[Used in the San Francisco Chronicle] While Sarah Paulson is a household name, her talented Run costar, Kiera Allen, made headlines as the first wheelchair user to star in a major thriller in more than 70 years when the film was released on November 20, 2020. Not only will Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian, and Natalie Qasabian’s film allow many people in Allen’s (22) generation to view a wheelchair user playing a wheelchair user on screen for the first time, it is a paramount film in the continued paradigm shift of people with disabilities represented accurately and fairly in the industry.

Before the release of Run, I had a chance to virtually chat with Paulson and Allen – Paulson from the comfort of her own home, and Allen from a hotel visiting from New York for the film’s premiere, both in LA.

During our Zoom call, there was an endearing, self-deprecating chemistry between Paulson and Allen that elicited a clear, mutual respect between the veteran and rookie – similar to the palpable tension created between their Run characters, mother and daughter Diane and Chloe, throughout the film. While Paulson’s mentorship during production helped Allen feel more comfortable entering her first feature, and the industry at large, Allen’s zen attitude complements Sarah’s exceedingly cautiously optimistic outlook on working in Hollywood.

*SPOILERS FOR RUN AHEAD*

Congrats on your new film. You somehow managed to find a new way to kill Pat Healy [laughter].

Allen: No, I think Pat Healy is alive! That’s my theory. I really want the mailman to live. I care so much about the mailman.

Paulson: I might have just given him something to just get him out of my way for a minute. I don’t know.

Allen: Oh, god, I hope so. Let’s hope. I hope so.

Paulson: Oh, right, but then I take him… Yeah. I don’t know, Kiera. I don’t know.

Allen: Oh, yeah. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the mailman pulls through. Tom. Good old Tom.

What was it like shooting in Winnipeg?

Paulson: The, climax of the movie was originally going to be shot outside, right Kiera?

Allen: Oh, my god. I forgot about that.

Paulson: And it just came to a point where it was getting colder and colder and colder and it was a night shoot. Didn’t you have electric long underwear?

Allen: I had electric clothes. Yeah.

Paulson: They were so wonderful trying to come up with anything they could do to keep us warm, and the producers and Aneesh [finally] said, “I don’t think we’ll be able to do it and get the performances that we want.” There was no way we could talk without our jaws chattering, and it was going to be a real hindrance, so they moved it indoors. It was really cold. Kiera loved Winnipeg. I liked Winnipeg in different ways, but it was hard for me to be away from home. And Kiera was just more gung-ho about everything than I was because she has not been beaten down by this industry yet and become a cynical hag like me.

Allen: Never. Never. Never. I would never, ever call you a cynical hag. But I would say that I probably liked Winnipeg more than you. I loved Winnipeg. I thought it was amazing. It was super cold, but it felt like an adventure and something different, and something I’d never done before. I hadn’t been out of the country since I was four years old, so I was like, “I get to be in Canada.” I was very excited and the people there were just amazing. I made so many lifelong friends on that set. Most of the crew was local to Winnipeg and I just made so many friends on that crew. I even interviewed one of them for a school project. It was like, “Interview an interesting person you know.” And I called up Mark Richel and was like, “Can I interview you for my school project?” Because he’s had one of the most interesting lives I’ve ever known, growing up in this industry. So the bonds we made and the whole atmosphere on set, it just was the best for me.

You act so well together. There’s an amazing chemistry. So what was it like working in character together versus interacting as yourselves, on set? You already mentioned the atmosphere on set was great, which is always important.

Paulson: It was important to Aneesh and it was also important to both Kiera and myself that we had a bond that was outside of the working experience so that there was a real sense of ownership of the roles and of our connectivity and our willingness to be brave with one another given the things we were going to have to try to create. But it was very easy.

