There’s much more to Peters’ career than just AHS, however. Two weeks after wrapping the show’s fourth series, he was back on set filming Liza Johnson’s Elvis & Nixon with Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon. Last Friday The Lazarus Effect, Peters’ horror film with Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, and Donald Glover, opened across the U.S. Later this year Peters will begin work on X-Men: Apocalypse, his second film in the monolithic franchise.

EMMA BROWN: The Lazarus Effect takes place over a very short space of time in a very specific context: four young doctors trying to develop a serum to resuscitate the dead. Did you invent a backstory for your character, Clay?

EVAN PETERS: There’s definitely a backstory to Clay, and a reason why he’s there. I think everybody tried to make that for their character; we each wanted to figure out why we were there, what we were doing there, and also what kind of person we are. Clay, to me, was always the Good Will Hunting of the group; he doesn’t have to think about being smart, he just is smart. He wants to develop a serum to make money—obviously to save lives, but I think Clay is a little bit more selfish and excited about making millions of dollars so that he can sit at home and play video games all day. There’s a lot of fun things to do with Clay, he’s a pretty crazy dude.

BROWN: I know you worked with Olivia Wilde, who plays one of the other doctors, on one episode of House. Did you bring that up and reminisce?

EVAN PETERS: No, not really. I don’t know if we ever really talked about that. I was just a day player, and sometimes it can get pretty crazy. I was one of six hostages in an episode—I think it was even more than six—so I highly doubt that she would remember me. I didn’t want to say, “Hey, remember me?” And have her be like, “No.”

BROWN: When you’re thinking about joining a horror-thriller like The Lazarus Effect, is the first thing you want to know, “How am I going to die?”

PETERS: [laughs] No. But I was excited to die. I do enjoy a good death on screen, and that was pretty fun. I was excited to not be the killer, to be the one who’s like, “Hey guys, this is bad. We need to get out of here.” He’s kind of the voice of reason.

BROWN: When you start a new season of American Horror Story, do you know the arc of your character?