EXCLUSIVE: GLASS Star Sarah Paulson Talks Entering M. Night's Universe & James McAvoy's Inspiring Performance

Ahead of the theatrical debut of M. Night Shyamalan's Glass last week, I was granted an exclusive opportunity to sit down with Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy-winning star Sarah Paulson at the press junket and chat about her game-changing role as Dr. Ellie Staple in the long-awaited conclusion to Shyamalan's Eastrail 177 trilogy.

In the first part of our lengthy interview, Paulson tells me about entering this storied universe in its final chapter and being one of the film's few fresh faces. She also discusses working with James McAvoy (X-Men: Dark Phoenix) and his awe-inspiring performance as Kevin Wendell Crumb. 

ROHAN PATEL: M. Night Shyamalan has spent over two decades carefully crafting this universe and bringing all these characters - Elijah, David, Kevin, Casey - together into the same story. Your character, Ellie, is one of the few new faces we meet. What was that like for you, entering this pre-established universe and then essentially turning everything on its head?

SARAH PAULSON: I have to say it was an intimidating task because I was a huge fan of Night's and Unbreakable was my favorite of his movies. I'd seen all of them in the theater - and this predates my being involved with this movie - it just was my favorite of his movies.

So, for me to show up on that set and and interact with Elijah Price and David Dunn and say their names out loud and remembering sitting in the theater, watching Bruce on that train and seeing Elijah in front of you, it was just all kind of a surreal experience. And it made me feel very flattered that Night wanted to invite me into a world, as you said, that had been cooking in his mind for so long and it made me take the job very seriously because I just wanted to get it right for him.

ROHAN: You have some great, intense scenes with James McAvoy in the film - what is that like for you, as a performer, to work opposite him and just watch him seamlessly transform into these 20-something different characters?

SARAH: Well, you can imagine however you feel watching it in a movie theater, being in the real, while it's happening, was all the more - just like the definition of awe-inspiring. It was just really out of this world. I had never seen anything like it. To me, it was a real acting feat. It was like a sleight of hand. It was magical.

ROHAN: Yeah, he's so good. Which one of his personalities was your favorite?

SARAH: Patricia. She's the one that I think - Ellie and Patricia had the most, kind of, toe to toe that made it feel like she had finally met her match and I mean, my character really met her match in Patricia.

Check back in throughout the week for even more from Sarah Paulson as she tells me all about Glass, and stay tuned for our full interview which features tons of juicy and spoiler-y details about M. Night Shyamalan's latest hit! 

M. Night Shyamalan brings together the narratives of two of his standout originals—2000’s Unbreakable, from Touchstone, and 2016’s Split, from Universal—in one explosive, all-new comic-book thriller: Glass.

Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.