Happy Birthday To Actress Sarah Paulson – American Horror Story Season One And American Horror Story Asylum’s “Lana Winters” – Celebrate With Some Kick-Ass Clips And Interviews!

17 December 2012

A VERY happy B-day to Sarah Paulson, who has recently given us American Horror Story fans two amazing characters (so far!) on American Horror Story. Remember her from Season 1? Her character was the “Lee Press-On Nails Psychic” (As Zach Quinto‘s catty character in S1 referred to her), Billie Dean Howard–who was wrong about some things, like the Roanoke/Croatoan spell …but really could communicate with the spirits of the dead, and there was certainly no fucking shortage of those on Season One. After her character was introduced, she explained, “this is a very crowded house”). Currently, she’s best known for her role in American Horror Story Asylum as perhaps the most unlucky reporter of all time, Lana Winters.*

She’s also played many other genre roles; you may also remember her as Merlyn Temple from Raimi‘s sadly short-lived horror series in the 90s called American Gothic. I first rented it just to see a sizzling hot Bruce Campbell play a fairly serious one-shot role in the episode “Meet The Beetles” (he ended up getting eaten by said beetles, but looked pretty goddamned fine before that), but started with the pilot and was completely hooked–and scared as hell–well before Bruce showed up. Sarah Paulson, always great in dark, nightmarish material, has been cast in a wide variety of roles that many talented performers with less flexible careers might even envy. She played a pretty demanding dramatic role as Agatha Ripp, a rock-bottom meth whore with mysterious stigmata that freaked out even Dr. Christian Troy on that first, other frequently sick and twisted FX drama Nip/Tuck (which I believe was the first project Ryan Murphy cast her in). It was a difficult role and she nailed it; a less gifted actress could have easily gotten wrong and driven her character –and the whole episode– off a cliff.

We Deadwood fans won’t forget that she played a pretty nasty, cold-blooded character in S2– a “Pinkerton” woman in black whom even bad-ass ~~motherfu~~ Al Sweragean (Ian McShane …oh wait, that’s right, you might recall his trivial, bland, harmless role on the Christmas episode of American Horror Story Asylum) was concerned about as a threat. The spectacular HBO show was mainly a historical drama (with plenty of crime and corruption), but also had some very dark moments indeed; “A Hell Of A Place To Make Your Fortune,” was one of our favorite taglines. She also played pin-up turned pin-up photographer icon Bunny Yeager (a personal heroine of ours) in the fairly true-to-life big screen biopic The Notorious Bettie Page. She had (and continues to have) an amazing range, and those credits were just off the top of my head; go to her page on the IMDB and you’ll realize you’ve seen her in many other roles before– more than you think. WAY more. She does have a memorable face, but her roles are so successfully, wildly different that sometimes you don’t figure out it was Sarah Paulson playing them until it hits you much later.

Here’s a piece where she’s interviewed about her role as Billie Dean from American Horror Story Season One (AKA “Murder House”) and whether anything scary happened on the set or not…

Here she is in her first interview to the gay press with new SheWired contributor, her sister Rachel Paulson. It’s a good watch (unless you’re homophobic, which I doubt) whether you’re a fan of American Horror Story or just a fan of Ms. Paulson.
Thanks to http://www.shewired.com/.

And of course, I had to add something with her playing Lana Winters. Here’s a pretty creepy (but very well put-together) piece featuring her… interactions… with Dr. Thredson/Bloody Face. Enjoy (if that is the appropriate word) this video!

OK, here’s one more. Watch her break that photo of Wendy over Dr. T’s sociopathic, shitty head just one more time!

Here’s wishing the talented, entertaining, and glowing (see the below photo and just try telling us she’s not radiant in person) Ms. Paulson a n especially happy birthday …and many, many more!**

*who I hope to hell catches up with Dr. Thredson really soon, and not the other way around.

**and I hope her character Lana also has many, many birthdays left to celebrate and dies of old age, after living long enough to take out Thredson AND, we’re hoping, his equally monstrous NEW Bloody Face son. But let’s save theories for later–and are they ever coming!

‘American Horror Story’: Sarah Paulson talks about last night’s shocking episode and what will be revealed next week (horrorboom.com)
American Horror Story Asylum’s Sarah Paulson Says Life Will Get Even More Terrifying and Nightmarish For Lana Winters!! (horrorboom.com)
Ten Little-Known Trivia Facts About American Horror Story Asylum – We Bet You Haven’t Heard Them All Yet! (horrorboom.com)
Sarah Paulson Talks AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM, Her Character’s Dark Story Arc, Returning for Season 3, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, and More (collider.com)
‘American Horror Story: Asylum’ Premieres to Insane Ratings (tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com)

American Horror Story Asylum’s Sarah Paulson Says Life Will Get Even More Terrifying and Nightmarish For Lana Winters!!

