Entertainment

Sarah Paulson's Gonna Get Even Freakier on 'AHS'

by Maitri Suhas

American Horror Story makes us feel very complicated and confused: it scares the crap out of us, but it delights us, too. We are large: we contain multitudes! And today we have more exciting news from Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy (in addition to the Killer Clown reveal): apparently Sarah Paulson's character on Freak Show is going to be more terrifying than ever.

Paulson has been a regular on AHS since the very first season, when she played a medium to help move poor dead Tate to the next life. Billie Dean Howard was our first introduction to Sarah Paulson on the series, and she was a sassy, blonde medium with press-on nails and plenty of attitude. She only appeared in a few episodes, though, but in the second season, American Horror Story: Asylum, she was front and center as Lana Winters, a lesbian journalist who goes poking around the asylum and ends up being locked up by the terrifying Jessica Lange, the mother superior with fire in her eyes.

Of course, last season on American Horror Story: Coven, Paulson took on her most fierce role yet: the blind grand Supreme, Cordelia Foxx, and she stole the show, even from Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange. So how is it possible that she will have an even bigger role in Freak Show? Apparently, according to Murphy, the role he created for Paulson in the upcoming Freak Show is gonna be the toughest and roughest yet, so much so that even HE is a little freaked out:

[Her character] is the most challenging character I've ever created. I'm nervous for Sarah.

Hw added that there will be "physical rigors" that she has to go through, too. Joy.

So what kind of freak is she going to play? A conjoined twin? A bearded lady? The Killer Clown's mistress? A Cirque-de-Soleil style acrobat who's gone terribly off the deep end? Whatever her character, we know that Sarah Paulson is going to deliver the extra-freaky goods as she has in seasons past of American Horror Story.

But really, can anything top Cordelia?