Sarah Paulson and Cody Fern are working together once again, but this time, it’s decidedly not in the “American Horror Story” universe. And according to the actress, she was “blown away” by this new side of her former co-star.
Fern is making his directorial debut with “Closing Night,” starring Paulson alongside the legend that is Dianne Wiest. The trio stopped by TheWrap’s studio at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, where they promptly heaped praise onto one another during an interview with Casey Loving.
“We had very much bonded as actors on season eight of ‘American Horror Story,’ and I just — he said ‘I wrote you something, and I want to send it to you, and we’re going to make this movie,’” Paulson recalled of getting the script, which finds her playing a hardened movie star who reunites with the messy family she left behind when she invites them to the opening night of her Broadway play.
“And I, of course, ‘Ha ha ha you’re going to make this movie, who gets to make a movie these days? Nobody.’ And then I read it and I felt that you must have meant to send it to Cate Blanchett or something,” she continued.
Paulson explained that Fern wrote the role for her, and admitted that, for her, “there’s nothing worse” than having a part written specifically with her in mind. But, that’s only because she immediately begins worrying that she’ll disappoint the person who wrote it.
In the case of “Closing Night,” Paulson was more just shocked by Fern’s writing ability.
“I couldn’t believe he had written it, quite frankly, because like, I didn’t know this part of Cody’s brain,” she detailed. “I only knew this part, and his acting self, so I just was just blown away by it. And I couldn’t believe he wanted to make the movie with me, because I thought, ‘If you get somebody else, you probably get more money for your movie, so maybe you should think about that.’ But he, for whatever reason, decided it was me.”
That reason, according to Fern himself, was maybe “presumptuous,” but stemmed from working with her in front of the camera on “American Horror Story.”
“Working with Sarah was — it was like the zenith for me,” Fern explained. “I was like, ‘Okay, well, this is it. I mean, I don’t need to act anymore.’ I had hit it, and I was just like, ‘How do we do this together more?”
“And seeing Sarah act is like watching somebody take in the universe and try and put it on the head of a pin, and I wanted to expand that universe, because you can see all of what Sarah is capable of, and you want to give it to her,” he continued. “That there are so many remarkable places that she can go, and let her go there.”
