AHS: 13 Official Podcast Episode 1: Sarah Paulson and Paul Anthony Kelly

SARAH PAULSON: Welcome to the official AHS 13 podcast. I am Sarah Paulson, and we're about to deep dive into this incredible new season where past characters return, storylines collide, and the number 13 ushers in a terrible satanic threat.

Speaking of satanic threats, welcome Paul.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Hello.

SARAH PAULSON: You just won the hearts of everyone portraying America's prince in Love Story, and now you're diving headfirst into the horror genre. How did this opportunity come to you?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, boy.

SARAH PAULSON: Boy.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Uh, whilst, um, Love Story was, you know, being released, um, I think around episode five or six was out-

Uh, Ryan gave me a call, you know, as he does, and then he started to describe American Horror Story as if I'd never heard of it before. And then he starts to describe uh, the storyline for the character I'm portraying. And my eyes just lit up. So then he, he ended up offering me this once in a lifetime role.

So I get two crazy roles in a lifetime it turns out.

SARAH PAULSON: Two crazy roles in a lifetime, all from one man.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: All from one man.

SARAH PAULSON: I've also had that happen.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Thank you so much, Ryan.

SARAH PAULSON: Thank you so much, Ryan. Yeah. I've played a lot of ones that I've loved. But two in particular. So I got two, like, doozies.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: And what two doozies were those?

SARAH PAULSON: Marsha Clark and Linda Tripp.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Ah, amazing.

SARAH PAULSON: Just doozies from an acting standpoint.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Why so?

SARAH PAULSON: I like to just lose myself. I mean, that sounds so actor-sy, but it's true. It's what it is, yeah. I love to, I love to just try to embody another person.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Totally.

SARAH PAULSON: And when you're doing a r- doing, you mean, you just went through this with Love Story.

Like, there's something I found quite liberating. Some people were like, "Oh, is that sort of, does it make you feel straight jacketed?" But to me it made me feel really, um, free because I knew exactly what the parameters and the rules were.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Exactly.

SARAH PAULSON: And inside that I could interpret how I-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: You can just color it any way within the lines

SARAH PAULSON: Color it any way you want within the lines.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah, totally.

SARAH PAULSON: It made me feel very free and confident about my choices. Which most of the time I don't feel that way.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I can agree with that.

SARAH PAULSON: But do you know what I mean?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It really- I do know exactly what you mean. I think when I got this role it was kind of y- y, uh, well, just doing John.

SARAH PAULSON: Yes.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Um, that was a great way of putting it. Yeah. It's like painting within the lines. You know exactly what you're supposed to do, but you can put your own little flavor on it. Um.

SARAH PAULSON: It's all downhill from here I hate to break it to you.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Awesome.

SARAH PAULSON: It goes just right in the toilet after that.

It's like you have these experiences and then you're like, "Well, now what?"

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: What do I do now?

SARAH PAULSON: What am I gonna do that is going to be that extraordinary? And this may be that thing.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I, you know, so far I think so.

SARAH PAULSON: So far it might be.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: But in that, you know, the freedom thing, I think now that I have more freedom- to, um, explore this character and the choices, I get analysis paralysis a little bit.

SARAH PAULSON: Yes, this is what I feel.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I'm not entirely sure, like, is this correct?

SARAH PAULSON: This is what I feel.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: I'm telling you-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: But it's fun ...

SARAH PAULSON: Analysis paralysis is really a good way of putting it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It really is.

SARAH PAULSON: Okay, your turn to ask me a question.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Okay. I spent s- months living inside of just one psychology of Love Story. In AHS you've played Lana Winters, Cordelia Goode, Hypodermic Sally, Bette and Dot, sometimes even back to back or simultaneously.

SARAH PAULSON: Mm-hmm.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: How do you cleanly wash off one's character after another?

SARAH PAULSON: You know-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Even simultaneously ...

SARAH PAULSON: the hardest one was actually when I did Hypodermic Sally and I was playing Marsha Clark at the same time.

And I was literally playing a, a ha- like, a haunted, I was playing a ghost of a heroin addict and playing this prosecutor, and I was doing them at the same time. Yeah. So I just was like, "I'm tired, but I'm here. I can do it." And I knew I was playing the most tired woman on the planet in Marsha Clark, and I-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Perfect, so you used that to your advantage

SARAH PAULSON: So I was like, "It doesn't matter." We used to paint under eye circles onto me, and I was like, "We don't need to do that today."

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Don't need it, yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: You know?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Came prepared.

SARAH PAULSON: Came prepared. But it was also the most exhilarating time. So I don't like to wash them off. I always like to kind of, like, sit in them like a pickle, like a brine.

