It didn’t make sense.

For her spellbinding portrait of Marcia Clark in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” Sarah Paulson had won every major award —the first actor in history to do so — but the film offers never came. To add insult to injury, she watched her scene partners, Courtney B. Vance and Sterling K. Brown, receive roles in major Hollywood movies. What was it about her that the film world refused to embrace?

It has taken a decade for Paulson to be offered a role worthy of her ability and stature, and it came from the unlikeliest of places: Cody Fern, her co-star in “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.” The dashing Australian actor, who portrayed the Antichrist, was so blown away by Paulson’s embodiment of three distinct characters on the Ryan Murphy series that he got to work writing a part that would show filmgoers what she was truly capable of. The result is “Closing Night,” which will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Fern’s filmmaking debut follows Sandra Vale (Paulson), a glamorous movie star who invites her estranged sister (Naomi Watts), nephew (Toby Wallace) and his girlfriend (Odessa A’zion) to the opening night of her Broadway play, only to collapse onstage. The incident, and Sandra’s subsequent diagnosis, sparks a familial reckoning as lingering resentments bubble to the surface, leading to one fiery confrontation after another. There are powerhouse performances galore in “Closing Night,” including the inimitable Dianne Wiest as the family matriarch, but it is more than anything a showcase for Paulson, who vacillates between venomous and vulnerable as she grapples with the skeletons in her closet and worsening condition. It’s a turn so remarkable that you should be hearing a lot more about it this awards season.

“If my work in this movie is any good, I just hope it leads to more opportunities for good parts, and I don’t care where they are. That’s the truth,” Paulson tells Variety. “My hopes and dreams and fantasies have already come true in ways I could have never imagined.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, Paulson opened up about everything from getting the movie role of her life and her best friendship with Pedro Pascal to her creative partnership with Ryan Murphy and the intense backlash to “All’s Fair.”

So, you and Cody Fern met on “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” where you were playing a witch and he was playing the Antichrist?

I was a witch but started out as Venable, the ruler of the underground bunker.

It’s a funny place for a project like “Closing Night” to originate.

Yeah. But I don’t think I would think of it as originating there in the sense that our friendship and relationship was born there, and our mutual respect and admiration for each other as actors was born there, but I certainly was not hip to Cody’s other skill set. This was an entirely revelatory moment for me when he sent me the script.

What was your reaction when you got the script? Cody said he wrote it specifically for you, so in a sense it seems like a love letter to you as an actress.

What did I feel when I got the script? I thought he must have sent it to Cate Blanchett or Kate Winslet, is what I thought. It’s a part in the film space that I haven’t had the opportunity to embody. I’ve had a lot of spectacularly rich and deep, complicated roles on television and on stage, but I hadn’t had this opportunity in the film space in a good while. I thought, A) Will this movie ever get made? And B) Are you sure that you want me to be the person when I’m sure the script is worthy of some other extraordinary, special talent that’s far more celebrated and respectful than I am, like the Cate Blanchetts and Kate Winslets of the world?

You’ve said their names twice now. Are those people you’re usually up against when it comes to film roles?

I wouldn’t say I’m up against them, no. I just sometimes wonder if when something makes its way to me, it’s already made it past that sea of ladies. But to hear him tell it, he wrote it for me, which adds a stunning, nerve-wracking element to it. On the first day of shooting, I thought, “What if I’m nothing like he expected or hoped or dreamt I would be?” It’s a heavy thing to carry someone’s admiration for you in terms of your fear that you might let them down.

Why do you think the movie roles haven’t been there as much? Your performance as Marcia Clark in “The People v. O.J. Simpson” won every major acting award, making you the first actor ever to do so.

That is correct.

So that happens and the film offers don’t come in after?

No. The first person to come to me was M. Night Shyamalan with this movie called “Glass,” which was a sequel to “Split,” but even that was nine to ten months after the show. “Ocean’s 8” came after that, but that was only after another actress had passed on the role. So no, I did not feel a wild influx. Sterling K. Brown and Courtney B. Vance both got big movies after “O.J.” and I did not, and the only thing I can attribute it to is that I’m a woman, and I was a woman of a certainly age already then — I was 41 — and I was playing a woman who was not hyper-sexualized and a character who potentially was —depending on how it hit you — unlikable. And I found Marcia Clark to be very beautiful, but that is not the thing that she led with. She led with her brain and her fiery personality and her ability to hang with the boys, so I don’t know how that translates into the world of Hollywood moviemaking. In that particular moment it didn’t translate into offers for leading roles for me. That is for sure unequivocally true.

In the TV space there are more female and gay creators so it feels like there are more opportunities for there versus in the film world.

I think that’s really true. Totally. It was the contrast for me. Courtney went and did “The Mummy” and Sterling did two movies between the time that the show came out and when we were at the Emmy Awards, and I was not experiencing that at all. I can only attribute it to my femaleness, I guess, and that I wasn’t this hot, young nubile thing. I was middle age and not playing a glamorous lady.

