American Horror Story has been around long enough to build its own list of recurrent actors, and one who has been in almost every season is Sarah Paulson, and here’s the true story behind her casting. The horror genre’s success in recent years has not only been on the big screen but has also expanded to TV, and one of the most popular horror shows is American Horror Story. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story is an anthology series that covers different horror themes, characters, and settings in each season, with some actors returning in different seasons.
Although each season of American Horror Story is treated as a self-contained miniseries, the many references to past characters and events and some crossovers have created an AHS connected universe, which is further supported by the show’s recurring actors. One of the actors that have returned in almost every season of American Horror Story is Sarah Paulson, who started as a recurrent character in the first season, now known as Murder House, and became a main character from season 2 onward. Sarah Paulson has appeared in every season of AHS except for 1984, and she has become a favorite of the audience, as she often plays tragic and complex characters.
Sarah Paulson’s debut in AHS was as Billie Dean Howard in Murder House, a medium hired by Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) to contact Addy. Since then, Sarah Paulson has become a must-have in the cast of American Horror Story, and she owes it all to none other than Jessica Lange, who asked Ryan Murphy if he could make room for Paulson in AHS: Murder House, and that was the beginning of one of the series’ best collaborations.
Speaking to Elle in 2017, Murphy and Paulson recounted their projects together and shared the story of how Paulson landed a spot in American Horror Story. Murphy and Paulson met in 2004 and he cast her in an episode of Nip/Tuck, and Paulson impressed him with her performance, to the point where he wanted her in Glee, but she was already on Broadway in Collected Stories. In 2011, Paulson accompanied Lange, her costar in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, to an event where Murphy was also present. Lange was already playing Constance Langdon at the time, so she asked Murphy if he could “find something for Paulson”, and so he wrote the small part of Billie Dean Howard for her. Paulson played Billie again in Hotel (where she also played Sally McKenna a.k.a. Hypodermic Sally) and Apocalypse, where she also played Wilhemina Venable and reprised her Coven character, Cordelia Goode. Among her most notable performances in AHS is that of conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler in Freak Show, which earned her nominations for different awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.
Out of all of Sarah Paulson’s characters in American Horror Story, which have gone from mediums to witches and even historical characters, the one often regarded as the best is Asylum’s Lana Winters, a journalist who was unfairly committed to Briarcliff Manor, was kidnapped by Bloodyface, and later exposed the horrors of the asylum and Bloodyface. Paulson reprised her role as Lana Winters in Roanoke, where she also played Shelby Miller and Audrey Tindall. With a variety of characters and even more than one in some seasons, it’s not surprising that Sarah Paulson has become one of American Horror Story’s main and recurrent actors, and it’s to be seen if she will continue to be part of this unique universe.