emotionally intense characters than most

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of us have had hot meals. You know him as

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Quicksilver in the Fox X Men Universe and now the

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MCU the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course, he's been in

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numerous seasons of American horror Story, including The Og Murder House.

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He's been in Monster tron Ares, Mayor of East Town,

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Kick Ass, Wanda Vision, and so much more. Love him

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and Rebecca Hall, who was on for her creepy movie

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The Nighthouse, is one of the most quietly powerful, unsettling

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performers I'd say working today, and she could convey like

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existential dread and just one look. She's been in The Gift,

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The Prestige, The Town, Iron Man Three, Godzilla Verse, Kang

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Godzilla Verse, Kang The New Empire, Love love, love her.

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So I talk to them both about working inside the

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Ryan Murphy universe, why the Beauty feels specially relevant right now, Hello,

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influencer culture, and how you prepare for a show that

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lives somewhere between glamour and nightmare. So let's jump right

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into my interview with Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall. Thank

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you both so much for joining me. I really appreciate it.

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So oh, thank you very much. I love this share.

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So first of all, congrats on the beauty. It really

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is awesome. I'm really loving it. You know, I love

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Ryan Murphy's work. I love both of your work. I

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wonder what what attracted you to this particular project, both

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of you have worked with Ryan before. I'm sure I

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assumed part of that, uh had something to do with it,

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You haven't.

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Really, it's my first time. It was my first time.

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I've since done another Ryan Murphew production.

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Oh the the Monster, right Monster?

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I just yeah, but this was my first, my first

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experience and entrance into the Ryan Murphy universe.

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A veteran and now I'm a veteran.

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I'm not a veteran.

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You'll never leave.

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And Rebecca, was that something that attracted to you, you know,

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doing a Ryan Murphy project?

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Yeah, No, I know, I've yeah, I've always wanted to

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work with him, but I've always been an admirer and

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thought that everything that he don't he just has such

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an instinct for the zeitgeist and for what's going on,

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and he seems to tap into something that we're all

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talking or thinking about and somehow make it subversive and

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exciting and fun and just entertaining and the thing that

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you want to watch, and that, of course an actor

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wants to be a part of that.

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So I was very excited when he pitched it to

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me because it sounded like all of those things and

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it you know, he also pointed out that it was

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going to shoot in New York and Paris and Venison, Rome,

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and I was like, well that doesn't sound too terrible.

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No, no, And how about for you, Evan? By my count,

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you're at like forty seven Ryan.

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Murphy projects somewhere.

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What what brought you to this one?

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I really liked the comic book series uh that he

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sent along with the first script, and it's a very

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uh it was international. It was going to be shooting

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in all these very exciting locations, and it was an

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opportunity to do some fun action sequences and have a

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romantic storyline with with Rebecca Hall, which is very exciting.

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And so yeah, it was there was a lot that

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was going to be different, and Ryan's always throwing something

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different at me to do, which is very It's it's

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really a dream come true. So so yeah, I jumped

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at it.

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And for you, you both play you know these agents

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that are investigating this uh, this being you know this

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kind of uh I want to say almost not zempic ish,

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but you know this thing that yeah ozempic adjacent. Do

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you see could you see it? You know in our world?

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Could you see that kind of happening in our world?

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Yeah.

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I mean it feels very far fetched, but also it's

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not that far fetched.

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I mean, you know, right now.

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If you've got enough money, you can you can you

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can permanently look thirty five pretty much. So you know,

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it's like, yeah, I don't know that we're that far

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away from these things getting more and more distilled into

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until you get to one shot makes you hot, but

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maybe not the side effects, right, I mean there's always

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side effects. There is always a crash, there is always

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an inevitable cost.

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That's true. Pers it's yeah, yeah, metaphorical explosion. Yeah yeah, yeah.

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Next question, so I would have to ask, you know,

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you both are in Hollywood. There is you know, Hollywood

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often leads kind of the rest of us in new

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treatments and that sort of thing. Is that something you know?

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I was thinking about this as I was watching. If

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I didn't know the side effects, you know, would I maybe,

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you know, try to try to do this?

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You know?

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Is that something that kind of ever crossed your mind

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taking the side effects part of it out? You know?

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I think that obviously, like we're act it's like how

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we look as part of our job. I mean, it's

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sort of you know, it dictates how much time you're

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in the makeup chair in the morning, how hard it

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is to light your face. You're thinking about it, You're

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thinking about how you look it on a on a

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daily basis, and it's naive to pretend that you know

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I'm not. I also like to think that that acting

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is about looking all types of ways according to what

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the project is. And sometimes you want to look actually

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the opposite of of of good for the sake.

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Of truth, and that's meaningful.

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So I think I suppose what I'm trying to say

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is like, on a broader sense, of course, beauty is

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a is a commodity. There's power in beauty, but it's

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also something that is I guess created by I sort

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of agreed upon social reality. At any given time, you

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look through time, what was the standard of beauty, and

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it varies enormously. So I think, you know, it is

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something that's external and is imposed from outside. And so

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if you're giving a lot of money to people who

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are going to make those decisions for you, I think

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that's kind of frightening because those people want to keep

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making money, and frankly, feeling inadequate is more profitable than

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feeling satisfied. That was a long answer.

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It was a great answer.

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That was an amazing answer.

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No, No, that was great.

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Thank you both. Say that again. I love that. That

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really was profound and it's and it's so so true.

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Thank you both so much. I can't wait for everybody

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to see The Beauty. It really is a great show.

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Thank you guys, Thank you, thank you. I have a

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great day, you too, Thank you Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall.

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I'm telling you, The Beauty is one of those shows

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that stick with you in the best and worst possible ways.

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It's extremely stylish, as all as Ryan's as all of

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Ryan's shows are. It's provocative, it's unsettling, and I'm telling

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you it's absolutely going to start conversations. The Beauty is

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on FX and Hulu right now, and yes, you're gonna

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watch it before someone on the internet ruins it for you.

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That's it for this episode. I'm Kyle McMahon. This has

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been pop Culture Weekly, sleep Tight and maybe don't stare

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too long in the mirror tonight. I love you, I'll

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see you next episode.

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We thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here

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all the latest and Cultureweekly dot com.

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The Bedy, The Bedy the bedy Ryan murphy universe, the Beudy,

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the bedy, the bedy of Ryan Murphy's universe,
Evan Peters Profile Photo

Actor

Evan Peters is an Emmy-winning actor best known for his haunting and complex roles throughout the American Horror Story franchise and his chilling portrayal in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. He recently stars in the Ryan Murphy-produced series The Beauty.