Sarah Paulson Used RHOSLC’s Meredith Marks as Inspiration for a Role

Sarah Paulson has Meredith Marks to thank for helping her prepare for her Broadway return.

The actress, 48, will be returning to the Great White Way later this month after more than a decade. While discussing her commitment to Broadway’s upcoming play Appropriate, Paulson revealed the unusual way The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City helped her.

“I work with a woman named Julia Crockett who helps me physically transform into some people,” Paulson explained on Tuesday, November 21, while appearing on The View. “I’ve played a lot of real people and I need to approximate some physical communication to an audience — a visual image that reminds them of the person.”

Paulson turned to Bravo as inspiration, which turned out to be the right decision.

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“So, I’ve been watching Chimp Empire on Netflix and I’ve been watching The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” she noted. “There’s one character named — she’s not an actress, she’s a character on this show, she’s a person, I guess — Meredith Marks and she has a particular intensity that I have decided to abscond with and tried to turn some of that energy into this person I’m playing.”

From taking baths while filming to her willingness to bring up “rumors” at a cast dinner, Marks, 51, has cemented herself as one of the most iconic Housewives in Bravo history. So it comes as no surprise that Bravo superfan Paulson would pull from Marks’ personality for a dramatic role.

In addition to loving RHOSLC, Paulson previously said there was another specific Housewife she was hoping to play after watching her for years on screen.

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“I just want to play Vicki [Gunvalson]. Vicki is a very fascinating person to me,” she told Andy Cohen on his radio show SiriusXM’s Radio Andy in August 2022 about The Real Housewives of Orange County alum.

Paulson also put her appreciation for the network to the test while filming a “Lie Detector Test” video for Vanity Fair in 2019. At the time, Paulson noted that she would love to join The Real Housewives of New York City franchise if her acting career didn’t work out, saying, “New York is my No. 1. It’s my OG, as the kids say.”

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The Emmy winner went on to praise the Housewives legacy. “I think the star of the Real Housewives is the franchise itself,” Paulson added. “So I think it will survive without [Bethenny Frankel], yes. Although I, personally, will miss her. I’d like them to bring back Jill Zarin, though, personally.”

Bravo viewers will be able to see Marks’ influence on Paulson’s role when Appropriate makes its debut on November 29. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play follows the Lafayette family as they return to their late patriarch’s Arkansas home to deal with the remains of his estate.