13 November 2012

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…according to Sarah Paulson, who plays lesbian reporter turned Briarcliff patient Lana Winters, “It’s so only just begun. What happens in the first few episodes is like eating a bowl of ice cream compared to what happens to her.”

Source: The Huffington Post Online ©Jaimie Etkin, 2012.

Jaimie Etkin
jaimie.etkin@huffingtonpost.com

Here are some juicy tidbits from an interview with Sarah Paulson (who plays Lana Winters) dated 11/07/2012 (in other words, the night episode 4, “I Am Anne Frank” aired). Here she discusses Evan Peter’s junk, whether episodes are hard on her health, how much worse and blood-curdling it gets for hapless Lana, and that as of this writing, they’ve just wrapped Episode 8, ready to shoot #9 or 13. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT BEGINS (highlight to read): In a recent interview with Chloe Sevigny, she stated she has wrapped for the season and hasn’t read any of the scripts past episode six. So, it may very well be that our poor Shelley will only survive till the end of episode 6. I wish she’d stick around longer …mainly because I would love to see her give some payback to Dr. Evil Nazi Prick – and up close and personal. I do know that another character who is on their way to becoming a fan favorite will get revenge for her this season, though!

(END SPOILER)

American Horror Story Asylum Sarah Paulson

Everything from here on (until the end of this piece) is from the Huffington Post, ©Jaimie Etkin, 2012. I absolutely do not claim copyright or writing credit for the HuffPost article. It was just too awesome to paraphrase (if that’s even possible) or post a one-line piece consisting of a link!

“…given what I know happens and what we’ve shot, it’s so only just begun and it’s so horrifying that what happens in the first few episodes is like eating a bowl of ice cream compared to what happens to her.”

If you’ve been watching “American Horror Story: Asylum,” chances are … you’ve been scared shitless. But, according to Sarah Paulson, who plays lesbian reporter turned Briarcliff patient Lana Winters, “It’s so only just begun. What happens in the first few episodes is like eating a bowl of ice cream compared to what happens to her.”

On the series’ fourth episode (Wed., Nov. 7 at 10 p.m. ET on FX), things take a turn for Lana, Paulson told HuffPost TV. Even Chloë Sevigny, who played Shelley on “Asylum”, told us, “What happens to Sarah Paulson’s character [later on] is what’s scariest to me.”

Below, Paulson, who also recurred on Season 1 of “American Horror Story,” explains why “Asylum” is far more terrifying than its predecessor, upcoming guest stars, how the show can make an impact in terms of gay rights (even though it’s set 50 years in the past) and what it’s like being flashed by Evan Peters, which made her and Jessica Lange burst into laughter. Seriously.

Will Lana find out about Wendy’s murder?
[Laughs.] I can’t answer that yet because that doesn’t happen until much later … in Episode 5.

I was kind of looking forward to Lana being out in the non-Briarcliff world for a while. Were you surprised she was committed so early on in the season?
Well, I feel like in true Ryan Murphy form, it’s going to be an assault, not a slow burn. The show to me — even the style in which it’s edited — is very in your face. I feel to draw it out would have been antithetical to the way he does things. I think now that she’s in there, what happens to her is so insane and so extreme that if we waited a few episodes to get her in there, all this stuff wouldn’t have happened. I can understand why a viewer would think, “Wow. That was quick!” But at the same time, I sort of feel like, given what’s coming for Lana and what happens — we’re about to shoot Episode 9 — given what I know happens and what we’ve shot, it’s so only just begun and it’s so horrifying that what happens in the first few episodes is like eating a bowl of ice cream compared to what happens to her.

Q: I‘m officially terrified now.
A: Yeah. You should be. [Laughs.] It’s just really terrifying, I have to say.

Does Lana’s lack of friendships affect her mental state in the asylum?
…Lana Winters is a fighter so she’s not going to go down without a fight, that’s for sure. Boy, I wish I could tell you everything. [Laughs.]

“American Horror Story” alumni Frances Conroy and Dylan McDermott are all also coming back to guest star this season. Have you done scenes with either of them yet?
Um, I don’t know if I’m allowed to answer that question. Dylan, no and I’m going to plead to fifth on the other one.

There was an interview with Evan Peters on Vulture and he said he flashed you and Jessica on the first day of shooting “Asylum.”
… Yeah, but listen, there are worse things to look at than Evan Peters from behind, I gotta say. I mean, Jessica and I blew a couple takes, we were laughing so hard because we just looked at each other and thought, “What the hell are we doing?!” We’re looking at these bare asses of these people and I’m handing her canes from the closet. [Laughs.] At one point, we were completely off camera — the camera was just pointing at Lizzie and Evan and we just literally could not get through the scene we were laughing so hard.

Well, now I’m scared to watch.
You should be. We can talk again after Episode 8 or 9 and you’ll be like, “Um. OK. Now I understand. OH MY GOD!”