Speaking to Vanity Fair, Paulson explained that she agreed to take on the iconic character because she “identified very deeply with her loneliness.”

“I think ultimately at the end of the day, that is sort of what drives Mildred. A pursuit of survival and of finding some sense of home,” she said. “Even though the methods that she chooses to achieve that internal security are somewhat questionable, I would argue that she’s doing them with a potentially selfish need, but a survival need nevertheless.”

Murphy added: “What was interesting was trying to create an emotional character from a reputation that’s very cold… trying to figure out every little detail about her childhood, her relationships, her sexuality. Because when people think of Ratched, they think of her as shutoff and cruel and uncaring.”

Netflix’s Ratched: this new trailer for Sarah Paulson’s show is all kinds of disturbing