Newsweek - USA (2020-11-27)

Culture

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sarah paulson has the unique gift of making complicated,

and often murderous, women relatable. “It’s my job as an actor to not judge

the character I’m playing.” Rather, she hopes to bring the audience along on the

journey, “even if they know it’s morally questionable or downright criminal.”

That’s what she does as Diane Sherman in Run (Hulu, November 20). Paulson

thinks audiences crave seeing nontraditional characters take center stage right

now. “They want to see more narratives that represent their life more accurately.

Not that this movie would do that, because then you might have some real trou-

ble in your home life [laughs].” Next year, Paulson plays Linda Tripp, the whis-

tleblower in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. “I don’t know that this will be a radical

shift in terms of the way people think about her. But I didn’t think about that

when I played Marcia [Clark] either.” Paulson won an Emmy for her portrayal

of the O.J. Simpson murder trial prosecutor. “I felt like if I just played the truth

of it, that it would be what it would be. And I feel the same way about Linda.”

Sarah Paulson

Run is the latest in a long line of

ɿlms about complicated mother/

daughter relationships. What

drew you to the project?

I got to work with a budding ɿlmmaker

>Aneesh Chaganty@ whose work

was really compelling to me. Also,

a movie that was predominantly a

relationship-driven story between a

mother and a daughter.

How do you ɿnd something

relatable in characters like Diane

Sherman and Nurse Ratched?

If IŠm going to say ţyes,Ť IŠve got to ɿnd

some way to align myself internally

with some of the choices. Not that I

want to go around murdering.

You’re playing Linda Tripp in

Ryan Murphy’s American Crime

Story. What’s it like to play such a

memorable ɿgure of the ’90s?

Nerve-wracking. So few people

understand or remember that she was

a human being, not Must this monster.

ItŠs going to be an interesting thing

to calibrate. PeopleŠs expectations

of wanting to hate her right out of

the gate and then maybe being

confronted with their own thoughts.

You’re a big Real Housewives fan.

What is it about the Housewives?

ThereŠs something about being a

voyeur and watching people behave

in unconscious ways. And then being

aware that theyŠre going to have

to watch it back and confront how

theyŠve behaved. Something almost

scientiɿc about it. —H. Alan Scott

“I think it’s

my job as an

actor to not

judge the

character

I’m playing.”

PARTING SHOT