Sarah Paulson, the Star of Netflix’s “Ratched”

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Books, Society & Culture, Remnick, Storytelling, Wnyc, News, David, Yorker, Arts, Politics, New

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The actor Sarah Paulson has appeared in “12 Years a Slave,” “The People v. O. J. Simpson,” and eight seasons of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story.” Now she’s starring in a new Murphy production—the series “Ratched,” which premieres on Netflix next month. It’s a macabre, over-the-top fantasy describing the origin story of Nurse Ratched, the heartless, possibly not-quite-human villain of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Personified by Louise Fletcher in the 1975 film, Nurse Ratched is considered one of the great modern antiheroes. “I do think any character you play, particularly the ones that, on the surface, seem difficult, angry, monstrous—a lot of people don’t like to investigate that kind of stuff,” Paulson told the staff writer Michael Schulman at the 2019 New Yorker Festival. “But, to me, I think, it’s sort of our job.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.0	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:14.0	Okay, so I first met our guest tonight a few years ago at an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel.
0:19.9	And here's what I remember most
0:22.5	vividly. She was ordering a Cobb salad, but she wanted a different dressing. And she looked at me and said,
0:30.5	I don't want just what's on the menu. I want something entirely unique. I don't know if I like
0:36.0	your impression.
0:39.3	Last fall,
0:42.2	staff writer Michael Schulman sat down at the New Yorker Festival with the actor Sarah Paulson.
0:43.8	Well, it was a joke.
0:44.7	It was a very funny joke.
0:45.9	But to me, it was a great way to think about Sarah Paulson.
0:49.3	She's not what's on the menu.
0:50.7	She's entirely unique and impossible to categorize.
0:54.1	You may have seen Paulson in 12 years a slave, or playing the prosecutor Marcia Clark in the
0:59.6	People v. O.J. Simpson. She's appeared in eight seasons of Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story,
1:04.7	and now she's in another Murphy production, a new show debuting on Netflix next month, Ratchet.
1:12.8	We had a saying in the core, save one life and you're a hero.
1:18.3	Save a hundred lives.
1:20.2	Well, then you're a nurse.
1:22.3	Ratchet is a macabre, over-the-top fantasy describing the origins of Nurse Ratchet,
1:29.0	the heartless, possibly not quite human villain of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
	...

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