American Horror Story: How Old Lana Winters Is In Asylum & Roanoke
Lana Winters was a central figure in American Horror Story: Asylum, which documented multiple decades of the character's life before she returned in season 6's Roanoke. The investigative journalist was played by Sarah Paulson, who would go on to be one of the regular stars of the FX anthology series. Although Lana's story was tied up in a bittersweet fashion, Paulson reprised the role in Roanoke. The actress has a habit of playing more than one character in a respective season, but Lana emerged as a fan-favorite following the release of season 2.
Set primarily in the 1960s, Asylum followed Lana when she visited Briarcliff Manor to interview a serial killer known as Bloody Face. The journalist was then committed to the institution under false pretenses after trying to expose Briarcliff's darkest secrets. While trapped as a patient, Lana was subjected to Dr. Arthur Arden's inhumane treatments before narrowly becoming a victim of the real Bloody Face, Dr. Oliver Thredson. Lana was raped by Thredson, resulting in the birth of her son, but that didn't stop her from killing her tormentor. She also found an opportunity to escape from Briarcliff, leading her to expose the asylum so it would get shut down. Decades later, Lana learned that her son followed in Bloody Face's footsteps until she killed him too.
The ages of the characters in the focus of Asylum weren't directly stated. To make matters more complicated, there are current contradictions regarding Lana's supposed age throughout the season, especially in her older state during the present-day timeline. An interview (via EW) from 2013 with co-creator Ryan Murphy claimed "Paulson’s character was like 2 years younger than Barbra Walters" when referring to Lana's aged look. Based on the 2013 setting and Walters' age at the time, Lana would have been 82-years-old when she gave her interview in the Asylum finale. With that information, it's possible to calculate her age through the rest of her American Horror Story appearances.
Seeing as the figure was meant to be near the 82 age range in the 2013 timelines, she would have been born around the year 1931. When Lana was committed to Briarcliff, it was 1964, indicating that she was about 33-years-old during the bulk of season 2. Paulson, on the other hand, would have been in her late thirties when she portrayed the role, which wasn't too far off. Following her escape from Briarcliff Manor, Lana published an autobiographical book titled Maniac: One Woman's Story of Survival in 1968. At this point, she would have been about 37. Three years later, Lana and a film crew filmed a documentary to fully expose the horrors within Briarcliff, bringing the horror to an end when she was 40.
As previously stated, Lana was supposedly 82 when she finally reunited with her son. Moments prior, the interviewer for the TV special commented on how great she looked for age in which Lana replied she had a "talented surgeon in Paris and a great dermatologist." Lana came out of retirement four years later to interview massacre survivor Lee Harris in Roanoke. The character would have been around the age of 86 when Lot Polk ambushed the interview, killing multiple production members before hitting Lana with the gun. Lana survived the event, but she hasn't been seen in American Horror Story since.
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