American Horror Story star Kathy Bates recently spoke about her childhood relationship with freak shows, relating it to the upcoming fourth season of the series, American Horror Story: Freak Show.

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Bates spoke with TVGuide.com this week and revealed that freak shows were always a mysterious place for her as a child.

"I remember going to the fair when I was a kid, and I always wanted to go into freak show [but] my parents would never let me," she revealed. "So it was this mysterious place I never saw when I was growing up."

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No stranger to playing in the horror genre, Bates has had a fruitful career playing quirky and/or evil characters. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for her turn as the monstrous Annie Wilkes in Misery back in 1991. She most recently played the racist socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie in American Horror Story: Coven, for which she was nominated for an Emmy.

Bates' co-star Angela Bassett joined Bassett in the interview where she gave a preview of their upcoming characters for Freak Show. Bassett, who played voodoo queen Marie Laveau in Coven, will be playing a "freak" named Desiree Dupree, while Bates will be playing a "freak" named Effil Darling.

The freaks have been assembled by Jessica Lange's new character Elsa Mars, and Bassett said that they will be like a family of sorts.

"We're a family that she's brought together," Bassett said. "[The freak show] is the last of this institution."

American Horror Story: Freak Show is set to premiere in October on FX, though the network has not yet announced a specific air date.

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