The Transformation Of Lily Rabe From 19 To 39 Years Old
Based upon her incredible stage and screen career, flourishing personal life, and the often extraordinary — yet dark — characters she chooses to depict, the transformation of Lily Rabe is one that has happened organically over time. As a core member of the ever-revolving cast of "American Horror Story" (working with the likes of Evan Peters and Jessica Lange), the star has carved a reputation for being a performer fascinated by the dynamics of good and evil, and of the propensity in humans to possess and exhibit traits of both.
Onscreen and onstage, Rabe's characters are women who are often driven between extremes and who are defined by compelling dual natures which tend to not serve them well. The star's style is likewise a tale of two identities: the theater and screen star, whose style can feel almost preternaturally possessed by the past; and the woman — Shakespeare nerd, actor, partner, and mother — who looks as though she craves to retain her identity separate from her characters via the comfort zone of cozy casuals.
Rabe's evolution has been a startling one. And like the characters she portrays, her sartorial growth has shown an impressive character arc for the star, who has managed to maintain consistency with her performances — whilst routinely pushing herself to grow. It's always a thrill to see what version of Rabe we'll get next. For now, here's who she's been ...
The early days of Lily Rabe
Having grown up with show business parents — her dad is playwright David Rabe, and her mom is actor Jill Clayburgh — Lily Rabe had acting in her blood. However, she initially intended to pursue a different on-stage art in her formative years. Rabe told TDF that she'd originally studied dance, and was teaching ballet to younger girls at a summer arts program when her potential as an actor was spotted by the program's acting instructor, who encouraged her talent.
Despite not "even taking the acting class there," she was asked to perform in the final show and got a taste for treading the boards after delivering a monologue from Beth Henley's "Crimes of the Heart." As she explained to the website, "It was that moment, performing that monologue, that made me think, 'Maybe this is what I wanna do.'" Her parents, who had initially "discouraged" her from acting in a bid to "protect" her from the industry, were likewise convinced when they saw just how talented she was.
It didn't take long before they were rooting for her too. "I think they were relieved that they had had nothing to do with it," she told Sentinel Source, "that I sort of found it on my own and fell in love with it on my own." Of course, between her natural talent and her strong theatrical lineage, Rabe wouldn't struggle to assert herself in the industry.
The ingénue's first screen appearances
At the age of 19, Lily Rabe landed her first onscreen role in Eric Schaeffer's romantic comedy "Never Again," in which she starred alongside her mom. The character was a minor one, but it nevertheless gave her the starting point she needed — even if it wasn't quite establishing her as a star in her own right just yet. Rabe would continue to share credits with her mom when the two starred alongside one another in the up-and-coming actor's 2002 professional stage debut.
Starring in the twin one-act plays of "Speaking Well of the Dead" and "The Crazy Girl," the actor was described by boston.com as having made an impressive debut with the support of "her mother's guiding influence." Rabe further explained that having the opportunity to start her career with Clayburgh helped her to feel "safe" — but it also gave her the opportunity to learn from "a wonderful actress who just happens to be my best friend and ... my mother."
Enjoying such a nurturing and supportive ease into her career obviously worked wonders for the star, who would go on to enjoy a small role in the art history drama flick "Mona Lisa Smile." But it would still be a little while until she would develop her own unique voice and identity — sartorially and professionally — within her career.
A new Broadway darling
In 2005, Lily Rabe officially arrived on the theater scene when she made her Broadway debut as the innocent Annelle Depuy-Desoto in "Steel Magnolias." Her performance scored her a Drama Desk nomination (via Broadway World) and heaps of positive reviews. The New York Times, for instance, praised her sincere performance and described her as showcasing "the most vivid characterization" in the whole show — not bad for a newbie who was starring alongside acting veterans like Frances Sternhagen and Marsha Mason.
That same year, Rabe starred in a production of "Colder Than Here" which similarly earned her rave reviews. The production, where Rabe would meet lifelong pal and "American Horror Story" co-star Sarah Paulson, gave the actor an opportunity to show off her versatility as a performer. So much so that New York listed her as one of the "Best Breakthroughs" on stage in 2005. Describing her as "a talent to watch," the magazine suggested that though she was just starting out and she was young, Rabe had a "grace and force" that belied her burgeoning career.
