Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark in “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”; Michael Becker/FX Networks(NEW YORK) — Playing Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story gave Sarah Paulson a new perspective on the famed Los Angeles prosecutor.
“I really had a very particular image and picture of her that — one that I think most Americans had, which was that she was a kind of strident, aggressive b****, for lack of an articulate way of putting it,” the actress said in an interview with ABC News’ Deborah Roberts that aired Tuesday on Good Morning America. “And through all the research I did and the scripts themselves, I just came to realize that was so, so far from the truth.”
Part of Paulson’s change of heart came from meeting Clark, whom Paulson said apologized to her.
“She’s like, ‘I just want to say sorry.’ I said, ‘For what?’ She said, ‘Well, for the hair,’” Paulson said, explaining that she wore different wigs to play Clark that “were all varying versions of not very attractive.”
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story has been a critical and ratings hit. Paulson, however, says she hasn’t watched it, though she understands why people are drawn to the series.
“I think everyone was so obsessed during the trial, I don’t know why it would be different now,” she said.
The FX series examines the 1995 murder trial of Simpson, the former NFL football great turned actor who was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted, but was found liable for the two deaths in a subsequent civil suit brought by the families of Brown Simpson and Goldman.
Paulson said for her, the series wasn’t about making a judgment about guilt or innocence.
“What I hope [viewers] come away with is two-fold. One: that at the center of this story is the death of two innocent people, and the circus that this trial became really made that hard to see clearly,” she said, adding “But more than that…every player involved in this trial was a real person. A flesh-and-blood thinking, feeling person. And so many of them were sort of treated almost like they were holograms. That they weren’t real people.”
Paulson says observers “didn’t really think about what [defense attorney] Johnnie Cochran’s personal struggles were, what Marcia’s personal struggles were. And all of that was sort of left out of this story. And so I really hope that what you’re able to see here is that we were talking about real people worse lives were forever changed. And most of them not for the better post this trial. So, you know, I hope that’s something that people take away.”
The finale of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story airs tonight at 10:00 ET on FX.
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