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Sarah Paulson talks about Jon Jon Briones in Ryan Murphy's next project 'Ratched'
Los Angeles — When it rains, it pours.
After the euphoria that happened after the Golden Globe win of Darren Criss, we have another piece of good new: Filipino actor Jon Jon Briones, who played Modesto Cunanan, (the father of Andrew Cunanan in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”) is now lined up to do another Ryan Murphy potential goldmine, “Ratched.”
After Ryan Murphy’s multi-awarded TV mini series, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” he is now in pre-production for “Ratched,” a prequel to the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975). Jon Jon is set to play Dr. Richard Hanover.
Beginning in 1947, it follows Nurse Ratched’s journey and evolution from nurse to full-fledged monster (portrayed by Sarah Paulson) and track her murderous progression through the mental health care system.
Ordered straight to series, Netflix has two seasons with a total of 18 episodes lined up for "Ratched." Created by Evan Romansky, the drama is produced by Ryan, Michael Douglas, and Sarah Paulson among others.
Joining Sarah and Jon Jon, are Sharon Stone, Cynthia Nixon, Finn Wittrock, Charlie Carver, Judy Davis, Harriet Sansom Harris, Hunter Parrish, Amanda Plummer, Corey Stoll.
Ryan announced the line up on his Instagram post, adding “Ratched on Netflix starts shooting in a couple of weeks. On behalf of myself and Ms. Sarah Catherine Paulson who plays the title role and is also a big fancy producer on it, we are thrilled to announce our amazing cast…a true murderers’ row of talent. So many of these actors are supremely talented folks who Sarah and I have both longed to work with…More to come, but come on…Sarah, Cynthia, Judy, Amanda and Sharon, all doing scenes together? I cannot WAIT.”
We were lucky to get to talk to Sarah in New York about “Ratched”, Ryan Murphy and working with Jon Jon.
Below are excerpts of our conversation with her:
On working with Jon Jon Briones:
I shot “American Horror Story” last year with Jon Jon Briones, which was a real highlight. He’s an extraordinary actor. I thought he was so incredible in “Versace” and, obviously, Ryan did too, that’s why he has wanted to work with him again and again.
We start shooting "Ratchced," I believe, on February 6th. I don’t have a schedule so I don’t know when I will be reunited with him but I think he’s a real find. Ryan has such a wonderful (knack) for those kinds of things, he just finds somebody really special who has been working in the theater and in the New York stage and television for many years, but tapped him and now we have him in our wonderful fold of actors. I feel very lucky.
On working with Ryan Murphy:
I sometimes wonder if there’s anything new for me to say about it, except that my relationship with him is continuing.
I’m three weeks out from starting “Ratched” for Netflix, so I’ve got the first three scripts and it’s probably one of the more exciting things I’ve read in a very long time. And totally terrifying because any time you step into a role that is iconic and that was played by a brilliant actress and who was rewarded with the highest honor one can possibly receive for it.
For a lot of people, “Cuckoo’s Nest” is their favorite movie. But this story takes place, this is an origin story. You meet her long before she’s at that hospital, so that is really interesting and exciting and we get to invent some of this because some of this is not known to us. So, that’s really thrilling.
And so, every time I think I’ve said everything I can say about Ryan, he comes to me and says, “So what about…?” And I go, “Oh God! I thought we were… okay.” So, I’ve never in my life, and I know that it is absolutely why I’m sitting here now and I know that M. Night Shyamalan cast me in “Glass” because of “People vs. OJ.” And that’s how that happened.
On how her career is moving along, thanks to Ryan Murphy:
I know that my career has absolutely benefited enormously from my relationship with Ryan. All I can say is that I got really lucky because I don’t really understand, to this day, how he went from giving me three episodes of “American Horror Story” to giving me the lead in the second season.
I don’t know where the jump went. I’m just grateful for it. I just wish I had one thing in the world that he didn’t already own that I could give to him, that would make him understand how grateful I am, and the only thing I can offer is to continue to try to show up and do the best work I can possibly do to express my gratitude for the opportunity. Because we’re only as good as our opportunities, full stop.
I don’t sit down with Ryan anymore and talk about how the characters he’s coming to me with for “American Horror Story,” how I’m going to do it. He just lets me go. With “Ratched” that will not be the case, I can promise you that. It wasn’t the case with Marsha (“OJ Simpson”) , it’s not going to happen there, either. There will be much more of a back and forth and real conversation and work to be done on it that’s different than “Horror Story.”
On how the psychiatric world feels like to her:
I definitely feel an enormous responsibility. It reminds me a bit of how I felt before I started Marsha, in terms of that feeling that, although Nurse Ratched is not a real person, Louise Fletcher is, and my respect and admiration for what she did is enormous.
I also do recognize how dearly people hold that character and the movie, itself. So, it does feel like a big thing to take on. But if I’m going to do it with anyone, it’s with Ryan, absolutely. And he’s directing the first two, so I feel confident that at least the first two will be exactly as it should be.
And in terms of being at home in psychiatric environments (laughs), I mean, I did do research before I started “Glass,” but there’s a limit to what I can learn about this particular type of, her expertise, which is, like the sub, sub, sub, sub, sub-category of, I don’t even know what.
There are types of therapy that deal with superhero mythology, but not treating people who believe they are superheroes. So, there was a limit to how deeply I could go. And working in those hospitals, they were very helpful, in terms of how you energetically feel in them. There’s a certain gravity to being in them. We were shooting in Allentown in one where it had been a real mental hospital that was shut down years before. You could just feel the spirits or souls. It was definitely a palpable thing.
On her memories of the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”:
I have a lot of memories because, not only from the first time I watched it, but when I was doing Season Two of “American Horror Story,” my character had to have electric shock treatment and I watched “Cuckoo’s Nest” and what happened to Jack Nicholson’s character in order to figure out what to do physically.
I tried to research all sorts of things online and I wasn’t able to pick up anything medical was legitimate that had been filmed back in that time, because it was a similar time period, so I went back and I watched what they did there. I re-watched the movie.
It’s a very harrowing story but a beautiful story about friendship and then you have this woman who is quite villainous. She’s complicated.
I have not decided yet whether I’m going to re-watch it or what, because at the same time I want to pay all my proper respects. On the other hand, I’m not going to wear blue contacts, because Louise Fletcher has blue eyes and she played the character as a blue-eyed person. I’m not going to do that. I did talk about it, I did ask Ryan, “Should I wear…?” But I’m not playing Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, I am playing Nurse Ratched. So, I’m a little on defense as to whether or not I’m going to re-investigate that because I remember thinking how extraordinary she was in it.
I also remember when she won the Oscar, her signing to her parents and just the beauty of it and what a wonderful actress she’d always been and finally getting recognized in that way. So, I’m not sure what I’ll do there. — LA, GMA News