So, you get the script for “Closing Night.” What attracted you to the role of Sandra Vale?

What struck me about it, first of all, was the opportunity to play a person going through this particular health crisis — which we’re not going to reveal right now — and what Sandra is dealing with physiologically and how that affects her psychologically. I could very much relate to a person where the meaning of their life is connected to their work and when the possibility for her to work is taken from her, who is she and how does she function in the world? And then Cody mentioned the name “Dianne Wiest” to me. I have had the great fortune of working with actors and actresses I’ve admired my whole life, but Dianne Wiest is one of those sneak-attack actresses where those who know know there is no one better than she, and I happen to be one of the people who knows that. The idea that I was going to be able to work with this woman was more than I could mentally or emotionally handle. And I really wanted to support Cody on this adventure that he was about to have that he had never had before. I was moved by his bravery. I’m sure he would have had more money to make the movie if he chose a bigger actress, or distribution if he chose a bigger actress, but he wanted me, and I will be forever indebted to him.

You’ve really had to hustle as an actress, and it took a long time for you to be recognized. Did you ever want to give up?

I’ve always been very lucky in the sense that I’ve been able to make my living, pay for my life and have health insurance from acting. That is very rare. And as everybody knows, I got very lucky with Ryan Murphy in the sense that he kept throwing me the ball and giving me opportunity after opportunity to play someone rich and complicated. He just kept coming back to me. Without that, I don’t know where I’d be. I feel like you’re only as good as the opportunities you’re given, and I got so lucky that he kept asking me to show up. Nobody would have let me play Linda Tripp except for Ryan Murphy, and that was one of the acting achievements of my life for me, personally. But I never had the moment of “I’m going to give up” and I don’t know why, because there were plenty of times where I should have been like, “Are you sure this is what you want to do? Because nobody else wants you to do it.”

Looking back, is it wild how playing Agatha in “Nip/Tuck” has led to this decades-long partnership with Ryan Murphy?

It is, actually. I was in the backyard of Jennifer Salt, who is an extraordinary writer — and the daughter of Waldo Salt — and was working with Ryan on “Nip/Tuck,” and we were just having a social gathering. Ryan came by and he was like, “Do you want to come be on ‘Nip/Tuck?’ There’s a part for you.” I didn’t even read it and just said yes. Nobody could have possibly known that it would have led to all this. If I had known…

You’ve described your relationship as a “creative marriage,” but what do you think makes you each see each other so clearly in terms of your artistic ability and how far you can push each other?

I think Ryan works in the world of extremes and I like to work in the world of extremes too. When you’re playing in a world of high stakes, from an acting standpoint, you’re never wondering how to fill something. There is an inherent pressure, and maybe it’s from my own invention, but if I have to do a scene where I’m simply opening a carton of milk, and the camera is close on the carton of milk, I think I have to open the milk with some kind of muscle to make it interesting, when in fact you’re just opening a carton of milk. In the world of Ryan, there is never anything so simple as opening a carton of milk. The stakes are extraordinarily high. Also, Ryan and I came up together and we were figuring out our creative language at the same time. I feel like the right interpreter for Ryan’s work.

I want to read a quote from your partner Holland from your Walk of Fame ceremony: “She will fearlessly rush to play people who are discredited, pitied, despondent, horrible, mean, twisted, overlooked, and misjudged. The result is she is their defender, their rescuer, their restitution. It turns out her secret skill as an actor is her own humanity.” What do you make of that? Is giving voice to marginalized characters part of the motivation for you?

I know it would look like that when you look at everything written out and stacked up, but I can’t say there’s been planned architecture for that. There are some actors who can sit down with a stack of scripts as high as their head and they get to choose the thing that resonates the most with them. I am more of a journeyman actress where when I’m lucky enough to get something like this, I know how lucky I am. I’m really just so excited to be asked to show up at all. But for me, as an actor, I’m always looking for what I recognize in myself about the character, which means I have to look at a lot of my own ugliness — my internal greed, my internal hunger, my internal vanity, all these things that live inside every person. You sift through that and recognize yourself in the ugliest parts of a character.

Everyone loves your best friendship with Pedro Pascal. How did that start and why are you such kindred spirits?

I think when you meet someone when you’re not even a fully-formed human being yet — and we met when we were 18 years old running around with acting dreams and fantasies and similar tastes in terms of acting style and what moved us — that thread can pull very tight and stretch very long, so now we’re here at however old we both are — it’s no secret, you can look it up — and it’s a remarkable thing to have that much time where you basically have a person who’s borne witness to your life. That alone makes it impossible to separate yourself from them because you need that in this life.

Have you two been planning to work together?

We have had thoughts of things to do together. I don’t know if they’ll ever come to fruition, but we have talked about it in the past. Nothing currently though. I think he’s such a wonderful actor that I would be lucky to have that experience, and hopefully the friendship could survive. You never know! You can love someone and be intimate with them and have such wildly different working styles that it’s sometimes a scary prospect. It’s like people who are married going to work together: You think you know everything about a person, but a working life can be very different.

