There have been tiny hints here and there from members of the American Horror Story cast about what to expect in the show’s mysterious sixth season. For the most part, though, Ryan Murphy’s stable of actors has been forbidden to do any press at all. But with the year’s big twist revealed during Wednesday night’s sixth episode, the shackles, as it were, are finally off. American Horror Story star Angela Bassett joined Vanity Fair’s Hollywood over the phone Thursday to talk about making her directorial debut on the highly anticipated episode, between bites of salad.

The hour she directed, titled “Chapter 6,” saw the format of the show flipped on its head. Instead of watching a ghostly re-enactment docuseries titled My Roanoke Nightmare, American Horror Story fans saw the in-episode creation of a new show called Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell. It’s a Big Brother meets Paranormal Activity reality series that sees all the stars of My Roanoke Nightmare crowded into a haunted house. By episode’s end, the footage available comes exclusively from hidden surveillance video, confessional-style booths, and hand-held iPhone recordings. It’s a tough format for any actor—and a particularly impressive debut for first-time director Bassett, who also had to perform in the episode. Here, she speaks about those formal challenges, drops some hints about what’s to come, and, like most people these days, gives her opinion of our true American Horror Story: the 2016 presidential election.

Vanity Fair: Hi there!

Angela Bassett: This is Angela eating lunch. I'm multi-tasking.

Chew away! Did it make you nervous at all to be directing the big twist reveal episode?

It absolutely, positively did. It made me shake in my boots. Fortunately, there was enough grace for each day of shooting. You start each day with some trepidation, but at the end you’re like, phew, we got through it.

What surprised you most about making the transition to the other side of the camera?

Car flips, chases, and monsters. Not filming in a conventional way, and always having to remind yourself to skew it a little bit. You want it to look good—keeping in mind the idea of the surveillance cameras—but still you have to make it look lush and interesting. Though sometimes the surveillance shots can be very static. High and wide, you know? But the way the script was written, there was an opportunity to break it up a bit. Filming with iPhones, that whole idea. Not being able to see it as it’s happening. Sometimes putting the phones into the hands of the actors. We were becoming our own cinematographers, you know?

How often are the iPhone shots we see actually footage the actors filmed themselves?

It increases as the season goes on. Later on in the season there is more of us filming ourselves. This one, there was a mix. But definitely iPhones in cars as they flip, you know.

You’ve worked with so many of these American Horror Story actors for years. Did any of them have trouble seeing you as a director and not just their co-star? Did they give you grief?

Not a day of grief, no. You speak their language, you know? I think actor to actor, knowing what an actor’s language is—objectives and needs and stakes—just knowing how to communicate with them really helps. Once they squint one eye and say to themselves “oh, she’s the director,” they open up both ears and their hearts.