Sarah Paulson recently discussed her ongoing connection with Marcia Clark, the prosecutor from the O.J. Simpson trial, during an interview at the Television Academy Hall of Fame in Los Angeles on Aug. 16. Paulson portrayed Clark in the 2016 television series “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
The actress noted that she and Clark remain in contact nearly a decade after the show’s release. According to Paulson, Clark was invited to her 50th birthday celebration but had to decline due to work obligations.
“We emailed and she was supposed to come to my 50th birthday bash, but at the last minute had to work and so she couldn’t,” Paulson said. “I almost saw her six months ago. But that was it.” She added, “She’s a wonderful woman,” referring to Clark.
Paulson recalled that their most recent meeting occurred during the pandemic and also shared details about her party, stating, “It was just superb and I’ll never do it again (…) Once you’ve done a big birthday party, it’s like I threw myself a wedding. I married myself basically.”
Reflecting on taking on the role of Clark in the Ryan Murphy-directed series, Paulson said she felt both excited and apprehensive when first approached for the part: “[I felt] both, sort of, elated and completely worried that I wasn’t going to be able to pull it off (…) But there is a kind of magical thing that happens sometimes, which is when Ryan believes it, you sort of tend to believe it yourself.”
Despite initial doubts about playing Clark—a public figure who faced considerable scrutiny during Simpson’s trial—Paulson received several awards for her performance including an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a limited series as well as Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild honors.
“Having two small children and a husband who betrayed her and the public nature of all that scrutiny, which she was completely ill prepared to handle, it’s like walking into a battle without any armor,” Paulson said of Clark’s experience during the trial. “She just didn’t have the skin for it. She didn’t have any of that razzle-dazzle that Cochran had, and they all had. She just wasn’t designed as much for public life.”
Paulson also described feeling pressure over portraying someone still living: “The most challenging part of it was just my own mental awareness that Marcia Clark walks the planet now, and that this is a real person I’m playing, and the responsibility of wanting to get it right (…) I had done so much research and watched so much footage and read so many books, as everybody did, that I came to really revere her, both as a legal mind and as a person (…) And the idea that I was going to be representing her somehow was really scary, a kind of heavy load to bear.”
Clark attended the Emmy Awards with Paulson in 2016 following her win for best lead actress in a limited series.
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