Kiera is the greatest, as I’ve said many times and will continue to say; she just, very quickly, without intending to, can make you feel like you haven’t accomplished anything in your life because she’s a really brilliant mind and has all these interests. I’m like, “I like to act,” and Kiera’s like, “Well, I have neuroscience, so I have this class and then I’ve also been reading this book, and I’m a Harry Potter person, ‘Have you read any of the Harry Potters?’ Well, I’ve read them ten times.” And it’s just like, “Wow. Kiera’s really a fully, multi-dimensional, integrated person, and I’m like, ‘I like to act.'” But I kind of thought, “Why don’t you lean into that?” Because that sort of lends itself really nicely to this idea of Diane feeling Chloe surpassing her – her need for me was becoming weaker and weaker, and it terrified Diane, so I decided to just lean into my feeling of inadequacy around Kiera and just try to let that be good fuel.

Allen (genuinely surprised): It is wild. I had no idea you felt that way.

Sarah, can you remember any valuable wisdom that you might have imparted to Kiera over the course of production?

Allen: From the very beginning– I’m sorry I cut you off in case you wanted to talk about all the acting wisdom that you’ve given to me, because I certainly have many answers for that. I remember just from even before we shot, we were trading emails, and you were sending me these lovely encouraging emails, and talking about things that inspired us, and it was really beautiful. And you were very vulnerable with me from the very beginning which I really appreciated, given that I’m coming out of nowhere and I could be some crazy person who’s just shown up on set and thinks she can act. But you really treated me like a peer, even when I felt like I hadn’t earned that yet but were always there for me. I remember we would remind each other to breathe. In between takes we’d check in and be like, “Are you breathing? Okay. Good. You were breathing. Make sure you keep breathing. Make sure you keep breathing.”

And I’ve never done that before, and Sarah’s one of the best in the world at doing a scene like that. And so I sat down and wrote this email like, “Hello, Sarah Paulson. Can I please be on set while you work your magic?”

– Kiera Allen

I asked early on in the shooting process if I could be on set for one of your scenes that I wasn’t in. The first time you had a total emotional breakdown on camera, and I was like, “Well, I have to do that in this movie too.” And I’ve never done that before, and Sarah’s one of the best in the world at doing a scene like that. And so I sat down and wrote this email like, “Hello, Sarah Paulson. Can I please be on set while you work your magic?” And she let me come, and I was watching and I was like, “Okay. I’m going to see her process. I’m going to watch what she does to get into character and how she gets there. Maybe, she needs a moment of silence or something. I’m going to see how she does it.” And what happened was they called action and she just did it. There was nothing that I could see. She’s so good. She’s so good that it was incredibly unhelpful because I was like, “You make it look too easy.” So just to watch you act was so extraordinary. And even more than the advice—

*Paulson attempts to interject, upon when Kiera cuts her off*

Allen: I’m talking [laughter]. I’m complimenting you, please. Just being able to witness that and work opposite that – even if I couldn’t have put into words what she was doing – just watching one of the best work, I mean, what can I even say about that?

Absolutely. What can you?

Paulson: Absolutely, Alex. Absolutely. Alex is like, “Well, I have some notes for her, but–.”

You caught me. I have many notes [laughing]. Aneesh sought out to cast a wheelchair-using actor in this role. Are decisions such as these key in initiating way long-overdue changes in representation in the industry?

Allen: Thank you for saying that because it is way long-overdue. This is actually the first major thriller in over 70 years to star a real wheelchair user. So it has been a long time. And to be a part of that moment is really exciting. Authentic representation is so important. It’s something that I didn’t have when I became disabled. It was a massive shift of, “Oh. Suddenly I don’t see people who look like me in movies, I don’t see people who look like me in TV.” You start to get the message that you don’t belong there. And it really took a lot of encouragement from the people around me, and a lot of support, and a lot of grit to say, ” I’m going to do this anyway, because I’m just as good as I was before I became disabled, I have all the same skills, there’s no reason why I can’t do what I did before.” And so I was really, really lucky to find someone of like-mind in Aneesh who truly believed that he could find the right person for this part – to find a disabled actor to play a disabled character. And now, I’m just so excited that people like me or like I was when I was 16– the 16-year-old wheelchair users now are going to get to see that. They are going to get to see themselves on the screen. And so to be a part of the very, very, very, very beginning of that; I hope there is much more of this after this movie. But to be a part of that groundbreaking moment is a wonderful thing and it’s an honor.