What does it feel like to get the richest film role of your career at the age you are now?

I’m 51 and we made it this year. We made it in January, and I can’t believe we’re talking about the movie now because it’s been six months since we finished it. It’s… unexpected. I didn’t know if I was ever going to get an opportunity to do something like this. The last time I felt like I had something really special to do in the film space was “Blue Jay” with Mark Duplass, which was a tiny little movie we shot in nine or ten days with a lot of improvisation. It was a rich and special experience, but that was ten years ago. This is the first time I’ve had something in the film space that has felt this robust.

You have the E and the T.

I have the ET.

And a Golden Globe.

But that’s not what the G stands for. We could pretend it does! And if anyone’s heard me sing, they know that the Grammy will never be mine. It will never be mine. You don’t want to hear me do karaoke. It’s not good. And I feel like karaoke is for the closeted confident singer, and I actually hate that kind of karaoke where they’re like, “Let’s go do karaoke!” And they’re professional karaoke singers. That’s not my jam. My sister is really good at it and I’ve got a lot of friends that are really good at it.

Sandra’s relationship to her mother in “Closing Night” feels so much more fraught than your relationship with your mother, who sounds like an extraordinary woman.

My mother is a very brave woman who found herself at 27 with a five-year-old and a three-year-old and moved her ass to New York City and got a waitressing job at Sardi’s. I was able to grow up there and that’s how I had an opportunity to go to performing arts high school and meet my sixth grade acting teacher who recommended I even audition for a school like that. None of that would have been happening if I was living in Tampa. I make the joke that I would be lucky if I was at Disney World and my whole life was going from playing Snow White to the Evil Queen — which, don’t get me wrong, I could really get behind doing that — but I don’t know what my opportunities would be limited to.

She waitresses at Sardi’s and then years later her daughter wins a Tony.

And I had a Sardi’s portrait and I invited my mother there the day the portrait was put on the wall, and it was a very emotional day for me and for my mother. It felt like I was able to give her something back because I was able to say in that room that I was very grateful. It was really special.

You’re playing six characters in the new “American Horror Story?” Do I have that right?

Cordelia, Sally, Venable, Mamie Eisenhower… is it five? It might be five. I can’t remember. It’s a lot! And I was shooting “All’s Fair” at the same time, so I was going back and forth every seven to eight days to L.A. There was one week where I was in New York on Monday and Tuesday to shoot “Horror Story,” went home on Wednesday, shot “All’s Fair” in L.A. all Thursday and Friday, flew back to New York Saturday to do a scene with Jessica Lange on Sunday, and then flew back to L.A. on Monday. It was a very crazy time, but I thought, “Wow, I never thought I’d be a person going coast-to-coast shooting two things at the same time!” And I love playing Cordelia more than I love almost doing anything because she’s the one I’ve gotten to play most in my life. I hadn’t even turned 40 yet when I first played her and now I’m 51 and still puttin’ on that wig!

You mentioned “All’s Fair,” which was treated very harshly by critics. But I strongly suspect you will get some of the best reviews of your career for “Closing Night,” which may be a form of whiplash.

It hasn’t happened yet, and from your lips to God’s ears, but I do kind of try — and it is a lot of effort on my part, because the internet is banana sandwich, and it’s the Wild West out there and getting worse every day, but it’s a very vulnerable thing in life to try to create art, and the outside view is none of my business. My business is to show up for my work with commitment and compassion for the character I’m playing and dedication to the world I’m inhabiting. That is my job, full stop. However people perceive it is not something I can control, try as I might. Now, what has become part of the job for artists around the world is to create a little bit of self-protection around your heart, because putting your work out in the world for people to throw darts at or celebrate is difficult. It’s not easy to do.

I would challenge the person who’s quick to put on the internet their thoughts and feelings with total disregard for how it might land for a person, particularly when they tag you and want you to see it. It’s very painful because a lot of blood, sweat and tears went in. It’s OK to not like it since everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to be cruel about it is something else entirely. But I feel very lucky to be in the place that I do and I’ve had the time of my life on “All’s Fair.” It’s an incredibly great group of women and we have an absolute blast together. There’s a ton more comedy in it than we did last year.

The O.J. Simpson connection is interesting with your co-star Kim Kardashian. Did you two talk about the case?

We did a little bit. Her mom is just one of the loveliest people, and we talked about it a little bit. It’s weird! It’s a weird circumstance to find myself in. But all I’m trying to say is that critics can say whatever they want, the thing is — and this is partially why I don’t want to see the movie —but I had a time making “Closing Night” that I hadn’t experienced since playing Linda, and before Linda it was “O.J.” And I still have not seen “O.J.” to this day. For me, they were the most meaningful creative experiences I’ve ever had, and I want that to remain true. When I watch things, I do start picking them apart, and I don’t want to do that. I want to hold it where it wants to live, which is in a very beautiful place.