Yeah. Like a, like an actor brine. Just- Just sit inside them like a salty, salty brine. Just getting pickled, yeah. And just pickle up because it's such a blessing. I mean, at the end of the day- To be working in a way where you get to have this kind of creative experience. It's like, I'm not saying playing a lawyer on a show wouldn't be something I would want at some point in my career, but doing that for 10, 12, 15 seasons if you're lucky enough to have that happen, I don't think would, would quite quench my thirst for all the things we were talking about earlier. Scratch the itch, yeah. So the fact that I've gotten to do this, I know that I'm the luckiest person alive. So I, I like to just sit in the brine of them and of my good fortune.

CLIP: Well, it is my job. I am the fucking Supreme

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Beautiful. Beautifully said.

SARAH PAULSON: Thanks, dude.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: You're welcome, dude.

SARAH PAULSON: Do you have any concerns about making this sort of turn from having played a real man, a beloved man to moving into a more kind of character departure? You know, sort of, it's a little bit of a departure than what, how you- I'm- ... entered into the scene

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I think so, yeah. It's definitely a departure.

SARAH PAULSON: Does it, does it give you any pause?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: No, not at all. I think it gives me, um, a little bit more fire in the belly for it. Uh, I just wanna be a well-rounded actor.

SARAH PAULSON: Mm-hmm.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I wanna play. John was amazing, got me there, seat at the table. Had so much fun learning about him, embodying him as best as I can. Um, but now being welcomed into the horror realm- which I'm a huge fan of already, I think it's so much more fun to further stretch and develop those muscles that I, I developed with John. Um, you know, John always wanted to be an actor.

SARAH PAULSON: Is that crazy or what?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It's so crazy. Yeah. So now, I don't know, there's like a piece of him that I take with me everywhere I go.

SARAH PAULSON: Always and forever.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, forever and ever.

SARAH PAULSON: And that will, that will always forever be.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: And you get to do it for more than a two-hour film, but to have it stretched out over so many episodes.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Nine, nine hours of-

SARAH PAULSON: Nine hours ...

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: compelling television.

SARAH PAULSON: I would've watched 29,000 hours of it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Thank you for saying that.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I would've made 29,000 hours of it. Yeah. It was an incredible experience.

SARAH PAULSON: I bet it was.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: But this is just something entirely different, and so fun 'cause everyone's so committed.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: And the stakes are different and high and fantastical. And it's so fun to just play.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah. Sarah.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: "Entering a Ryan Murphy production feels like being handed the keys to an incredibly fast sports car. It's thrilling, fast-paced, and changing constantly. Looking back at your first seasons on AHS, what was the biggest rookie mistake you made in navigating his creative process that you eventually learned to master?"

SARAH PAULSON: Probably less to do with r- a mistake with Ryan and more to do with vocally. I didn't know how to preserve my scream.

CLIP: Help! He's escaping! The killer is escaping! Help me! In the hallway! He's trying to get out!!

SARAH PAULSON: And so I'd scream like my life depended on it

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Bloody murder

SARAH PAULSON: And I would then have no voice, and I had to get steroid shots often after I'd do it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: In the throat?

SARAH PAULSON: Not in the throat, in the ass.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, gosh. Oh, okay.

SARAH PAULSON: In the ass

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: That's a better place.

SARAH PAULSON: It's a better place. There's more flesh there. Plenty of flesh.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Plenty of flesh.

SARAH PAULSON: Plenty of flesh. So that was a rookie mistake I made and I'm better at it now.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Do you ever go to, like, a-

SARAH PAULSON: A voice doctor?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: A med- yeah, a voice doctor.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah, I did.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: A metal vocal coach?

SARAH PAULSON: And they were like, "Stop doing..." Yeah- Uh-huh ... metal vocal coach.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: You shouldn't do that.

SARAH PAULSON: They were like, "Stop doing it." And I was like, "I don't know how to do that." "So just give me the shot in the ass, and I'll just keep doing it the way I do it."

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: You just keep doing it.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah, just gotta do it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It seems to be working.

SARAH PAULSON: Gotta do it for real.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: Wanna be a true scream queen.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Totally. Yeah, thank you.

SARAH PAULSON: So I don't know if I made any. I'm sure Ryan would be the better person to ask which rookie mistakes I made.

'Cause I'm sure there were plenty.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Let me get out my list, yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: There he'll be like, "Oh, God, where do I begin?"

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, Sarah? Jesus.

SARAH PAULSON: Jesus, what a nightmare she is. No, I don't, I feel like I didn't make any, and that's why I'm still here.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah. Yeah, I have to ask you about Freak Show- Oh ... your two-headed lady.

SARAH PAULSON: Hit it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Bette and Dot meant you were essentially acting against a prosthetic head, which you did using earpieces for your own dialogue cues.

SARAH PAULSON: Mm-hmm.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: How was that?

SARAH PAULSON: Well, the earpiece thing was my idea. They were going to have an actress, um, one of the stand-ins on our show would read off-camera for me.

