Sarah Paulson calls Ryan Murphy her "creative husband," and she totally right.
They are very much engaged in a "creative marriage." Meaning they just can't stop working together. Few in Hollywood have such a collaborative, creative partnership like Paulson and Murphy's. They don't just work together a lot like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley and Joe Wright. It's so much deeper than that. They connect unlike anyone else, they work together even when they're not really working together, and they're each other's confidantes.
The television mogul and actress have been working together since 2004 when she was cast in Nip/Tuck. Since then, they've worked together on some of Murphy's most famous shows, including ten seasons of American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and Ratched (in which Paulson was given her hardest role to date), and there's already more on the way.
But why was Murphy drawn to Paulson? It was just a match made in heaven, apparently.
The Initial Attraction
Murphy was immediately impressed by Paulson's professionalism when she came on to do her episode in Nip/Tuck. She asked many questions and was "very obsessed and worried about everything," Murphy recalled to Elle.
He knew he'd found a kindred spirit in her. "Oh, she seems like my cup of tea," he remembered thinking. "Somebody who I feel has an attention to detail, like me."
Later, he wanted her for Glee but instead got her for AHS, after Jessica Lange suggested he write her a part in the first season.
She went on to play a psychic, a journalist, a witch, conjoined twins, a junkie ghost, an actress, and a woman with coulrophobia (fear of clowns), all in AHS alone. All of her hard work astounded him and kept him coming back for more.
She was then given Marcia Clark in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Nurse Ratched in Ratched.
For Marcia, Murphy knew it would be scary for her, especially since he wanted her to executive produce as well, but couldn't think of a better person to play her. Marcia earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Paulson was actually more afraid of leaving the role because she didn't think she'd get another one like it.
Paulson is okay with taking roles that scare her because she knows that Murphy will support her. Murphy recognizes that they are pretty similar in everything they do, so "as somebody who loves her, I just want her to know, 'No, I support you in every way.'"
She credits Murphy with her success. "By continuing to employ me and continuing to throw enormous acting challenges at me, he has made me find my confidence, and I did not have that before him," she said.
She doesn't work with anyone else because no one else is coming to her with roles like Marcia. "How can I walk away from that? Hard to do," she told THR.
It's very much a collaborative process between them. Murphy told E! News that Paulson is always asking him, "How can we make this better?" She always up for different ideas.
She's the type of actor who comes knowing everyone's lines, not just hers, "so it's very interesting to me to say, well what do you think about that B subplot, even though you're not in it, do you have an opinion?"
"They're both perfectionists and they give everything to a project and then they get exhausted and then you have to wait until they get restored…I love them both and I think of them for everything I do just because I love being around them," Murphy said about both Paulson and Lange. He said they challenge him because they take risks.
It was a little weird when Paulson didn't appear in AHS season nine. She once told Collider that she would never leave unless Murphy was sick of her. But she's set to return for season ten and is working on Murphy's newest project, Impeachment: American Crime Story, where she's playing Linda Tripp. So maybe she was just restoring herself.
Even though Murphy has recently received some backlash for casting Paulson in the role, he is proud of her and likens her transformation to Christian Bale's for Vice.
Paulson Is Murphy's Confidante, Not His Muse
Murphy thinks the word "muse" is a little one-sided, so he wouldn't describe Paulson that way because they feed off each other's creativity. What he and Paulson have is "a really modern relationship."
"It could only have happened in this place and time, with both of us being where we are as adults," he continued. Twenty years ago, their relationship dynamic might not have happened.
Murphy lets Paulson in on pretty much anything that runs across his mind. "I have the dream, and then I let her in on the dream, and then we let other people in on the dream," he said. She's always the first person he tells anything to, even if she'd not going to be physically a part of it.
"I don't even tell my husband. Ever. He'll read it in the trades, and he'll be like, 'What the f**k is this?' That has been a bone of contention in our house. But it's a very precious thing, and I don't give away my creative vulnerability."
Speaking of marriage, Paulson calls their relationship "the creative marriage of my life" and can "interpret" Murphy with a single word. At the end of the day, Murphy is just thankful they found each other.
"I feel like, you know what? I don't know why I got this opportunity. I don't know why I was gifted with this person," Murphy said. "But I know we're on the highway, and we're not getting off until there's a crash."
Watching Paulson and Murphy work together must be like watching a dance and may even be a little intimidating. We'd be jealous of their relationship if we were working with them. But they truly understand each other, and it's inspiring. Soon they'll be able to read each other's minds, but we'll save the supernatural for Murphy's shows.