'Hold Your Breath' Exclusive Interview: Sarah Paulson

Moviefone speaks with Sarah Paulson about 'Hold Your Breath'. "I was interested in portraying a woman in that time-period and playing a mother," she said.

Sarah Paulson in 'Hold Your Breath'. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.

Available on Hulu beginning October 3rd is the new psychological thriller ‘Hold Your Breath,’ which was directed by Karrie Crouse (‘Westworld’) and Will Joines.

The film stars Sarah Paulson (‘Ocean’s 8’, ‘Glass’), Amiah Miller (‘War for the Planet of the Apes’), Annaleigh Ashford (‘Bad Education’), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (‘The Bear’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with acclaimed actress Sarah Paulson about her work on 'Hold Your Breath', her first reaction to the screenplay, why she wanted to make the film, her character and her relationship with her daughter, preforming in sandstorms, working with two directors, and how acting opposite Ebon Moss-Bachrach on this movie made her appearance on ‘The Bear’ easier.

Related Article: 'Glass' Star Sarah Paulson Was "Obsessed" with 'Unbreakable'

Sarah Paulson in 'Hold Your Breath'. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to be part of this project?

Sarah Paulson: Well, my first reaction when I read the screenplay was, yes, I would like to do this. It was partly because I was really excited about playing a woman living in this time-period. I hadn't read a lot about the Dust Bowl. Of course, I knew about it in terms of our country's history and what was happening during that time and why it happened. But I was really interested in portraying a woman in that time-period and playing a mother. What hit me the most significantly about it was this idea of, yes, it is a psychological horror film, but it was the psychological component that was more interesting to me. The monster as it were, is the air itself and of course, created by our own over-harvesting of the land. It created this terrible situation for so many people in that part of our country at that time that it just seemed to me like a very potent space to create a movie like this. Also, just very clearly as it was written on the page, the juxtaposition of the stark beauty of the landscape of the film was very evident and present on the page. I thought that that would be a kind of wonderful world to inhabit as well.

MF: Can you talk about the hard life that Margaret lives and the difficult choices she makes to protect her family?

SP: I think one of the things that was interesting too about it was just that this is a woman who was essentially on her own, and this happened to a lot of women at this time during the Dust Bowl. Their husbands had to go off and try to find some way of making money, and the women were left home alone to fend for themselves. It was really challenging. I don't know, I felt like I couldn't imagine how I would fare in that same environment. So, there was heroism to her real commitment that was connected to her desire to take care of her children. It was not about her own survival, but it was about making sure that her family was safe and taking on a role traditionally reserved for the man of the house, that she had to do this on her own. That was very interesting to me as well.

Sarah Paulson in 'Hold Your Breath'. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.

MF: Was it difficult shooting the sandstorm sequences?

SP: Well, that was what was so fun about it to me. A lot of them are practical and that made it exciting to play because I wasn't having to simulate responding to dust in my eyes, my mouth and my nose. I would come home at night, and I would find things in my ears you can't even imagine, in terms of dirt and dust in my nose, my eyes, my scalp, and under my fingernails. I kind of loved it because it meant I wasn't having to pretend or simulate the difficulty of that. I was inside it. There were a couple of times where I asked the prop department to put more dust in the air and to make the fans blow faster and harder and to hit me more directly with them so that I would have more to work against it. I have to say it was an enormous amount of fun. Listen, as actors, we are all encouraged and need desperately to use our imaginations, but anytime you can be looking at an actual blazing fire versus an imagined one is going to be, for me anyway, much more potent than imagining a fire they're going to put in later with visual effects. The same thing with the dust. It's like looking up into a big, bright blue sky and imagining there's a dust storm. That is not the same as looking up and the special effects department has got so much swirling in the air that it is scary. I just think it enhances something from an acting standpoint because anytime something can feel more real to me, I would argue and hope that therefore it would encourage a more real response from me and a more truthful performance.

MF: Can you talk about Margaret’s relationship with her daughter and working with actress Amiah Miller?

SP: Well, I loved Amiah so much immediately. Amiah and I share an agent, so I got slipped her audition before I think it even made its way to our directors. I wrote to them immediately and said, "I think there's just no question that this is our girl." They had the same reaction when they saw her audition. It was just so self-possessed, emotional, full and real. She was just a joy to work with. I'm sure she's going to be a big fat superstar, and I hope she'll still take my call. It's always exciting. I mean, Amiah hasn't had a ton of work experience. So, it was a lovely thing. Yet she's at the precipice of becoming a grown woman. So, it was wonderful to be able to watch her navigate what it was like to be on a set and how she was able to navigate probing these emotional places in herself. She was just such a consummate professional and an incredible scene partner who was always just right there with me, emotionally, always, and never afraid to meet me right where I was and encouraged me to be just that much more truthful. I just can't say enough about her. I loved being her mother, even if it was only for a moment.

Amiah Miller in 'Hold Your Breath'. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.

MF: Have you ever worked with two directors at the same time before and what was your experience like working with Karrie Crouse and Will Joines?

SP: Gosh, have I had that experience before? I don't know that I have. I really loved it because it was also very fascinating for me to watch them try to figure it out. It was always interesting who would tend to come up and give me a note versus who would give Annaleigh Ashford a note. It was different, and it was so interesting how they chose to divvy up their responsibilities. I think also what I really loved was Karrie wrote the script and Will has so much admiration for her, respect and love for her, but real admiration and reverence for what she created. He always wanted her to have what she wanted and what she had imagined or dreamt of when she was writing it. So, it was a very beautiful thing to watch them work together so cohesively and with such support of one another, and they're each other's biggest fans and champions. They were absolutely a unit the entire time. I never felt that thing of, “Someone's going to have a big fight when they get home tonight”. It was never like that. They were really like one. It was like being directed by one person.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach in 'Hold Your Breath'. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.

MF: Finally, can you talk about working with Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and did you shoot ‘Hold Your Breath’ before you appeared on ‘The Bear’?

SP: This movie was first, and it was wonderful that it was first because we get to do a lot of harrowing, dark, fraught things together. Then I got to go be on the set of ‘The Bear’, which is an incredibly intimidating set to walk onto because I was such a rabid fan of the show. I'd seen every episode more than once. We got to do all that stuff that was intense together and then it was wonderful to me that I had that time with him because we got to know each other a little bit, even though we knew each other in New York as young actors in a real cursory way. But then because I shot that first and then we did ‘The Bear’ afterwards, I was just saying how it was a very intimidating set to walk onto because I had watched ‘The Bear’ with such fervor and I was so obsessed and possessed by it and had watched each episode multiple times. I was really walking onto that set as an enormous fan. So, it was very comforting to me to look across the room at Ebon because I knew him so intimately because of the way we worked together, it really mitigated some of my terror being around all those superstars on that show.

Hold Your Breath

"There's something evil in the air."

R1 hr 34 minOct 3rd, 2024

In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region’s horrific dust storms, a woman (Sarah Paulson) is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family. Read the Plot

What is the plot of ‘Hold Your Breath’?

In 1930s Oklahoma, a young mother (Sarah Paulson ) haunted by the past becomes convinced that a mysterious presence in dust storms is threatening her family and takes extraordinary measures to protect them.