Sarah Paulson says she lost her voice from screaming during her early years on American Horror Story. In the first episode of the official AHS 13 podcast, she tells fellow actor Paul Anthony Kelly that she did not yet know how to protect her voice during long, intense takes.
Paulson said she would scream as hard as she could for a scene and then struggle to speak afterward. She recalled needing steroid shots often after those shoots. She was joking about where the shots were given, but the problem itself was real enough that she changed how she works. She says she has become better at taking care of her voice.
She was filming two very different roles at the same time
The conversation also turns to one of the busiest periods of Paulson’s career. She was playing Hypodermic Sally, the troubled ghost in AHS: Hotel, while portraying prosecutor Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson. The roles demanded very different performances, and she says the schedule left her exhausted.
Instead of hiding that tiredness, Paulson said she let it show when playing Clark. The makeup team would usually paint dark circles under her eyes, but on some days she no longer needed them. She also remembers the work as exciting, even when the hours were difficult.
Which AHS characters did Sarah Paulson play?
- Sally McKennaPlayed by Sarah Paulson
- Lana WintersPlayed by Sarah Paulson
- Bette and Dot TattlerPlayed by Sarah Paulson
Paulson has played several AHS characters across the series, including Lana Winters, Cordelia Goode and the conjoined twins Bette and Dot. On the podcast, she describes how she handled the twins’ dialogue: she recorded some lines first and listened to them through earpieces while acting the other half of a conversation.
What she told a new AHS cast member
Kelly, who joined AHS 13 after playing John F. Kennedy Jr. in Love Story, asks Paulson what advice she would give someone entering Ryan Murphy’s world. Her answer is brief and very much in character for this show:
Go big or go home.
Paulson does not mean that every moment needs a scream. Her stories show how much planning can go into a performance that looks wild on screen, from protecting a voice to recording lines in advance. She also told Kelly that she likes carrying a character with her after filming rather than trying to forget the role immediately.
The full conversation is in Episode 1 of the AHS 13 Official Podcast, which FX posted as a video. It includes more of Paulson and Kelly discussing their work and the new season. American Horror Story 13 is airing on FX and streaming on Hulu in the U.S.
