Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty; Daniele Venturelli/WireImage/Getty
“She was the only person on my list. I had a list with one person,” Doyle says of Paulson, 47, while chatting with PEOPLE about the one-year anniversary of her podcast,We Can Do Hard Things.
“She’s a true actor’s actor. She just becomes her character in a way that you just don’t always see happen on screen,” she continues of the Emmy winner. “I mean, her playing Linda Tripp [in last year’sImpeachment:American Crime Story], I think that she’s an incredibly transcendent actor.”
“And also, it had to be someone who was queer,” adds Doyle, whose memoirUntamedis, in part, her coming out story. “So there’s only one person who’s a transcendent actor, twinking gold, and who is queer, and she was it. So I was terrified. I wrote her a letter asking her to do it and she wrote back within minutes.”
RELATED VIDEO: Sarah Paulson Recalls Cheering on BFF Amanda Peet in the Delivery Room: ‘It Was Very Wild’
It seemed that the casting choice was a match made in heaven, as Paulson was also enthusiastic about the opportunity from the get-go.
“When she readUntamed, she knew in her bones that she was supposed to play the role,” Doyle says, adding that the happy turn of events made her feel “goose bumpy.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“My only connection with her was, we did this kind of internet activism thing calledShare the Micwith my friendsLuvvie Ajayi JonesandBozoma Saint John,and she was on that. She was part of the movement,” Doyle explains. “So I got to meet her through that and get to know her as a person, instead of just an actress. And she just was quite fierce, and awkward and funny.”
Wambach, 41, adds, “Because you have an idea of what an A-list celebrity is, and it’s fancy and elegant.”
“But her, in particular, Lady Paulson, it wasn’t just her A-listness, it was her regality. Like, can she be un-regal, because I need her to be un-regal,” Doyle says, later adding, “And she can [be]. And it’s going to be a perfect, perfect role.”
As for who is set to play retired soccer player Wambach in theUntamedseries, the women say their options are more limited, but they’d be intrigued to cast someone unknown.
“It would be really amazing to get a queer A-list celebrity who really buys into this love story that could play across from Sarah Paulson,” Wambach says. “It’d just be amazing. And I also think that it could be really interesting to have somebody that we don’t know, that we’ve never heard of.”
“So it feels really important for us on every level of this project to bring in new queer talent, writers, actors, because there’s a reason that there’s not a whole bunch to pick from, right?” she continues. “Because it’s harder to get into this industry if you’re a queer person. And especially if you’re a butch queer person. So it’s been fascinating, the process already, and we’ll see. I don’t know who. We really don’t know. We’re not being coy. We have no freaking idea who it will be.”
source: people.com
