Emmy favorite and Ryan Murphy muse Sarah Paulson is definitely keeping herself busy. The 42-year-old actress can currently be seen on the latest season of Ryan’s American Horror Story anthology, Cult. When she’s not being terrified by Ellen De Generes, she’s working on the upcoming third season of American Crime Story, focusing on New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I for one was hoping Ryan could find a role for her on the second season of ACS, addressing the murder of designer Gianna Versace, but that was not to be.

On Katrina, Sarah is playing New Orleans doctor Anna Pou, who, along with two nurses, was charged with administering lethal injections to euthanize four patients at the city’s Memorial Medical Center following the Hurricane. (Later, a New Orleans grand jury refused to indict her.)

Sarah is also playing a nurse on Ryan’s other upcoming series (he’s also burning the candle at both ends, isn’t he?) Ratched. This drama series, recently picked up by Netflix, tells the origin story of the monstrous nurse who was the central character of the 1975 movie classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Sarah stars as the nurse and serves as one of the show’s producers. Netflix was able to get the show, which Hulu and Apple were also interested in. The streaming service has so much confidence in the pairing of Sarah and Ryan that they have already given the series a two season commitment. Sarah told the magazine that being a big selling point for the show was “very exciting and also very scary, because I thought, oh God, what if they take this out, and people are like, ‘No thanks, we’re good. We don’t need a Sarah Paulson show. Thankfully, it all worked out very well.”

Sarah covers the upcoming issue of Adweek. During the interview, Sarah, who first worked with Ryan in 2004 on an episode of Nip/Tuck, said she had no idea their working relationship would last as long as it has. She notes, “I didn’t know that was going to lead to my world spinning on the Ryan Murphy axis.” She continued to spin on that axis with American Horror Story, but it was Jessica Lange who helped her get cast on the horror series. The two performed on stage together in a 2005 Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, and she and Jessica reconnected when she moved out to Los Angeles to begin work on AHS. Sarah recalled, “Jessica threw her arm around me, looked at Ryan and said, ‘Can’t you find something for Sarah to do on the show? It would be so great. I just like having her around.’” Here’s more from the interview:

On working on American Horror Story: “There is something so incredibly potent about knowing that every year, you have no idea what you’re going to get to do.”

On playing the iconic Nurse Ratched: “The character was so interesting, and of course Louise Fletcher is extraordinary in that movie. I thought, what an interesting thing to explore how that human being became the human being in the movie.”

How she’s able to juggle so many projects: “This is a new world for me, but the best way for me to get through it is put my head down and focus on the task just in front of me. I can’t look to the left or right, or I’ll be too paralyzed to do anything.”

On why she’s not interested in any TV projects that don’t involve Ryan Murphy: “There are great creators out there, absolutely, but I have found a home in the sense that I work for a person who sees me completely, knows my strengths and weaknesses, knows how to push me and keeps throwing me the ball. Why would you leave something that works? This idea of jumping off one thing just to be available in case something great comes by, that’s like leaving your wonderful mate because you think maybe someone more interesting is out there.”

On appearing in future ad campaigns: “I would absolutely do it, certainly for products I actually use. I’m a Neutrogena makeup wipes gal, and every time I use them I go, ‘Do I need to call someone and tell them?’ I wouldn’t want to become the face of something that would then get in the way of my being able to play a part that didn’t jive with the company. But if there was a wonderful coming together of a company and myself, that’s something I would not shy away from at all.”

[From Adweek]

It’s pretty obvious that Sarah and Ryan seem to bring the best out of each other (I do wish there had been a larger part for her in Feud: Bette and Joan, because in the small amount of screen time she had as actress Geraldine Page, she lit up the small screen.) I had family members in New Orleans during Katrina, so I was already planning on watching Ryan’s take on it, but Ratched sounds like a role that might earn Sarah another Emmy. The more Sarah on my TV screen, the better, I say. (And, side note: the gowns she’s wearing in this shoot are absolutely gorgeous.)

Photos: Sasha Maslov for Adweek, sent via email