Sarah Paulson Addresses Charlize Theron Comparisons Regarding Aileen Wuornos Role.
Sarah Paulson has a strong opinion of this. The star of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story responded to accusations that her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos was inferior to Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in Monster (2003).
“A lot of people want to compare the performance,” Paulson made the admission on the Shut Up Evan show on September 28.
“It’s just the sort of weird thing where it’s like, I didn’t set out to do something better than Charlize Theron. I didn’t set out to blast hers off the screen or something—as if anyone could do that. It’s the most glorious performance in the world.”
Additionally, Paulson—who has long collaborated with Ryan Murphy, the creator of Monster—emphasized that no two performances are truly comparable.
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“Maybe it’s because I come from the world of the theater,” she thought. “People get to reinterpret great plays all the time. No one goes, ‘Oh I don’t want to see Glenn Close’s version of this play because I saw so-and-so’s version or this director’s.”
In her words, “To me, the experience of acting, the art of acting, is the exploration of human behavior by way of personal experience and by way of your interpretation.”
Paulson stressed that she had no intention of undercutting Theron in her most recent portrayal as the serial killer from Florida.
“This is my interpretation of Aileen Wuornos based on the research I did and based on my personhood and how it comes out through me,” Paulson added. “It’s not an attempt to do something like anybody ever did. It’s like this interesting thing where you end up wanting to defend what the artistic pursuit was.”
However, Paulson understood going into her next role that she would have to endure a certain level of criticism.
“I’m having this new experience in my life of going, ‘Wow, I’m so proud of myself for high flying in this example,’” she acknowledged it. “Ryan called me and was like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ And it flashed in front of me like, ‘People are going to compare it to Charlize and that’s going to be so—why would I do that? Why would I want to go out in the world and give a performance when someone has won an Oscar for that? Like, that’s some kind of psycho behavior on your part, Sarah Paulson.’ And then I thought, but I want to try.”
The chance to play Wuornos was sufficient compensation for Paulson.
“I just feel the gratitude,” she continued, highlighting Murphy, “He lets me do the craziest s--t.”
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