Sarah Paulson Wins First Emmy for ‘People v. O.J. Simpson’
And the Emmy finally goes to…Sarah Paulson.
Paulson won her first Emmy award Sunday night for her portrayal of Marcia Clark on FX’s “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” winning for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Series Or Movie.
The actress, who was seen as a shoo-in for the award, was also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Series Or Movie for her role in FX’s “American Horror Story: Hotel,” which went to Regina King for ABC’s “American Crime.”
Paulson’s award was one of many for “People v. O.J. Simpson” tonight at the Emmys, including a win for writing and for Sterling K. Brown, whom Paulson thanked during her acceptance speech.
On stage, Paulson spoke at length about Clark, who came as her date Sunday night. Speaking of the misjudgment and unfair treatment Clark endured in the ’90s during the trial, Paulson said, “I am glad to be able to stand here in front of everyone today and tell you I’m sorry.”
The winner also thanked a few more people on stage — “Ryan Patrick Murphy, I owe you everything…you changed my life,” she said, also giving a shoutout to her partner, adding, “Holland Taylor, I love you.”
The double-nominee tonight was previously nominated was four Emmys, prior to the 2016 awards — three times for other seasons of “Horror Story” and another for HBO’s “Game Change.” When she did not win for “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” critics and fans called out her snub, given that she played the difficult roles of conjoined twins Bette and Dot to much praise.
On the day of her nomination, Paulson — who juggled filming “People v. O.J. Simpson” and “Hotel” at the same time — spoke to Variety about her two nominations, admitting that she really wants to win.
“I feel a little bit of pressure. I don’t want to let anybody down,” she said in an interview this past summer. “I appreciate that people feel that passionately about wanting a victorious night for me, but I personally have to sit in the place of if I give it that much weight, it will take away everything I learned about being a woman, a human, my experience with the other actors — and am I going to let an award take that away? No. So the experience has to be paramount and the other stuff has to be the gravy. But don’t get me wrong, I like gravy!”
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