00:00Ryan come on up and by the way what a fabulous outfit
00:07it is so cool that my star is right here next to Sarah's I send my kids here every weekend
00:22with comment and toothbrushes so I'm gonna have them shine you up too okay all right
00:28they seriously do all right I got a lot to say about you can you hear me back there is this okay
00:40it it has recently come to my attention that there are projects in the about trees in the
00:47works in Hollywood animated live-action sure the other day I was talking to one of my best
00:53friends in the entire world Sarah Paulson about this new odd genre and she confessed without a
01:00drop of irony that yes she could see herself playing a tree I was not surprised the fact of
01:08the matter is is if she wanted to Sarah Paulson could play a mighty oak a delicate rose of Sharon
01:14or any matter of shrub and the reason why is this Sarah the Magnificent can play anything
01:21she can be anything or anyone challenged now by this recent news that actors can play non-humans
01:30I begun to write the role she is perhaps best suited for and the one you will be remembered for and
01:36that role is a volcano think about it first she bubbles and stews pressure mounting then she jumps in
01:47and commits and here comes the eruption of creativity and pathos and blinding ferocity and beauty of
01:53expression and preparation a distillation of qualities that has made her one of the greatest forces of
01:58nature this business has ever had or ever will have then comes the fertile cooling off period and which we
02:05marvel at what she's done and in this post talent explosion comes a flurry of accolades and nominations and
02:13golden trophies which we've seen her collect time and time again because she is so admired and so loved
02:19and then soil fertile comes the growth of flowers and all beautiful things and that landscape is her ever
02:26growing legacy I have known this Vesuvius of talents for a quarter century now and we've done tremendous work
02:34together and are in some way linked in the public's consciousness like a Wyler Betty Davis Leo Scorsese
02:41Cukor Hepburn combo and for that collaboration with her I am very proud and very grateful but the
02:49thing that impresses me the most about Sarah Paulson is her autonomy the fact that she did it the hard
02:54way on her own her way with the rare combination of passion and grit that has made her one of the
02:59world's greatest actresses indeed one of the proudest moments of my entire life other than the birth of my
03:05three children was a couple of years ago and I sat with said children around a TV screen holding my
03:12breath and then it happened she won a well-deserved best actress Tony for her role and appropriate a
03:18project she yeah shout out to that play a project she nurtured nurse championed and delivered in I
03:24cheered I cried I whooped with such a fervor that one of my kids asked me if I was okay I was not
03:33what I was was proud of her singular accomplishment the way she was afraid of the great unknown but
03:39did it anyway with a big heart and a big resilient spirit and one big time Sarah leaps over hills
03:45unsure of where the horizon will be she leaps with a great galloping energy into projects and she only
03:52plays in sandboxes that scare her that actually in lesser hands could be full of consuming quicksand
03:59and I've known a lot of those people I've seen this quality up close and personal for decades now
04:04I never wrote roles for Sarah because I wanted to challenge her I wrote them as a fan I just wanted
04:12to be entertained by her her laugh moved by her I remember so many times in my life cackling with delight
04:19late in the night as I came up with these roles for her and I found myself saying now as I did then
04:25oh lord world watch out how is she gonna do these magical weirdo things how will she look sound cry move
04:36it's never what I thought or expected and that is her magic I know that if she can surprise me with
04:43her depth of reserve of talent and I wrote this stuff that the viewer will be transported to a place
04:48they never imagined but realized they wanted and needed all along I believe in Sarah Paulson more
04:55than myself when I was preparing the people versus OJ Simpson for example this is what happened I felt
05:02it was time for Sarah to just step forward into a lead role be the entire thing of the project and carry
05:07that weight she never asked for it and we never even discussed it we were casting the role of Marsha Clark
05:13and I was in a room with all and all of the usual big starry names were bandied about and it was just
05:19a matter of asking one of them and they would accept because the role was that great and I said simply
05:25Sarah Paulson is going to play Marsha Clark she's not going to audition and we're making the offer
05:30tomorrow and that and I had some clout at that time so that's exactly what happened uh Sarah had no idea
05:38what was happening with this by the way at all she hadn't read it no actor had not even Meryl
05:44so I called her with the news and she simply said okay copy that and she won every single award ever
05:51created and gave one of the most revered performances in television history that is how we work Sarah and
05:58I I write for her from a place of fandom I tell I want to play it and it sounds terrifying or moving to
06:04her she says yeah and then we usually don't talk about it again and she does her thing
06:09with her wig of frizz and her fake buck tooth blacked out
06:13but make no mistake she shapes it and in that way she is absolutely my co-writer and my co-creator for
06:21all of it for example when we were writing the role of Carrington Lane in All's Fair lately I just had
06:26this vision that this person always wore opera length gloves I don't know why but Sarah did
06:33I think she's a cutter said Sarah I think she uses those gloves to cover scars she's not ready for
06:40the world to see and that was such a light bulb moment for me everything now made sense to me about
06:46this character and I said please hold and I crafted the rest of the role after the pilot with her
06:50advocacy and insight Sarah has created 20 roles that I've written for her if you can believe that
06:56and that includes Siamese twins for all these years there's only when one bump in the road where I was
07:04nervous about something really ridiculous and this minor preach was perhaps the biggest lesson of my life
07:11for Sarah Paulson is a lot of things to me but the greatest thing she is to me is my teacher
07:16she taught me about the power of empowerment of getting out of my own messy a passionate way about
07:22the joy and necessity of absolute trust the way we came back together is one night I had a dream about
07:29her I was missing her and across the Atlantic at the exact same moment she had the exact same dream
07:35so we are two dreamers off to see the world and that a dreamer is what she is the most to me
07:43someone who had a dream however crazy however improbable and made it come true and that's why
07:50we are all here standing on Hollywood Boulevard today to celebrate her during one of our first
07:56great early hangs with Jill Kleberg at our friend Jennifer Salt's house Sarah mentioned to me that as a
08:02younger person she religiously watched a worn VHS tape called Oscar's Greatest Moments 1971 to 1981
08:10this was about dreamers who were marveling at illuminating the human condition about being
08:15seen and winning for it ironically I also as a younger person had worn out that exact same tape
08:23and that's the moment I remember thinking this person is just like me she dared to dream and both of our
08:31dreams came true she was in a way my dream of what a collaborator and a supporter and a fighter in the
08:39trenches could look like feel like be and from the very first day I met her I'm thankful I've never
08:47woken up from the dream that is her and I hope I never will I love you
