Benjamin Jones
If you happen upon New York’s Belasco Theater in the coming weeks, you might be on familiar ground: a family reunion, at full volume. The play is the Tony-nominated “Appropriate” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and the human volcano on stage is Sarah Paulson.
The play is about brothers who reunite after their father’s death: secrets are revealed, feelings are hurt and very little is left unsaid. As the older sister Toni, Paulson is in her element, creating a character who is both powerful and vulnerable (if a little obnoxious).
Joan Marcus/”Appropriate”
Asked if she doesn’t need to be loved, Paulson said: “As a person that I am, Please like me. Please! I’m begging you! I’m like a puppy like that. I mean, of course I want you to like it. But as an actor, I feel like I don’t even think about that.”
And she still can’t believe it’s her name above the title on the marquee. She says seeing it for the first time was a shock: “I cried. Because I thought, This is something I could never imagine. I mean, my mom spent a lot of time taking me to the theater when I was younger, because she was a good mother, who knew it was really a passion of mine.”
Her mother, Catharine Gordon, understood everything. She wanted to write, and when she and Sarah’s father divorced, she moved her two daughters from Florida to New York to pursue a dream. And in what turned out to be the omen of her life, she found work as a waitress at the legendary Sardi’s Restaurant on 44th Street, the epicenter of Broadway.
Sarah ended up at LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, where she did her best to excel. “We had children whose names were Linnea and Romi and Suna and Soren. And I was like, ‘My name is Sarah.’” What to do? “I asked everyone to call me Sara.”
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And after graduating in 1994, she was really determined to find work. She skipped college and went to Broadway, and before long went from stage to screen, playing everything from a cartoon opposite Matthew Perry (in “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”) to a restaurant owner. Especially cruel slaves in “12 Years a Slave.”
And then, she really got busy. In the series “American Crime Story”, she was unforgettable as prosecutor Marcia Clark in “The People vs. OJ Simpson.” That role launched her to the next level, but she still hasn’t watched it…or anything she’s done since. “I’ve never watched ‘The People vs. OJ,’” she said. “Sterling K. Brown always says, ‘Mommy, you might want to check it out.’ I’m like, ‘Maybe I want to.’ He’s like, ‘It’s really good!’ And I just know I’m going to take it apart.”
Paulson is just as clear about his personal life. She and actor Holland Taylor, three decades her senior, have been together since 2015, although they currently work on opposite sides of the country.
“Holland and I live separately,” Paulson said. “I don’t know if you know this, but Holland is a little older than me. And she lived a lot of her life alone. And I lived a lot of my life alone. And I think we both came into this relationship recognizing that we both we wanted to keep some of that. And we were both old enough, I think, to say, ‘I don’t want to give this up, and I don’t want to give this up, so let’s be together, but also apart. to say.”
Do you miss her? “Oh, God, yes,” Paulson said, adding, “We get along really well on Facetime.”
Still, some things only happen in New York, like last week’s event when Paulson had his portrait added to the caricatures of immortals that for generations have adorned the walls of Sardi’s — the same place where his mother worked.
At the unveiling, Paulson said, “You’re also honoring my mother, who was brave enough to move to Manhattan to follow her dream and thus give me a giant stepping stone toward mine.”
It’s hard to describe the feeling in the room, but you can see it all on the face of one of Sardi’s former employees. How proud is she of her daughter? “Oh, I’ve been proud of Sarah since the day she was born,” said Catharine Gordon. “It feels happy. And it’s going to make me cry, so let’s not go through with it.”
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Not only is Sarah Paulson now a Sardi laureate; she was nominated for a Tony for her role in “Appropriate.”
Gordon said: “Sarah is a fabulous actress and I know it. And I think she’s going to win!”
“Mother!!” Paulson laughed.
All those seeds that were planted in your early days in New York are now in full bloom.
“Pinch me, that’s what I feel,” Paulson said. “Pinch me. And if this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up. We all have dreams as kids, right? And some of us get to experience them. And I feel like I’m experiencing this, and it’s really special.”
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Story produced by John D’Amelio and Ramon Parkins. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
Tracy Smith