To look at the actor on the red carpet, you wouldn't think that you were seeing the beginnings of an acting powerhouse. Rabe's early style is casual, relaxed, and humble — she favors comfort over glamour, and it's befitting to who she is at this stage in her career. The young actor didn't need showy garments to flex her newfound success — she was the show.
Lily Rabe on the big and small screens
By 2008, Broadway's new fave was still riding high on her success when the actor got hit by a piece of set during rehearsals for a production of "Crimes of the Heart" (the very same play which sparked Rabe's love for acting). The star was "devastated" to discover she'd fractured her rib. "You just don't expect the set to come crashing down on you," she said. Quite.
Still, the show must go on, and it did for Rabe. The play was a hit (in more ways than one), and the actor started to move away from theater and into television — where there's presumably less of a chance of random set pieces falling on you. However, though she enjoyed small roles in TV shows like "Nip/Tuck" and "Medium," it was clear that her heart remained on the stage — and possibly for someone there too. In 2010, she starred in a production of "The Merchant of Venice" where she met partner Hamish Linklater (via The New York Times).
Rabe's rising star power may have influenced her more confident style, which was the epitome of New York City chic. She was feminine but tough, layering bulky coats, leather, and blazers on top of girly dresses. She'd need that strong outer shell: Sadly, in 2010, her beloved mother and mentor, Jill Clayburgh, would die (via People).
Getting the keys to a Murder House
The grief of losing a mentor, a best friend, or a family member is crushing for anyone, but it must have been especially devastating for Lily Rabe to lose somebody who represented all three things to her. In 2011, upon becoming one of the recipients of USA Network's annual Character Approved Awards, she donated the $10,000 prize money to a fund in her "mother's name at Columbia for research for chronic leukemia, which she died of" (via Theater Mania).
Somehow, Rabe found a way to power through her grief, and the year following her mother's death would be one of her strongest. Her love connection with actor Hamish Linklater continued when she starred opposite him in a production of "Seminar," with the "Midnight Mass" star casually boasting to Broadway.com that their chemistry was pretty hot. "Lily and I match up really well together," he said, in the world's biggest understatement.
Riding her moment, Rabe started dressing more playfully with cool-girl, rock 'n roll ensembles that gave her the swagger she'd earned. Shades and a jumpsuit on the red carpet? Rabe can rock it. As well as enjoying more prestigious TV roles such as a memorable one-episode arc on "The Good Wife," she was added by Ryan Murphy to the first season of his new project, "American Horror Story," where, as he told Collider, he was basically assembling his dream cast — which meant he "wrote a really big guest star part" for Rabe.
Running with the devil
Following her compelling performance as post-life socialite Nora Montgomery in "American Horror Story: Murder House," Lily Rabe was ready for her close-up in what would prove to be one of her most iconic and celebrated television performances: as the demonically possessed nun Sister Mary Eunice in "American Horror Story: Asylum." As Rabe described to The Wrap, the role of "a very innocent and virginal" woman being taken over by "the devil" was "as much of a thrill and a challenge as it was to delve into the extremes."
Judging from how she'd have to wind down after each day of filming, those "extremes" were no joke. "Sometimes I would go home ... and just stare at the wall for a couple of hours," she told Collider but explained that she enjoyed the "challenges" of the job, regardless, saying, "Whatever knocks you out working is the kind of work that I want to be doing."
It was also, evidently, the sort of work that audiences wanted to be watching. Rabe was nominated for a Critics Television Award for her performance (via Critics Choice Association), and the character continues to be regarded by fans as one of the best in the whole series. Like her newfound TV home, the actor's fashion began a curious detour into dark experimentation and eccentricity: gothic lace and gowns of gloomy extravagance, like Rabe was taking her horror crown and dancing ritualistically with it beneath a full moon.
