Searchlight Pictures’ latest thriller, Hold Your Breath, stars Sarah Paulson, but her character Margaret was originally offered to Claire Foy, best known for her role in The Crown. Paulson, who attended her film’s premiere at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, hit up Montana Avenue for a Q&A session and talked about the film, casting and more.
Paulson plays Margaret, a mother in 1930s Oklahoma who struggles to keep her family safe from the region’s dust storms while trying to stay sane amid a frightening presence. During the session, the American Horror Story actress revealed that Foy was originally going to play the role of Margaret.
He quipped, “I don’t know what the reasons were why he didn’t do it, but I don’t really care because I had to do it.” The role was more challenging than he expected. The actress had to work with Julia Crockett, a movement coach who became her trusted companion.
“They’ve kind of changed the way I do things,” he said. Paulson continued to praise the film and explained what attracted him to the project. He said, “I just thought, what an interesting thing to do is a horror film or a psychological thriller/horror film that’s more ground-level.”
Amidst everything else going on in the film, at its core, the story is about a mother grieving the loss of her youngest child. “The fear of not being able to protect her children drives her to madness,” he said. It was “difficult” for the actress to maintain that discretion while portraying her character. She joked that she related to someone who was “a hair’s breadth away” from losing her grip on reality.
Hold Your Breath will be released on Hulu on October 3, 2024.
