Sarah Paulson can do it all, but says she feels she's only ever asked to do one thing.

"All you want me to do is scream and run from a clown. You don't understand that I'm a gentle, nice, charming, funny person," she recently told BuzzFeed. "I want someone to put me in a f---ing comedy, nobody puts me in a comedy."

FX

It's true that Paulson has been asked to scream and run from clowns on several occasions — a clown chased her around a supermarket in the first episode of American Horror Story: Cult, for example. "I don't like clowns," she reported on a 2017 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She also revealed that AHS producer Ryan Murphy baked that personal phobia into the DNA of her Cult character, and she was subsequently scared by a clown who popped out of DeGeneres' side table.

But Paulson's larger point is that, after working with Murphy on nine seasons of American Horror Story, in addition to roles in horror films like Run and Bird Box, she's been pigeonholed as a scream queen. And it's time for a change of pace.

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"I would like to do a buddy picture with her," Paulson said; "her" being Cate Blanchett, with whom Paulson has starred in the period romance Carol, the historical miniseries Mrs. America, and the heist comedy Ocean's 8. "There's something no one asks Cate Blanchett to do, and no one asked me to do either, which is a comedy. And she's really funny. So I'd like to do that."

Paulson's horror, thriller, and drama credits far outnumber her comedic credits. But she has turned in memorable performances in romantic comedies like Down With Love and Griffin and Phoenix, and she recently was nominated for an Emmy for her darkly comic guest appearance on the Mr. and Mrs. Smith episode "Couples Therapy (Naked & Afraid)."

Still, Paulson has nothing but love for her horror roots. "My favorite thing about the horror genre is that you get to play extremes," she said. "Really, really high stakes, everything is really important. I've always been a little bit of a dramatic person. My mother called me 'Sarah Bernhardt' as a kid. So I'm naturally just, big reactions over small small things. I think it lends itself to the genre."

Paulson's last AHS appearance came in 2021, when she played both Mamie Eisenhower and Tuberculosis Karen on the special American Horror Story: Double Feature season. She hasn't gone longer than three years without starring in a season of AHS since her first season, Murder House, in 2011. She herself indicated she might not make it another year without coming back.

Earlier this month, Paulson confessed that there's a "big chance that I will return to American Horror Story... I've got everything crossed. I would like to do it more than anything. It's my home. It's where I started."