Sarah, you always manage to add a level of humanity to your big bads, Ratchet included. How did you apply the research of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome to the preparation of your role?

Paulson: What I thought about that – and I don’t think this is just laziness on my part, I really don’t, but someone may beg to differ – Diane doesn’t know that that’s what she has. Diane doesn’t know that she’s doing that. Diane believes she is giving her child the best care possible. Diane’s view of it is skewed. But I thought the one thing I don’t want to ever do is be more informed than the person that I’m playing is about the thing that they have, the thing they’re moving through. It’d be different if the movie jumped forward in time and she had had some sort of psychological evaluation and some help and was diagnosed with, but she’s been on her own, out at the middle of nowhere, with her child, without anyone to be accountable to, or anybody checking her mental state. So she’s created a world in which what she’s doing is quite normal and what she’s doing has real benefit and is for a greater good. And so she can’t see it, and so the research component about that is not something I chose to dive into even though I did just wrap American Horror story the night before I flew to Winnipeg to start this. One could argue I was like, “You know, I’m done.” But it’s not really what it was. It was a thing I thought about doing, and then I thought, “I don’t ever want to have that feeling where I am standing above the character.” I just thought that might not help.

Is there anything you can tell us about your new role in the latest season of American Horror Story?

Paulson (after a long, contemplative pause): No.

Okay [laughter]. Kiera, I think you need to lobby to guest-star on American Horror Story. I mean, you went head-to-head with Cordelia Foxx and Sally McKenna.

Allen: Yes!

Kiera: Oh, my gosh. If it means I get to do another scene with Sarah, I am in. I’m in. Sorry, I don’t know if you actually knew this. I never told you because I didn’t want you to think I was a fangirl but I was actually in the middle of American Horror Story: Apocalypse when I got the call that you were cast in the role and I was going to fly out to audition with you. The episode came out on Wednesday, and I got the call on Thursday, and I was not intimidated at all [sarcastically].

Paulson: I did not know that.

Is there anything exciting on the horizon for either of you?

Paulson: I’m about three or four days into Linda Tripp for Impeachment, and then there will be a second season of Ratched. And then there are some other things. Also, I’m doing American Horror Story at the same time as I do Impeachment much like I did with Marcia Clark and Sally from Hotel. And there are other things that I have brewing that I’m not allowed to talk about, and also it begs the question, “Where’s the time?” I don’t know what’s going to happen with the coronavirus and whether we’ll be able to keep working in the way that we’re working right now. And cases are surging everywhere, and we’ll see. So jury’s out.

Allen: Yeah. For me, I’m very much as well feeling where is the time because I’m in school full-time while doing this. I’ve got two classes, an interview, and a premiere on Monday. So, yeah, I’m trying to stay present. I’m trying to think about right now and all the excitement that’s going on right now. And I’m very grateful that this moment is here. We shot two years ago and so to finally have this upon us and to be celebrating this film, I’m just trying not to even think about what’s next. This is enough for me right now.

Paulson: See why she’s the smartest person in the room always. [laughter] This is exactly my point. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about. This is a young woman who’s giving us sage advice, Alex, on how to get through the day. Just be in the moment.

Allen: This is just a young woman who is very stressed.

Paulson: Yes, but if I was a young woman who’s very stressed, I would have been just running around weeping. And you’re like, “Om.”

I’m going to take some pages out of your book, Kiera.

Paulson: Yes. You’ve got to. You’ve got to.

Run premiered on Hulu on November 20th, 2020, and is currently available on the streaming platform.