Meeting of the Marcias: Sarah Paulson and the Real Marcia Clark Talk ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’
Photos: FX
They say never meet your heroes, but what happens when the hero wants to meet you (because you’ve just played her in an illuminating, Emmy-nominated performance)? That unique scenario played out earlier this week when The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’s Sarah Paulson sat down with her real-life counterpart Marcia Clark for a riveting hour of camaraderie, insights, and surprisingly emotional admissions.
Moderated by executive producer Ryan Murphy, Paulson and Clark’s conversation (and audience Q&A) was part of FX’s Emmy campaign for its highly rated hit, and the mutual affection between the two women was immediately palpable. Murphy began with his best James Lipton by asking them both what their favorite swear words are. For anyone who’d waited 20 years to hear former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark say the C word, this was your lucky night. (For the record, Paulson prefers “motherf*****.”)
As you might expect, Clark wasn’t always comfortable watching her story play out onscreen: “I heard that [the show] was going to be made, so I was like, ‘Oh God. Horrible.’ I was hoping it would fall apart, because things in Hollywood do.” But Clark’s reluctance to see her most painful chapter re-created for our entertainment lessened when she discovered who’d be playing her. “Then I heard Sarah was going to do it, and was like 'Oh, this could really be good.’ On the other hand, good can be painful. The better it is, the more it hurts to watch.” As Murphy recounted, Clark initially declined to watch raw footage of the show, telling him, “I just can’t go through it again.”
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Ultimately though, Clark came around. “It was all really well done. You got so inside everything. It was really amazing to see that, especially for me to watch Sarah get the emotions that I was feeling. How did she know that? How did she get that? She didn’t talk to me!” Apparently, there were even times when Sarah Paulson seemed to understand Marcia Clark better than Marcia Clark did: “I’d go, ‘I don’t do that!’ And my friends would go, ‘Yeah you do.’”
Anyone who watched the series knows that among a cast of brilliant actors, Sarah Paulson still shone brightest, so her involvement was crucial. According to Murphy, one of the first things he did as exec producer was inform FX that “if Sarah Paulson doesn’t play this part, I really don’t want to do this show.” But because Paulson was already committed to playing a junkie ghost on American Horror Story: Hotel, she’d have to spend a lot of time traveling via golf cart between two different sound stages. “The good news was, I was playing someone who was very tired,” joked Paulson.
Probably the centerpiece episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson was “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” which truly delved into the pain and frustration of Clark’s existence circa 1995. This included custody hearings, harsh media feedback, and, most infamously, an unfortunate perm. “I never did understand it,” Clark maintains, of the criticism of her look at the time. “It was wash ’n’ wear! I had two little boys and worked a full-time job.” In the episode’s instantly iconic scene, in which Paulson enters the courtroom in a “Rick James wig,” only to immediately detect everyone’s silent derision, Clark’s transformation from a Tina Fey-ridiculed caricature into a tragic heroine was complete. “I’m really proud of it,” Murphy says of the humanizing, borderline-devastating scene. “One of my favorite moments on the show.”
The word redemption tends to get thrown around when discussing The People v. O.J. Simpson, and while Clark admits that the show has certainly impacted how she’s viewed in pop culture (“I never expected 20 years later for things to be this different”), she’s even more grateful for Murphy’s defense of strong, independent women. “I think we all kind of get hit with the same shovel … I think it’s changing now. I think this show helped that,” she told the crowd. “I can’t even tell you guys how grateful I am for the spotlight you’ve shone on sexism. I think you did a great thing.”
One of the night’s highlights occurred when an audience member asked Marcia Clark whether the O.J. Simpson trial would have gone differently had there not been cameras in the courtroom. Clark began to argue that no, the cameras hadn’t affected the trial too much, but then Paulson pointed out that Judge Ito had frequently played to the cameras and Clark relented, almost delighted by the correction. “That’s a great point … I really like talking to me!” For her part, Paulson harbors strong opinions about the case, answering Murphy’s question about what she’d say to O.J. with an almost chilling intensity: “I would like to look him directly in the eye. I don’t know that I would say anything, but I would want him to be able to tell by my look that I knew what he did.”
But honestly, it all still came down to that wig. At one point, Clark looked to Paulson apologetically and said, “I felt so bad for you. I really did.” Paulson countered, “I loved wearing it.” (Emmy voters, take note.)
For all its accomplishments as a thoughtful, campy, timely, and gripping work of art, The People v. O.J. Simpson will be most remembered for its performances. How exactly did it manage to take real, larger-than-life characters, dress them in ridiculous period wardrobe, and still make them seem even more human than their real-life counterparts? Per Murphy: “We had a rule on the show. Don’t meet the person you’re playing until you have enough of the performance in the can that it’s yours.” It’s clear that everyone — Murphy, the viewers, and even the real Marcia Clark herself — agrees that Paulson made the character her own. Next month, we’ll see if Emmy voters agree.
The 68th Annual Emmy Awards will air Sunday, Sept. 18 on ABC.
