Entertainment

Inside Sarah Paulson’s Emmy Apology to Marcia Clark

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By Mona Austin

 

The Emmy Award for most memorable acceptance speech goes to Sarah Paulson

At the 2016 Emmy Awards on Sunday night, Paulson delivered an “award-winning apology” to Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor she portrayed in the FX network’s “People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.” Paulson ended her acceptance speech for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series admitting she was among the millions who had misjudged Clark by what she saw on television during the “trial of the century” over 20 years ago.

Clark, 63, who attended the Primetime Emmy Awards as Paulson’s guest, beamed from the audience as the 41-year-old actress dedicated the win to her with a sincere apology:

“The responsibility of playing a real person is an enormous one. You want to get it right not for you but for them. I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial in my judgment, and I’m glad that I’m able to stand here in front of everyone today and say, ‘I’m sorry.’”

The redemptive quality of the heart-felt apology was made tangible as Clark looked on while her name was engraved on the Emmy along with Paulson’s. “It was an amazing night,” said Clark. “I’m so glad I could share it with her.”

sarah-paulson_marcia-clark_emmy-2016She came shy of directly saying Clark was right all along, calling her a “complicated whip-smart, giant-hearted mother of two, who woke up every day, put both feet on the floor, and dedicated herself to righting an unconscionable wrong.”

Until FX resurrected the Simpson trial, Clark lived with the burden of being perceived as allowing O.J. Simpson to get away with murder.

The world watched as the famed former L.A. District Attorney was subjected to sexist attitudes, scrutiny her all-male counterparts were spared in the courtroom of public opinion. The trial took place in the mid ’90s, a time when ridiculing women’s equality was still common in popular culture. In the process of attempting to prove Simpson’s guilt in murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, the media constantly caricatured Clark, deflecting attention from her skillfulness to her appearance, her fashion sense, and her accent, while feeding into gossip about an alleged affair with co-counsel, Christopher Darden.

 

 

To some degree, the woman who was once seen as a failure, has finally won. “The world saw me in sound bites,” Clark said at an Emmy after-party. “Now, I feel like I’m more understood.”

It was Paulson’s sensitive, holistic interpretation of Clark’s thoughts and feelings in the TV series that gradually changed the negative perception about her. Many viewers probably recognize Paulson from her starring role in the FX series American Horror Story, playing different characters in each of the show’s six seasons. She was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards and won two Critics’ Choice Television Awards.

Paulson’s apology was a shining moment in a night of diverse wins. Women, members of the LGBT community, and African Americans  were largely recognized. The true crime anthology series itself was highly acclaimed. Including Paulson’s first Emmy win, “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” won 9 of the 22 awards for which it was nominated.

 

 

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