Sarah Paulson: TV’S ULTIMATE SCREAM QUEEN
How Ryan Murphy’s muse became our telly obsession
There are some actors who seem to play the same role on repeat – think Samuel L Jackson, the forever foul-mouthed tough guy, or Hugh Grant, the eternal English bachelor. And then there’s Sarah Paulson, the infinite shapeshifter. The one who disappears into each one of her peculiar characters with such conviction, we really think she is a murderous cult-member. Or a drug-addicted ghost. Or a pair of conjoined twins in a carnival side-show (you get the picture).
But Sarah, 45, isn’t just having a moment – she’s defining an era. And her upcoming lead role – as the sadistic Nurse Mildred Ratched (from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) in new Netflix series Ratched – is about to bulldoze us all over again.
LOW-KEY BEGINNINGS
She may now be known for her complex roles, but back in the day, Sarah found herself being under-used and overlooked. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she had bit parts in TV shows Leap Of Faith and Deadwood, as well as supporting roles (normally as the quirky friend) in films including Down With Love and What Women Want. “Always a blonde” – she’s since remembered. “I realised, maybe I’m not special. Maybe nobody is buying what I’m selling. No one really knew what to do with me. I was a benched player. I wanted a shot and I wasn’t getting a shot.”
But she persevered, and a starring role in indie hit Martha Marcy May Marlene proved she had a wider range – and a hunger to play complex characters. Then Ryan Murphy came calling. The prolific writer, producer and showrunner cast Sarah in the first season of American Horror Story, as medium Billie Dean Howard, and he’s been casting her in projects ever since. To date, she’s starred in eight out of nine AHS seasons, playing a total of ten characters – each more chilling than the last. According to Ryan, in Sarah he found the perfect muse. “I have the dream, and then I let her in on the dream, and then we let other people in on the dream,” he’s said. “But she’s the one I tell first.”
HITTING THE BIG TIME
Make no mistake – she doesn’t just hit the sweet spot playing ghosts and witches. Sarah is just as adept at transforming into real-life, complicated people. Her 2016 role as prosecutor Marcia Clark in The People V OJ
Simpson: American Crime Story (another Ryan Murphy vehicle) won her an Emmy, plus the chance to play in the big leagues – something she’s said gave her equal amounts of joy and anxiety.
But when Steven Spielberg launches a bidding war for you to star in his latest film The Post – and co-star Tom Hanks says he “loved every minute of working with her” – you know you’re doing something right. Meaty roles in Ocean’s 8 and Birdbox have reinforced that fact. And now Ratched promises to elevate Sarah’s star power even further. Some actresses may shy away from playing such an infamously awful anti-heroine, but Sarah relished the opportunity. “You may question [Nurse Ratched’s] actions, you may have judgement about it, but you will understand it,” she’s promised viewers. “It will make sense to you.
OFF-SCREEN LIFE
The actress prefers keeping her dramatic moments to makebelieve, but she’s also – perhaps unwittingly – found herself at the epicentre of LGBTQ+ activism. For the past five years, she’s been in a relationship with actress Holland Taylor, who also happens to be 32 years her senior. According to Sarah, she’d rather not discuss her private life, but she understands the significance of their relationship in breaking taboos. “It’s complicated, because there is a lot of hate in this world, and a lot of good can come from, quote-unquote, normalising something for people who don’t see it as normal,” she’s said. “Our relationship represents a certain amount of hope and risk. Maybe there’s something brave in it. Maybe it encourages others to make brave choices. What else can I say? We love each other.”
As for the future, we’ve got a lot more to see from Ms Paulson. She’s set to star as former White House employee Linda Tripp in Murphy’s next American Crime Story series Impeachment (about Bill Clinton) and she’ll also be coming back for more AHS. Meanwhile, anyone who’s seen the Ratched trailer – the series premieres on 18 September – knows she isn’t afraid to terrify us senseless.
TV’S ultimate scream queen is just getting started. Be very afraid.■