Sarah Paulson Regrets Wearing a Fat Suit as Linda Tripp in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’

Impeachment: American Crime Story star Sarah Paulson went all out to portray Linda Tripp. And though the performance is almost certainly top tier, as usual for Paulson, physically there have been some concerns from fans about the physical portrayal — specifically the fat suit she’s wearing, something the actress recently expressed regret about.

“It’s very hard for me to talk about [wearing a fat suit] without feeling like I’m making excuses,” she told The Los Angeles Times in an August 26 interview. “There’s a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one… I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm. And it is a very important conversation to be had.”

Paulson stars in the FX series as Tripp, a former U.S. civil servant who famously recorded her phone calls with Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) and used them to expose then-White House intern Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton’s (Clive Owen) affair.

The actor, who also donned heavy prosthetics and makeup for the role, has received backlash for her performance as Tripp since she shared the first photo of herself in character last November. Her role even helped inspire the April Refinery29 op-ed “Dear Hollywood, Can You Please Just Hire Actual Fat People to Play Fat Characters?”

Although Paulson argued that suggesting the only thing an actor could bring to the role is their physical self “is a real reduction of the offering the actor has to make,” she also admitted she has “regret” for wearing a fat suit as Tripp.

“I think the thing I think about the most is that I regret not thinking about it more fully,” she said. “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… Should I have known? Abso-f—ing-lutely. But I do now. And I wouldn’t make the same choice going forward.”

The first episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story premieres on FX on Tuesday, September 7.