And I thought, "Since it's the same voice as my voice, since I'm playing my own twin-" "it should probably be me. I don't wanna task someone to try to recreate that and the timing and all that." So I would just come in in the morning, pre-record my dialogue with the sound department, and then w- switch the earwig to whichever head I was playing.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Amazing.

SARAH PAULSON: Also, we didn't always use a prosthetic head. It was a puppet-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Okay ...

SARAH PAULSON: that I, that we had puppet, puppeteers that would sort of lay on the ground and do it, and then sometimes I got to do it, which was my favorite thing.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, that's so fun.

SARAH PAULSON: Because it was really like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach 'cause whatever I was doing with m- the head that was on camera, I had to move the opposing head in the, in a different direction. So it was like, and one time I had to throw a biscuit at Kathy Bates, and I kept throwing the wrong- It was a real ... Ryan actually took me around this, I've talked about this before, but Ryan had to take me on a walk around the sound stage in New Orleans because I was very upset with myself 'cause I couldn't get it.

I was ... And he said, "You know, no one's ever done this before. Why don't you give yourself a break?" He's really such a good-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: He's very supportive ...

SARAH PAULSON: papa figure when you really need him. I was really beating myself up, and he was like, "We're all in unchartered territory, so why don't you-" "just relax?"

Which is not my, I don't know if you can tell. It's not my- It's not my strong suit.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: No?

SARAH PAULSON: Not my strong suit.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: You don't say.

SARAH PAULSON: No. So that was, um, but that was a pretty exhilarating time- and really scary and so exciting.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: What a fun challenge.

SARAH PAULSON: It was so fun. I mean, it was, I think it's Jessica's favorite season.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Is it?

SARAH PAULSON: I'm just talking to her about it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Nice. She's amazing.

SARAH PAULSON: She, she's, she's all right. I mean, I don't get what the hype is, really.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: She's, she's cool.

SARAH PAULSON: What's great about Jessica Lange?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Everything.

SARAH PAULSON: Everything.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Everything is great..

SARAH PAULSON: Greatest actress ever.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Moving on.

SARAH PAULSON: Okay, moving on. Okay, what do you think fans will enjoy most in this new season?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: I think fans will enjoy the story.

SARAH PAULSON: Mm-hmm.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Um, the characters. Yeah. I mean, a lot of blasts from the past in this one. I get to do something completely different.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah, dude. Really different. It's totally different.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Totally different.

Complete 180.

SARAH PAULSON: Yeah, 180.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It's fun to be campy and sinister and diabolic and charming at the same time, and I, I hope I pull it off.

SARAH PAULSON: You know, like how you are in real life.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah, exactly. You know? Yeah, not too dissimilar.

SARAH PAULSON: Let me disabuse you of the notion- ... that he is John F. Kennedy Jr., Because he's not. He is a diabolical just kidding. That's how good he is.

This is him just, like this is the least, this is not the acting challenge. Oh, yeah. It was making everyone-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: This is just rolling out of bed

SARAH PAULSON: believe you were America's sweetheart.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah. Success.

SARAH PAULSON: I asked all my questions. Did you ask all your questions?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Oh, well, here, I can do this one.

SARAH PAULSON: More for me.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: We're both part of this incredible acting troupe now and I'm just stepping into the AHS canvas for season 13, which is also my lucky number.

SARAH PAULSON: Is it?

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: It is. What is the one unwritten rule of being an ensemble player of the American Horror Story set that isn't in any contract, but everyone eventually has to learn?

SARAH PAULSON: Go big or go home. Go big or go home, and I don't mean large and in charge. I mean- ... I mean, take the risk.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: Go for it.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: The world is not a world of reality. It's a fantasy world. But even if it's a more hyper-real season like we've had than others, I really feel like it's part of the reason the beginning, the first four seasons in particular, but all of them, um, really is that you had a group of actors who, like, didn't know anything other than to just play it absolutely for real-

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Yeah

SARAH PAULSON: and with the m- m- most sort of, um, the biggest commitment to stakes.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Mm-hmm.

SARAH PAULSON: And I think that made the audience therefore invest enormously in it because we believed it was so real than they did. And I think it, it had a potency because of that. So that's what I would say.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Go big or go home.

SARAH PAULSON: Go big or go home.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Heard. That's it.

SARAH PAULSON: That's right.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Got you, dude.

SARAH PAULSON: Thanks, dude.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: This has been a pleasure.

SARAH PAULSON: It's been a pleasure of pleasures.

PAUL ANTHONY KELLY: Love it. Yeah.

SARAH PAULSON: We loved it.

That is all the time we have for today, so be sure to rate, review, and follow the AHS13 Official Podcast. You can check it out on Hulu or Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscriptions or wherever you get your podcasts. And watch new episodes of AHS13 on Hulu or FX.