Sarah Paulson is having a day when we chat about her recent Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actress in a drama series. “My dogs are shitting everywhere, so let’s just pretend that nothing’s happening,” she says moving through her living room on Zoom.
Incidentally, it was a dog — and Paulson’s natural wit — that led to her role as John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) Smith’s unnamed therapist on the Prime Video series when she found herself in Glover’s vicinity at last year’s Vanity Fair Oscar party.
“Somebody had their dog, and I’m a dog obsessive, and Donald was standing there, and I was doing a bit about the dog, talking about how fabulous it was to be at the Vanity Fair party, and he was chuckling at me,” Paulson recalls. Later, Glover asked Pedro Pascal for Paulson’s number.
“I was like, ‘You can give Donald Glover anything he wants of mine,’ ” Paulson says she told Pascal. “You can give it all to him, give him my home address, my email, you can give him my firstborn that I’m never going to have, like, you can take it all.”
Three days later, Glover sent Paulson a text saying he’d like her to take a look at the script for episode six of the spy series and that the part of the therapist was hers if she wanted it. Paulson agreed without hesitation: “Donald Glover calls, and if you know what’s what, you say yes.”
What were your first thoughts when you read the script?
What’s so funny is that this is guest actress in a drama, but my stuff on the show is funny. I remember being sort of surprised that it was in the drama category, but I think it’s because my episode and my scenes had a comedic element to them, but the rest of the series doesn’t so much. It rides that fine line between comedy and drama very, very well, so that when something serious happens, it sort of catches you by the throat. And when something funny happens, you’re like, “Wait a minute, am I allowed to laugh?”
What was your approach to the character? Did you watch Couples Therapy in preparation?
Oh, first of all, I’m a Couples Therapy freak. I love that show. The other thing that was so cool about Donald is that, ever since I did Linda Tripp in Impeachment, I’ve worked with this woman named Julia Crockett, who has helped me craft a character from the outside in, sort of taking the things about the character that are happening in the text and physicalizing them. I worked with her all during Appropriate, which I’m convinced is why I won the Tony because she just made the way I work incredibly rewarding. So, I sent a text to Donald, like, “Listen, I know I’m just coming in for one episode, but I work with this woman, and it means she’s usually on set and I don’t want to do that if you’re not down with that.” And he was like, “I’m really a theater nerd at heart; bring whoever you want that’s going to make you feel alive to whatever impulses move you.” He was so gracious to me that way. Because I can imagine him being like, “Girl, you are coming here for five days. Can you please calm down?”
So, the main note that I would get from Julia was physically put your body forward. When you watch Couples Therapy, that’s really what [the doc series’ Dr. Orna Guralnik is] always doing. And then we were sort of just playing with the comedy element of a person who really thinks she knows what’s going on between them, but it’s partly because I’m physicalizing the intensity of hyper-awareness.
After this role and guest-starring on The Bear, are you looking to do more comedy?
You know, nobody lets me do it. I think what happens is, like in any world, but particularly in our industry, you get pigeonholed in the space in which people see you the most. So, if that’s in a darker space or more of a dramatic world or the horror/thriller genre, that tends to be what comes your way. And if you’re like me and you like to work with interesting people, you tend to continue to say yes to the things that are in front of you because I like to do what I love to do. So, I think some people are not sure that the person who runs around screaming from clowns or acts like Marsha Clark and Linda Tripp is going to be the one who wants to play the crazy therapist, but I do. This is in the drama category, so people probably don’t even know that it’s funny. They don’t know that I’m funny even now. I am funny.
I’ll tell them.
You’ll be like, “I laughed the entire time we were doing this interview, and I am not lying. She is funny. She can run screaming from a clown, sure, but she can also do the other stuff, too.” But, seriously, at the same time, I’m also just happy to be asked to show up anywhere. That is never lost on me, nor will it ever. And the day it is is the day I should hang it up. It will never not be really cool that someone wants me to show up anywhere to do the thing that I’ve wanted to do since I was a tiny person.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
