On Tuesday, Sarah Paulson visited The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon to discuss her new thriller film, Hold Your Breath. On the show, she also relayed a story about an incident with the Tony Award she won earlier this year for her performance in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate.
Paulson recalled that after winning, the organization takes the award away for engraving, as is their process. However, the actress had spent the evening dancing and celebrating with the award itself and wanted to ensure that she would get the same one back.
“It was the one that Sean Hayes handed to me. It feels meaningful,” she explained. “I very specifically was like, ‘So this Tony that I have in my hand, this one is the one I get to keep, right?’ And they were like ‘Yes, yes, absolutely. This is the one you’ll keep.” To make doubly sure, she took a picture with her phone of the serial number on the back of the award.
Following the engraving, the Tony was brought back to her in her dressing room. “I pulled it out and I looked at the back and I looked at the phone and it was the wrong Tony,” she said.
After revealing her original serial number- 3229- Fallon called on fellow Tony Award winners to help out Paulson by checking the serial number of their awards. “Bring me back my Tony!” Paulson jokingly cried. Watch the full interview now.
Paulson’s stage appearances include the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Talley’s Folly in spring 2013, the Broadway productions of Collected Stories, opposite Linda Lavin, and The Glass Menagerie alongside Jessica Lange; the Mark Taper Forum production of The Cherry Orchard opposite Alfred Molina and Annette Bening; and off-Broadway in Tracy Letts’ critically acclaimed Killer Joe. She is currently starring in the film Hold Your Breath on Hulu.
Photo credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC