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Woman Crush Wednesday
Happy Woman Crush Wednesday, fam! This week goes out to a woman who has had a long and diverse career in Hollywood. While she started out on Nickelodeon, she’s taken on some, shall we say, spookier roles since then. Let’s give it up for the one and only Emma Roberts!
WHO’S THAT GAL: Emma Roberts
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: Roberts, who is just 28 years old, is one of those stars everyone seems to know. From child actor to established performer, Roberts has appeared in every kind of role in this industry, including family-friendly classics, serious dramas, and even grisly horrors – especially grisly horrors, for our purposes. Now a familiar face on the beloved show American Horror Story, playing three different characters over four seasons, Roberts is returning for AHS: 1984. Coming Wednesday, September 18 to FX, the ninth season of this anthology series will star Roberts, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Matthew Morrison, and many more in a slasher-themed season of gory massacres and neon leotards.
This season, which plays on classic horror flicks like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Roberts will portray Brooke, a young girl who decides to work as a camp counselor with a group of friends for the summer. Soon, the young teens find life isn’t all floaties and ice pops. There’s a psycho killer on the loose, recently escaped from a nearby mental hospital, and he’s headed for Camp Redwood with a really sharp knife and an uncomfortably cute name: Mr. Jingles. Unfortunately, season nine will not include series-regular Evan Peters (who also happens to be Roberts’ former fiancé). Mainstay Sarah Paulson will also only appear in a small role. On the bright side, this means that Roberts will be able to step up in a big way. From her previous characters as teen witch and mean girl Madison Montgomery in Coven (2013-2014) and Apocalypse (2018), fortune teller Maggie Esmerelda in Freak Show (2014-2015), and determined reporter Serena Belinda in Cult (2017), we can confidently say that Roberts has a handle on the AHS vibe and is ready to lead the show. If anything, we may get to see more of her outstanding acting than ever before.
Even apart from AHS, Roberts is no stranger to this genre, specifically slashers, and has starred in similar productions like Fox’s short-lived Scream Queens and the 2011 film Scream 4. Following her career in the early years on Nickelodeon and other family/teen dramas, Roberts began pursuing more mature roles, though she’s said this happened naturally and that these decisions were not made to prove a point. Still, Roberts has clearly developed a penchant for taking on fierce female roles. About her character Madison Montgomery on her first season of AHS, Roberts told Glamour, “My character on Coven was a bitch, but she was articulate and on it.” Roberts also praised director Ryan Murphy for the dynamic females he has continually created for AHS. We can hardly wait to see what Roberts as Brooke is up to this time around in 1984!
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Roberts made her film debut as a 9-year-old with the 2001 drama Blow, playing Johnny Depp’s character’s daughter. After a few other smaller roles, she finally got her big break on Nickelodeon with the hit sitcom Unfabulous as Addie Singer, a middle schooler and singer/songwriter. During and following this four year project, for which she received numerous Teen Choice Award nominations, Roberts went on to snag roles in films like Aquamarine, Nancy Drew, Wild Child, and Hotel for Dogs, and always as the leading lady. Slowly but surely, Roberts began to pick up more serious parts, including an angsty teen in the 2011 romantic-comedy The Art of Getting By, a recent college graduate and bookstore clerk in Adult World, a runaway and thief in We’re the Millers, and a daring high-schooler who finds herself in a high-stakes competition in Nerve, alongside James Franco. Most recently, Roberts played the voice of Wedgehead in the animated musical-comedy UglyDolls, which featured stars like Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, and even Pitbull.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Beyond AHS, Roberts has a ton of work lined up, including a Netflix romantic-comedy, Holidate, about two singles, Sloane (Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey) who hate the holidays and decide to be each others plus-ones for the rest of the year. And if this wasn’t already impressive enough, Roberts is also going to voice the character of Sasha in the 2020 animated film Saurus City and play Emily the supernatural comedy Anya’s Ghost, based on an award-winning graphic novel. And these are only the productions we know about so far. If it wasn’t clear already, everyone wants Roberts on their team. Same.
