How Old Is Lana Winters In American Horror Story?

In the "Asylum" series, Winters goes through some hair-raising events, including electroshock therapy, rape, and being witness to murder. As a journalist, she's determined to expose the happenings at Briarcliff, which later turns her into a household name. But calculating Lana's age at this point in time is not necessarily a straightforward proposition, as it turns out, not least because she appears at several ages during the course of her appearance in "Asylum." 

However, in an interview from 2013 that co-creator Ryan Murphy did with Entertainment Weekly, he indicated that Lana herself was inspired by journalist Barbara Walters (as well as writer Booke Astor), and her makeup look at an advanced age was also inspired by Walters. "When we were doing Sarah's make-up, we sorta did the math and I think Sarah Paulson's character was like two years younger than Barbara Walters so we really looked at photos today of Barbara and copied that makeup," he said. 

A-ha — a clue! Looks like some extrapolation is in order here.