Niecy Nash-Betts' 'head popped off' reading Grotesquerie script: 'My character goes through the wringer'

Niecy Nash-Betts is in her prestige drama era.

After winning her first-ever Primetime Emmy Award for playing Jeffrey Dahmer whistleblower Glenda Cleveland in Netflix's Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the longtime sitcom comedienne reteams with Ryan Murphy for Grotesquerie. Unlike Deputy Raineesha Williams on Reno 911!, her new cop role means business.

As Detective Lois Tryon, Nash-Betts teams with Sister Megan Duval (Micaela Diamond), a nun and a journalist, to track down a serial killer in small-town America, all while dealing with a husband (Courtney B. Vance) in long-time hospital care and a strained relationship with her daughter (Raven Goodwin). Oh! And Super Bowl-er Travis Kelce pops up, too!

Nash-Betts opens up to Entertainment Weekly about the new horror drama, which premieres Sept. 25 on FX.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you describe the particular flavor of this show compared to, say, the camp vibes of Scream Queens or the serious drama work of Dahmer?

NIECY NASH-BETTS: I would probably say this show is going to lean more towards a hybrid of dark drama and horror.

When I watched that first teaser, the first thing that came into my mind was, this is Niecy's True Detective. Am I warm in using that description?

Well, I do play Lois Tryon. She is a detective and she is hunting the most heinous serial killer ever.

What really intrigued you about this role and made you want to sign on?

I love playing things that I have yet to play. Even though I've been a cop a couple times, this particular detective, the things that she's dealing with in her personal life... She's very troubled and very tortured, but at the same time, she has a big responsibility in this town that she lives in to try to stop these murders from happening. So there's so many things that she's grappling with in her home life and her marriage, so many things that she's grappling with inside of herself. It almost appears as though the person committing these crimes is taunting her. So there is also a level of mental fatigue and anguish that she deals with.

A very brief description of the show mentioned unspecified "inner demons." How much more specific can you get with that?

Let me see how I can answer this for you... I'll say this: Sometimes when you are in a lot of emotional pain, there are certain vices that you lean into to help cope. Between the pain and the vices and the actual fact that she's being taunted, she's just being tortured in a lot of ways.

Did Ryan bring this opportunity to you while you were working on Dahmer?

This was after Dahmer. Ryan, he will forever have me at hello. He just called me and said, "Hey, I've got this thing I want you to do," and I just said, "Okay." I didn't know what it was until after I said yes, and I was like, "Oh boy! This is what we're doing." At least this time, he came with several ideas that he was working on and said, "I want to do a story about this. I want to do a story about that." It was maybe like three or four, and he was like, "Pick two." I tell you, I wake up every morning grateful for him — not just for the work, but because the work is so satiating as an artist.

Do you remember your first reaction to either hearing Ryan talk about the story or reading the scripts? 

Reading the script for the first time, my head popped off. I said, "Where does this come from, Ryan? Who are you on the inside? What is happening in your mind?" He said, "I don't know. That's just the way I am, girlfriend." I don't even know how he comes up with these things. I really don't. In reading it, I wanted to dive in. It scared me a little because to lead this show is a huge undertaking, and I didn't have to. I could have done one of the supporting characters, but playing Lois was going to stretch me and my instrument. So I said, "Let me pick up the mantle. Let me lead the charge. Let's do it." After working on it for months, now I get to play a different tone in All's Fair, which is good because I was, listen, my character goes through the wringer. You'll see it. So to be able to do something where the tone is lighter and it's about sisterhood and fairness and all of those things in his new project that Kim Kardashian is leading, I welcomed it with open arms. I'm like, "I need a break," because emotional work is very taxing when you have to do it every day. 

Even though Ryan is known for a lot of provocative elements, it sounds like there are still a lot of things in Grotesquerie that'll surprise audiences of his work. Is that kind of fair to say?

Yeah. I think that Ryan has something for you with this one. This one is different. This is very different. To me, it's not like anything I've seen him do before. If you are a Ryan Murphy fan, you're going to love it. If you're a Niecy Nash-Betts fan, you're going to love it. If you're a Travis Kelce fan, you're going to love it.

How you would describe that relationship with Lois and Sister Megan?

We are two unlikely people who have been friends, who have never worked together in any capacity. The two most unlikely people have taken on this task to try to find the killer and bring them to justice. It's kind of like that unlikely partner where it's like, "Listen, I don't need your help." And there's a certain insight being a nun that she has that helps me unpack and unravel and follow the thread of these murders. Can I tell you what I cannot wait for? I cannot wait for Halloween because I know we're going to be a costume.

I remember you posted videos with Travis Kelce on Instagram and social media from the set. In one of the captions, you were joking how you were "giving Whitney Houston" and The Bodyguard vibes. Is it fair to say that your characters very much don't have a Bodyguard/Whitney Houston vibe on the show? 

No. Absolutely not. I can say this about Travis Kelce: He was a pleasure to work with. He wanted to make sure that he studied hard, that he was well prepared. He took notes, and I think he did a really good job. I really do. I took him under my little wing. I said, "Now let me try this. Try that. Let's do this. Let's read it at lunchtime." All of the things that he was amenable to, and he comes across on camera beautifully.

I gather that Courtney B. Vance is playing your husband, and Raven Goodwin is playing your daughter.

You got that right. Courtney has been my husband a time or two in life on other TV shows, but this relationship that we have, we are not the Huxtables. We are a family with a lot of issues, and they all get unpacked. It's the backdrop to all of these crimes. This is the thing that she's dealing with.

I'm sure you got this feedback a lot, but it was really cool to see you in Dahmer completely showing a different side of you as an actor. Are there ways that this show and this role are pushing you in new and more interesting ways?

Well, I will tell you that for a long time, people said, "You have a lane in comedy, and that's what we know of you." So to be able to be recognized by my peers, by the critics in doing a genre of work that was very difficult for me to procure, I feel like, yes, finally people see me in the fullness of my gift. But then I feel like after that, people forgot I was funny. There was drama, drama, drama, drama [being offered]. But even in this drama, what I love about it is it's still something I've never done before. I never had to play a woman with these very specific issues, fighting these very specific demons. It's going to be another layer for people. It was very important for me... because this is my first time being a lead for Ryan. We go all the way back to me doing his first series, Popular, as a guest, and then playing Denise Hemphill on Scream Queens. I did another pilot for him years ago called Pretty Handsome. All of these places that we worked in, even with Dahmer, it was a supporting character. So there was a lot of weight, and there often is when you are called to be the lead of something and you're leading the charge on it. It was very important to me to get it right. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Grotesquerie premieres two episodes on FX Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, and on Hulu the following day.