The Stevie Nicks fangirl works her magic
Lily Rabe's style earned the star a reputation for interesting elegance — the actor consistently stepped out in looks that were strong, chic, and cool. But by the time her role in "American Horror Story: Coven" arrived, she was now also rocking looks which were dramatically high-end and bombshell sexy to boot. But there was a time and a place for it. For more low-key events, Rabe routinely returned to her comfort zone of casual denim paired with silk or lace.
Sartorially, it almost felt like a reflection of the roles with which Rabe bonded: characters caught in the great gulf between darkness and light. For her "Coven" role, Misty Day was no different. The fan favorite character was a gentle, earth-loving witch who found herself stifled by darker forces. Clearly, the role was well within her wheelhouse, but there was also a crucial similarity between herself and Misty: "She's obsessed with Stevie Nicks, and so am I," she told Entertainment Weekly. "Isn't it wonderful?" It absolutely was.
When she wasn't spinning around on-set to "Rhiannon," at home Rabe was apparently sharing her life with partner Hamish Linklater, according to a New Yorker article. Though the two had worked together several times and their chemistry together had been noted, 2014 marked the first time that the couple had been officially reported as being "an item" (via Page Six).
From horror into mystery
For the first time since she joined the prestigious television troupe of "American Horror Story," Lily Rabe's next two roles in the hit anthology series were much smaller. She briefly reprised her role of Sister Mary Eunice for "Freak Show" and fleetingly delivered a fictionalized depiction of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. But that was her lot. Ryan Murphy explained to Entertainment Weekly that "she wanted to go off and do her own show" but that he was "thrilled" to get her "back in the habit."
The show in question was "The Whispers," a spooky mystery in which she played an FBI child specialist struggling with her husband's disappearance — and a secret affair — amidst a glut of bizarre incidents affecting young children. Rabe explained to Sioux City Journal that she was drawn to the "complicated place" her character Claire Bennigan was coming from. "That was definitely appealing to me," she said. "Life can be messy and we're all so fallible."
Unfortunately, TV shows are also fallible, and "The Whispers" was canceled after one season due to low ratings (via Variety). Fashion-wise, Rabe spent this period stepping back from bombast, and her chic, playful style looked to be in crisis. The actor's sudden preference for longer, larger, and more decadent gowns — many of which appeared to swallow her whole — looked less like her usual power moves and more like she wanted an outfit she could hide inside.
A critically acclaimed indie dramedy star
Like a swamp witch resurrecting the dead, it didn't take Lily Rabe long to bring fresh life to her groove once again. Whatever bad vibes the actor was operating under had cleared up by 2016, when her style was flush with radiant, sophisticated looks. She spent the year vivid with dazzle and color, like the Lela Rose floral burst of a gown she wore to the Screen Actor's Guild Awards (via The Fashionista Stories) and the sheer Valentino petal parade (via Just Jared) which made the Shakespeare fanatic look like John Everett Millais' "Ophelia" painting come to life.
Rabe's flirtation with floral felt like a celebration of new life, and it was with good reason: The end of the year saw the actor announcing she was pregnant with her first child with Hamish Linklater (via US Weekly). She also enjoyed a return to "American Horror Story" with a lead role in "Roanoke" and leveled up with a critically acclaimed turn in the indie dramedy "Miss Stevens."
Her performance earned her a Special Jury Recognition Award at the SXSW Festival and countless rave reviews — such as IndieWire, who gushed that her nuanced depiction of a heartbroken high school teacher "is attuned to the same unbalanced pitch" of the soundtrack's "warm-blooded theremin." Her life and career were likewise about to hit a new pitch.
Lily Rabe's new mom magic
In March 2017, Lily Rabe became a mom and shared the joyful announcement on Instagram. She accompanied it with a sweet picture of her cradling her beautiful daughter, adding a caption that read, in part, "Girls are magic." It was an apt sentiment for an actor whose performances had often explored the use of literal and metaphorical magic to deflect — or attract — the perils of the world.
