You won’t have to get too far into this new installment ofCollider Ladies Nightto learn thatSarah Paulsonis one of my absolute favorite individuals in the industry.I’m a diehardAmerican Horror Storyfan and marvel at her on-screen work across the board, but over the years, I’ve also come to deeply appreciate how her passion, honesty and attention to detail shines through in all of our interviews.
At this point, Paulson has six Emmy nominations to her name and one win for her performance asMarcia ClarkinAmerican Crime Story, she’s directed an episode ofAmerican Horror Story, is an executive producer onRatched, just got a long overdue lead role in a studio feature withRun, and shows absolutely no signs of slowing down whatsoever. But, of course, it all had to being somewhere and during our Ladies Night conversation, Paulson creditedLaw & Order’sEd Sherinwith giving her career the jumpstart it needed:
“The right pair of eyes watching you sort of could determine whether or not you can have a successful career or not. I went to audition for Lynn Kressel who was casting all the things at that time in New York and I went to audition for her forLaw & Order. I got a callback. I went then to the producers’ session which was down whereLaw & Order’s shooting, some other place, and I went in with Ed Sherin and Constantine [Makris], he had been the DP I think or one of the ADs and he was directing this episode. And Ed Sherin is married to Jane Alexander, he’s just this wonderful director-producer, but I did my audition and in the audition I was supposed to cry, because in this episode I was gonna have to cry a lot."
Paulson stopped and laughed, “There’s something you may find for connectivity for the rest of my working life thus far!” Yes, Paulson has become quite well known for turning on the waterworks, but back then, she wasn’t able to conjure tears at all. She continued:
“I remember doing the audition and I did it and I sort of looked up at him and I’m all of 19 and he went, ‘I think you’re feeling something right now that if you allowed yourself to feel it would be exactly what you would need to do in this scene. Are you feeling embarrassed?’ Because I didn’t cry at all, the whole scene. I couldn’t cry because I was nervous. He 100% knew that I felt humiliated and embarrassed and he just said, ‘Do you feel that way?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And then I started to cry and he said, ‘Go. Read the scene now.’ And I did and I got the part.”
Booking the job was a huge coup for Paulson, marking her very first screen credit, but Sherin’s decision to give her that extra moment meant even more to Paulson than just that. Here’s how she put it:
“But that, much like the Ryan Murphy stories of later, that’s the difference between an actor who gets to work a lot and a person who doesn’t. For whatever reason, Ed Sherin took that extra moment with me, didn’t let me leave the room. I to this day could ask him what made him do that. Maybe it was total luck. Maybe there was something he saw. But he’s why I got that job, which then allowed me to continue to pursue the career because I was able to make a living and getting some communication that it was the right choice. It’s these little tiny moments where you just go, ‘God, what would have happened to me if he hadn’t done that?’”
This right here is only one of many seminal stories Paulson shared about the start of her career on Collider Ladies Night. Check out our full chat at the top of this article to hear more abut her early days in the industry, booking a role onAaron Sorkin’sStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip, her collaboration withRyan Murphy, what it was like working withAneesh ChagantyandKiera AllenonRun, and so much more!
