Sarah Paulson has admitted she regrets wearing a fat suit to portray a real-life figure in her upcoming TV show, after copping criticism upon the trailer's release.
The Golden Globe winner, 46, plays White House whistleblower Linda Tripp in FX's upcoming series, Impeachment: American Crime Story, which has its globalpremiere on Binge on September 8.
Tripp, who died in April last year aged 70, famously exposed the affair between former US President Bill Clinton and White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The global scandal has been dramatised for the 10-part show, the third instalment of the anthology series by Ryan Murphy.
Immediately after the trailer's release two weeks ago, Paulson copped heavy backlash on social media for wearing prosthetics and a fat suit to resemble Tripp, with many pointing out the role could have gone to someone more physically appropriate.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Paulson said she was initially torn about wearing the suit, and admitted she probably wouldn't do it for a role again.
"It's very hard for me to talk about this without feeling like I'm making excuses," Paulson told the publication. "There's a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one.
Linda Tripp talks to the press outside the Federal Courthouse, 1998. Photo / Getty Images
"I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm. And it is a very important conversation to be had.
"I think the thing I think about the most is that I regret not thinking about it more fully. And that is an important thing for me to think about and reflect on.
"I also know it's a privileged place to be sitting and thinking about it and reflecting on it, having already gotten to do it, and having had an opportunity that someone else didn't have.
"You can only learn what you learn when you learn it."
However, Paulson mulled over whether or not it was on the onus of the actor to make such decisions.
"That entire responsibility I don't think falls on the actor for choosing to do something that is arguably – and I'm talking about from the inside out – the challenge of a lifetime," she said.
"I do think to imagine that the only thing any actor called upon to play this part would have to offer is their physical self is a real reduction of the offering the actor has to make. I would like to believe that there is something in my being that makes me right to play this part."
