Sarah Paulson admits "regret" but defends wearing a fat suit playing Linda Tripp in Impeachment: American Crime Story

Los Angeles Times

Paulson, who spent three hours in hair and makeup to transform into Tripp, addressed the controversy over her wearing a fat suit for the FX series in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s very hard for me to talk about this without feeling like I’m making excuses,” she says. “There’s a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one. I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm. And it is a very important conversation to be had. But that entire responsibility I don’t think falls on the actor for choosing to do something that is arguably — and I’m talking about from the inside out — the challenge of a lifetime. I do think to imagine that the only thing any actor called upon to play this part would have to offer is their physical self is a real reduction of the offering the actor has to make. I would like to believe that there is something in my being that makes me right to play this part. And that the magic of hair and makeup departments and costumers and cinematographers that has been part of moviemaking, and suspension of belief, since the invention of cinema. Was I supposed to say no (to the part)? This is the question. I think the thing I think about the most is that I regret not thinking about it more fully. And that is an important thing for me to think about and reflect on. I also know it’s a privileged place to be sitting and thinking about it and reflecting on it, having already gotten to do it, and having had an opportunity that someone else didn’t have. You can only learn what you learn when you learn it. Should I have known? Abso-f*cking-lutely. But I do now. And I wouldn’t make the same choice going forward.”