Sarah Paulson could be wrapping up her time on American Horror Story sooner rather than later. After taking off season 9 of the anthology series 1984, Paulson is currently starring in season 10, Double Feature, as a homeless woman named Tuberculosis Karen. However, in a new interview with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Life, Paulson admitted that her time on the horror show could be over for good. Cohen asked Paulson when Ryan Murphy would be returning to her show. Paulson surprised him with an unexpected answer.
“I don’t know. It’s the first time in about three years where I don’t know,” She agreed. “I think this is my last season of [American] Horror Story, probably. I mean, I don’t know. Every time [Murphy] comes to me with some whack-a-doodle character, and I tend to be like, ‘Yes, let’s do it!’ I don’t know, and this is the first time. So we’ll see.” Paulson is currently starring as Linda Tripp in Murphy’s American Crime Story: Impeachment as well.
This isn’t the first time in recent days that Paulson has expressed dissatisfaction with American Horror Story, telling The Hollywood Reporter in June that she wished she had skipped season 6, Roanoke. “The whole experience so underwhelmed me because I felt like I had entered into a new place inside of myself in terms of what I thought possible, in terms of what I might be willing to see if I can do,” She stated. “I felt kind of trapped by my responsibility and my contractual obligation to do American Horror Story. As much as it’s my home, and I’ve loved it always, it was the first time I felt like I wish I could have gone to Ryan and said, ‘Please let me sit this one out.'”
Murphy and Paulson have long been creative collaborators, so their time working together is likely far from over even if she doesn’t return for American Horror Story. “I have the dream, and then I let her in on the dream, and then we let other people in on the dream, but she’s the one I tell first,” Murphy told Ellein 2017. “I don’t even tell my husband. Ever. He’ll read it in the trades, and he’ll be like, ‘What the f— is this?'”