Image via Complex Original
Sarah Paulson's been on our screens for the better part of two decades, but her most recent role as prosecutor Marcia Clark on The People v. O. J. Simpson catapulted her from a Ryan Murphy muse to a household name. Between that and her role as the ex-lover and closest friend of Cate Blanchett in the Oscar-nominated lesbian drama Carol, she's had a pretty huge year. Not that we're suprised—she's a phenomenal actress and her roles are always on point (Martha Marcy May Marlene, anyone?). But let's reflect for a minute on her frequent and seldom heralded co-star, deserving of their own nod: her cigarettes.
For the last few years, Paulson's roles have always had her flicking a cigarette, without fail. She's smoked like a goddamn chimney in four out of five seasons of American Horror Story—as different characters, mind you—and she's still smoking her lungs off in AHS's anthology cousin American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson. But it's not just Murphy who's got her taking drags—directors Peyton Reed (Down With Love) and Todd Haynes (Carol) had her on that cigarette tip as well. Smoking is garbage and nicotine is poison but I'll be damned if Paulson doesn't look great doing it. In celebration of tonight's American Crime Story, the most Paulson-centric episode yet, behold: an unofficial catalog of Sarah's on-screen smoking.
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson
No hate, but honestly, if your hair looked like this, wouldn't you be reaching for a carton?
Carol
Sarah Paulson gets a pass here because Carol was set in the 1950s and everyone smoked back then. And anyways, that casual dirty martini and cigarette pairing looks classy AF...
American Horror Story: Murder House
If ever there were a reason to smoke, it's definitely being stuck in a house full of vindictive ghosts who won't stop fucking with its current residents. *Takes a long drag*
American Horror Story: Asylum
There was a time when everyone thrown in an asylum apropos of nothing smoked for reasons that hovered somewhere between stress and boredom. This was that.
American Horror Story: Freak Show
Watching Sarah Paulson play both an anal retentive wet blanket and a naive fame-thirty ninny simultaneously was dope. But watching one inhale a cigarette while the other exhaled the smoke was even better.
American Horror Story: Hotel
Perpetually watery-eyed and generally involving herself in murder and mayhem, Hotel's junkie Sally was rarely seen without a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other. But what's the harm in smoking when you're already dead?
Down With Love
Ah yes, that 1960s patriarchal workplace smoking. Here, take my lighter.