Rabe's style choices at this time similarly reflected the idea, with comfortable, feminine looks which made her look perfectly in tune with the majesty of nature. While "American Horror Story: Cult" unsettled viewers without the star's presence, Rabe continued her season of new mom magic with another acclaimed performance in a cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's bewitching comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
The modern day re-imagining paired Rabe opposite "American Horror Story" alum Finn Wittrock and her partner Hamish Linklater in what IndieWire described as "a delirious-looking Hollywood farce." For someone who had spent so much of her career exploring the darkest corners of human experience, it's interesting to note that she took such a wide step away and into lightness at a time when she was bringing new life into the world. Was Hollywood's fave thespian/scream queen done with horror?
Exploring new corners of darkness
Just when you thought she was out, the darkness pulled her back in. A year after basking in the glow of lightness, magic, and joy, Lily Rabe returned to the dark side of storytelling with minor character arcs in the two latest "American Horror Story" seasons, "Apocalypse" and "1984," and a lead role in the menacing Netflix psychological thriller "Fractured." Speaking to Nightmarish Conjurings, Rabe explained that though she loves and appreciates the genre, she wasn't deliberately choosing horror. Instead, she was invested in picking roles that "are going to take you somewhere great and interesting."
Her theater background, she suggested, makes her "drawn to things that feel boundless" with "great stories" and "great characters." It makes sense then that Rabe's transformation would inevitably lead her to a point where her style would similarly become a conduit for storytelling. Like the roles she chooses, her sartorial choices also felt boundless during this time: unpredictable and inscrutable but always interesting and tailored perfectly for the moment.
Take the white pantsuit — with an exposed void of a black t-shirt — she wore to the "American Horror Story" 100th episode celebration, which reflected the stark qualities of her characters (via Entertainment Weekly), or the hyper-feminine Mayle gown she wore to the "Big Little Lies" Season 2 premiere which looked like it could have come straight out of Celeste Wright's own Monterey closet (via HC). In this era, Rabe always understood the assignment and delivered upon it with impeccable charm.
Building her brood amidst a murder mystery
Well, well, well, what have we here? In 2020 — the year that red carpets forgot — Lily Rabe shared a photo on Instagram of herself in a floral mask and blouse combo from The Vampire's Wife. The last time she wore florals this bold was when she was welcoming her first child. This time around, her fashion choice may have been because she'd given birth to her second daughter with Hamish Linklater a few months earlier (via People).
This was also the year that Rabe was given the opportunity to step up against acting powerhouse Nicole Kidman in Susanne Bier's tense psychological thriller series "The Undoing." The murder mystery positions Rabe in the role of a woman whom she described to E! as being "the gatekeeper of everyone's secrets." It's a role that required Rabe to often communicate complex emotions to individual characters silently, through gesture alone, in a bid to maintain such secrets.
She explained to the website that it's the method of being able to give someone "a quick look" in order to "say the thing you want to say" whilst being unable to out loud. It's something of an Old School Hollywood process for performance which stems from her great desire for probing the unknown. "The less we know about people, the more mysterious they are," she told IndieWire. "[And] the more wonderful it is to watch them."
American Horror Story's theatrical dame returns
The year 2021 proved to be a huge one for Lily Rabe's transformation and firmly established the durability of her talent and screen presence. She showed up in the Amazon crime drama "Tell Me Your Secrets," which gave her a new box of genre paints to play with, opposite longtime beau Hamish Linklater. Critics, such as IndieWire, generally agreed that she was the best part of an underwhelming show.
Luckily, she had much more going on, including a recurring role in Barry Jenkins' Emmy-nominated historical drama "The Underground Railroad" and a return to "American Horror Story" with a dual role in "Double Feature." As she imparted to Decider, this particular season provided Rabe with everything she enjoyed about starring in the anthology series. "What I've loved so much is the duality of [her roles in the show]," she said. "You often get to play such extremes in one journey of one person."
Rabe's own personal journey had brought her sartorially to looks that vibed off Old School Hollywood glamour — such as her retro photoshoot with Bare Magazine — and which also gave her the comfort to carry another little life within her. By the end of the year, Rabe had another feat to celebrate as she proudly cradled her pregnant belly in a dramatic Carolina Herrera gown at the opening gala for the Academy Museum for Motion Pictures (via ET). Baby no. 3 with Hamish Linklater would be arriving shortly.