-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy Award-winning actress
who you know from "Ratched,"
the "American Horror Story" franchise,
and "The People vs. O.J. Simpson."
She is both executive producing and starring as Linda Tripp
in "Impeachment: American Crime Story,"
which airs Tuesdays on FX.
Let's take a look.
-Can you at least tell me did something happen?
-I told you I have to talk to Kathleen.
-But will you call me after you do?
Here's my card.
You can reach me -- -I know how to reach you.
-Okay. Alright.
-There's a bigger story.
Much bigger than this.
You're barking up the wrong tree.
-Please welcome back to the show and studio
Sarah Paulson, everybody.
♪♪ [ Light applause ]
-[ Laughing ] I like the world's tiniest applause.
-No, it's not tiny.
-It's like clappity-clap-clap.
-No, they're good. -Clap, clap, clap.
-They have big, strong crew hands.
-Clap, clap. I like it.
So we don't have to pretend there is an audience, right?
We can call it like it is. -You can call it like it is.
-Or do people at home think there's an audience?
-Well, that's the thing, is sometimes people will be like,
"God, it was really quiet last night."
I'm like, "No, there's no one here."
-"She is tanking."
Unsuccessful. -So that's good.
I think that's very good.
Especially as you're the first guest of the night.
It's sort of incumbent on you to establish
there's not an audience. -Great, no pressure of any kind.
Great. Fantastic. -It's so lovely to see you.
-It's lovely to see you sans jacket.
-Sans jacket, and you sans your Linda Tripp outfit.
That is a real transfor-- Though I guess your life
with Ryan Murphy has been just, like,
transformation after transformation.
-Yeah, I sort of feel like where do you go after having two heads
and playing a heroin addict with an electrocuted head of hair,
Chia Pet thing, Chia Pet Marcia Clark wig.
I think Linda Tripp feels like a natural progression to me.
I don't really know where you go.
-There must be a fair amount of discussion, though,
as far as, like, how do you even go about
the costuming for something like that.
The great thing about it, I will say, is, like,
when it starts and you're watching it, you're like,
"That's Sarah?" And then you forget that's Sarah,
which is, I guess, the whole point of, like, doing acting,
is making you forget who the actual actor is.
-Yeah, I think a lot of times people only want to play things
that are close to home, but I'm like, "I want to be a pirate."
I want a peg leg and a black tooth.
If I'm not having that, then I'm not really --
-I guess a Ryan Murphy role really takes care of --
Wait, is there your new --
Hold on. I want to make sure I get the photo right.
This is your newest, right?
-This is Tuberculosis Karen. -Tuberculosis Karen.
-Now, when Ryan calls and goes, "I've got a great part for you,"
I mean, he knows you're gonna jump at the chance to play --
-He does, because I'm a glutton for punishment.
-Yeah. -Yes.
-And let me just say.
I mean, this is no makeup, right?
-This is me on your average Monday morning, guys.
[ Laughter ] This is sort of how I wake up.
Good morning, everybody! Morning!
-I got to give the set photographer credit
because they really grabbed a perfect expression
for Tuberculosis Karen. -They sure did.
Look at my sad eyebrows.
So, see, as Linda, I had to erase them
because her eyebrows are different than mine.
-Right. -And so one of the ways
we figured out how we could transform my face
was to bleach them.
But when you bleach them and shave them,
you have to walk around without them all of the time.
-Yeah. -All of the time.
Not drunk at all, totally sober.
And so Ryan came up with the idea to sort of do this
Warholian -- Warhalian?
-No, Warholian. -Warholian.
-Warholian. -Warholian.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Eyebrow above the painted-out bleach.
And so it was all a solve to hide Linda.
-For people who are watching when this airs,
Tuberculosis Karen actually has two sets of eyebrows.
-She has two sets of eyebrows --
the bleached ones and then the bigger eyebrow.
-So everybody sees her and they think things aren't going well
for Tuberculosis Karen. Joke's on you.
She's got two sets. Things are going so well for her.
-Yeah, exactly. -She's got doubles.
-She's got doubles. -You have a dog, Winnie.
-I do have a dog, Winnie, that I got
in the beginning of the pandemic.
-People know about Winnie. -People know about Winnie.
-You have shared Winnie with the world.
-Winnie has been shared. -We're going to break some news.
-Let's break the Internet. -You got a second dog.
-Kim Kardashian got nothing on us.
Okay, come on. -You got a second dog.
-I got a second dog. -What's the new dog's name?
-Her name is Louise, but I call her Weezy.
-Weezy. Great. As you should.
So you got Weezy and Winnie. -Weezy and Winnie.
-Okay. -Okay.
-And how are they doing?
-It seemed okay in the beginning,
but then there have been a couple of tense moments
where they were -- let's just say teeth I didn't know
my dog had were on display.
-So this is a photo of them and I guess
someone made the argument that they're playing.
-Sure. -But this is...
One of these dogs does not look like they're having fun.
Look at that.
[ Laughter ]
-But also, hello.
She looks like she's flying. -Yeah.
-But this one also, the dog is like, "Duh!"
[ Laughter ]
And Winnie is like, "I said back, my lady!"
I just love it. -It's true.
It is like this one is like, "I think the date is going good."
-"I think she really likes me." -"Yeah, I think it's good."
-"She really likes me." [ Laughter ]
-So are they, in general, would you say it's working?
-I think it's happening. The very thing that I wanted to do
was to prevent my dog from -- I anthropomorphize the dog,
so if she looks out the window, I think she's looking longingly
for her Prince or Princess Charming and it's not coming.
So I brought the dog home to try to --
And then as you can see, it's going swimmingly.
-Something else that's going -- I want to give you a shout-out
because you were mentioned last week on the show.
Amanda Peet has a wonderful show called "The Chair."
And she basically gave you credit
for being casting director. -Yes.
-You connected her with Sandra Oh, who's a friend.
You probably had the number in your phone.
-Yes, e-mail. -But then Holland Taylor,
who was a lot easier for you to contact.
-Yeah, I just basically went in the other room
and said, "Hey, Dumb-Dumb, please do the show
and don't be crazy and also don't make me look bad
to my best friend."
-Not that I think Holland could ever make you
look bad as an actor. -Never.
-But in social situations,
I'm sure she embarrasses you all the time.
-She's embarrassing me constantly!
-But as an actor, not once. -Never.
-But she's so good in it.
-She's so good in it. -Yeah.
-Funny. I mean, but, you know,
Holland is that funny all the time.
I took a video of her in the hotel room the other night.
Not creepy. It's not a creepy video, guys, super not creepy.
But of her singing a song called "It's Choco Coffee Time"
set to like "Howdy Doody Time"
because she drinks a cup of coffee in the morning
that is a vat of hot chocolate and international coffee creamer
and then, like, a tiny drop of espresso,
and she needs her -- so she's like, ♪ It's choco coffee time ♪
♪ It's choco ♪
And she started doing a dance, and I just --
I recorded it, and if you are really lucky,
you'd get that video before I leave.
-Well, I certainly hope one day I'll get it.
-She's gonna kill me for telling that story
because she was spinning around in her little pajamas.
♪ Choco coffee ♪ -Well, when you drink that much
hot chocolate, you're gonna spin around.
It's got to go somewhere. -It was really something.