In three seasons on FX’s American Horror Story, Sarah Paulson has had to telepathically commune with the dead, breast-feed an adult sociopathic killer, and have sex while surrounded by dozens of snakes, to pick just a few discomfiting scenes from a series that has become a hit thanks its gothic blend of the camp and the demonic. Yet it was filming a seemingly mundane sequence for the first episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show, as the new season is titled, that caused Paulson to melt down, worried she might not be up to the task of playing Bette and Dot, conjoined twins who are recruited to help revive an embattled freak show in 1950s Florida.
The trouble? While eating a roll of bread (as Bette), Paulson had to simultaneously write in her diary (as Dot), a disorienting feat of mind-body multitasking. “They have two heads and two brains in one body, but, of course, I only have one of each,” explains the actress, 39, over a boozy dinner in New Orleans, where the show is currently shooting. “So I was doing my part as Bette”—here Paulson begins buttering a roll with her left hand—“but as Dot I’m writing with my dominant side” — she pantomimes the movement with the fork in her right — “and my voice kept wanting to come out as Dot. I freaked out. Before I knew it, I was crying on set.” Ryan Murphy, the show’s co-creator, stopped shooting to take Paulson for a reassuring walk. “He was like, ‘Lady, you’re doing something that no one has ever done before,’” Paulson says. “Which was nice, but I was just so scared.” She pauses, then adds, “I am so scared.”
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