Tinsley Mortimer Inspires New ‘AHS: Apocalypse’ Character

AHS: Apocalypse, the 8th season of the hit show American Horror Story, just premiered last Wednesday after much anticipation. It is a special season, with crossovers of plots and characters from multiple seasons, including AHS: Murder House and AHS: Coven, coming together to round out the ending of the world.

The season follows a group of survivors living in underground bunkers after a nuclear explosion destroys most of the world topside. The bunkers, of course, divide people into classes based on the wealth and contributions they bring to the bunker.

Leslie Grossman, who joined the AHS franchise in Season 7, AHS: Cult, has stayed on for Season 8 and plays Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, who was introduced to viewers in the very first episode. Coco, as may have been evident from her long and illustrious name as well as her status as a wealthy heiress, is part of the elite group of survivors called The Purples, as would befit the highest ranking group.

On Thursday, in an interview with E!, Grossman discussed her character Coco and some of the inspiration behind her. She then revealed that, as a super fan of the Bravo TV reality series, The Real Housewives, she had actually based Coco on a particular housewife from the series.

“To me, when I’m doing Coco, I draw from lots of different things… but there’s a lot of Tinsley Mortimer in her,” Grossman gushed. “I find Tinsley to actually be really sweet, but that was sort of my first place that I went to with my inspiration for Coco, with other things thrown in.”

Tinsley Mortimer is a socialite who has starred on the Real Housewives of New York franchise during the ninth and tenth seasons. She is a member of the Mercer family, who accrued much of their wealth from Mercer Rug Cleansing, which was founded in 1936.

“I have to say, let’s be honest, [Bethenny Frankel] for sure. Like for sure, for sure,” Grossman added when asked what other Real Housewives stars she could see being included in The Purples if they lived in the real-life world of AHS: Apocalypse. “I also think [Vicki Gunvalson] from Orange County, the OG OC. I have joked Vicki is a cockroach and what I mean by that is she’s indestructible and she is not going anywhere. I think that even if Bravo decided she was no longer going to be on the show, she’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got other opinions about that.'”