7 Ways Sarah Paulson’s Life Has Changed Since She Started ‘American Horror Story’
She got an AHS promotion
Paulson became a main American Horror Story cast member starting with the FX anthology’s second season, and she and Evan Peters are the only actors who have appeared in all eight seasons so far.
She became a muse of Ryan Murphy’s
Murphy had worked with Paulson before — on an episode of Nip/Tuck and on his Pretty/Handsome pilot. But now, projects of his without her seem rare. She starred in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and guest-starred in Feud, for example, and she’ll lead the cast of the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prequel series Ratched, which Murphy is executive-producing for Netflix.
She started producing
Paulson is listed as an executive producer of Ratched, alongside Murphy, creator Evan Romansky, and The Kominsky Method star Michael Douglas.
She started directing
The actress made her directorial debut in an episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse. “Sometimes as an actor, it can be really hard to not be myopic and only think of your scene and your piece of the story,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “As a director, though, your job is to see the whole thing. So this experience has helped me zoom out from my own piece of the puzzle and see the greater picture and how my character fits into it.”
She cemented her movie star status
Since starting AHS, Paulson has appeared in the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave, the Oscar-nominated Carol and The Post, the blockbuster reboot Ocean’s 8, the Netflix sensation Bird Box, and the Unbreakable threequel Glass. Next up? Parts in the films The Goldfinch, Abominable, and Run.
She became an award show darling
Paulson has won three Critics’ Choice Television Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award since 2011 — in addition to nine other nominations at those shows.
She started dating Holland Taylor
On the personal front, Paulson’s relationship with Two and a Half Men actress Holland Taylor started making headlines in 2015, and Paulson confirmed the relationship early the following year. “What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor,” she told The New York Times.
American Horror Story is losing one of its MVPs: Sarah Paulson will not star in Season 9 a.k.a. AHS: 1984, according to Variety.
While it’s possible she’ll make a cameo, it’s also possible that this is the end of an era for the actress, who made her AHS debut with a three-episode role in the show’s first season way back in 2011.
A lot has changed for Paulson since then, and much of her success can probably be traced back to her critically-acclaimed AHS performances.
Click through the gallery above to see the impact her debut on the horror series has had on her life.
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