Evan Peters Felt "Awkward and Stupid" When He First Tried Flirting With Future Fiancée Emma Roberts

American Horror Story: Coven actress didn't get her future fiancé's "sense of humor" at first

By Zach Johnson Feb 13, 2014 1:09 PMTags
Emma Roberts, Evan PetersTodd Williamson/Invision for FOX Broadcasting Company/AP Images

Emma Roberts recently confessed to E!'s Chelsea Handler that she had a crush on Evan Peters when they worked on Adult World in February 2012. The actress admitted she was too nervous to make the first move on her future fiancé—and as it turns out, Peters was just as anxious around his costar!

"I had a crush on her, too, and I didn't really know how to approach her or talk to her or any of that stuff," Peters revealed in an interview with Vulture. "And at the time I was a more introverted actor, trying to kind of stay into it and stay focused and not talk too much. But, yeah, I tried to talk to her a few times and, I don't know, I kept saying the wrong thing. I was really kind of awkward and stupid and like, 'Oh God, this is just not working out well. I'm just going to shut up and not talk.'"

"I would just try to make jokes, you know? But they weren't going over very well," the 27-year-old X-Men: Days of Future Past actor continued. "You know how when you like somebody and then you say things, kind of like a fifth grader? You like the person so you kind of tease them a little bit or you joke around a little bit? Emma didn't get that I was joking, so it just kind of came off all wrong."

As the world now knows, "It all worked out," Peters said. "We started hanging out after the movie and I relaxed a little bit and she started getting my sense of humor." The couple went on to costar in American Horror Story: Coven, in which their characters had a threesome with Taissa Farmiga's Zoe Benson, and—spoiler alert!—Peters' Kyle Spencer choked Roberts' Madison Montgomery to death.

"The threesome scene was probably the most awkward, just because it was...bizarre. Super weird. But the way we did it was pretty tasteful. It calmed down a little bit from what it was. We just didn't want to—we wanted it to be tasteful, if that could be tasteful in any way," Peters said. "Because Emma and I are dating and then poor Taissa's there and we had to get together and do this thing and it's weird."

The choking scene was slightly easier to film. "It was like me and Emma were in an acting class, doing a scene. We were both so gung-ho about it and ready to get into it. It was almost kinda fun; we were feeding off each other," Peters said of the season finale. "On my close-up, she's like, 'Ow, too hard, too hard. You're getting too into it.' I was like, 'Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, babe. I didn't mean to.'"