Sarah Paulson names the “most rewarding” role of her career
Most actors long to make an impression on the cinematic medium, but some end up delivering their most memorable work on television instead, and it’s likely that Sarah Paulson is such an actor. Though she has appeared in the likes of Mud and 12 Years a Slave, it’s Paulson’s TV efforts for which she is likely best known.
After all, the Florida-born actor has given brilliant efforts in the likes of American Horror Story, The People v. O. J. Simpson and Ratched, earning widespread acclaim for each. Cinema has also seen Paulson deliver in Ocean’s 8 and Bird Box, but her TV acting turns are eternally undoubted.
Still, amongst the many performances that Paulson has given throughout her career, there is one that seems to have left the deepest impression on her. Interestingly, the character that Paulson enjoyed playing the most came not on television or in the cinema, but in theatre, as per an interview for Interview magazine with fellow actor Julianne Moore.
“Well, I feel shy about answering this question because I know you saw it,” Paulson told Moore. “But doing Sally Talley [in Talley’s Folly] was probably the most rewarding.” Talley’s Folly is the 1980 play by Lanford Wilson, the second in The Talley Trilogy, which takes place in a boathouse in Missouri in 1944 and focuses on Salley Talley and Matt Friedman and their growing feelings for one another.
Talley’s Folly takes place in one act with no intermission and no changes to the set, and Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his effort. Discussing her impression of playing Talley, Paulson noted, “Oh boy, do I remember it. That was actually the first time that I didn’t read the review right when it came out.”
In another interview with Vanity Fair, Paulson spoke of her connection to her character in the Off-Broadway production of Wilson’s play, in which she starred opposite Danny Burstein. The actor explained, “I definitely feel a connection with her because I understand what it means to believe so deeply that there’s something true about you that maybe you’re not a person that can be loved and that you’re broken and that you’re not a viable option for someone if they really knew your secrets and things.”
What was best for Paulson in terms of Talley’s Folley, though, was the “tremendous love story about the power of hope” that is present. According to the actor, having a life with any kind of hope “is a win”, while having an absence of hope in one’s life can lead to a “really bleak” disposition — something she learned through playing Salley Talley.
“Things are possible. The impossible can be possible,” Paulson explained. “I love the idea of people walking away with the idea of hope and possibility.” Wilson’s play was first performed in 1979 before making its Broadway debut the following year, with the likes of Trish Hawkins and Debra Mooney playing Salley Talley before Paulson got her hands on the character’s brilliance.
While Paulson has performed in the likes of The Glass Menagerie on the stage, American Horror Story on the television and 12 Years a Slave on the big screen, it was a character in Wilson’s play that seemed to leave the deepest impression on her and one that she considers the “most rewarding”.
