Ratched star Sarah Paulson wants to explore her Carol character in a prequel

Sarah Paulson is on board for a Carol prequel.

In a recent interview with Grazia, the American Horror Story star said she wants to explore the origins of her character Abby Gerhard, and her relationship with the title character.

“I played a character in Carol named Abby, who has a much much more central story in the novel, The Price of Salt,” she said. “I would have loved to have seen, or to go back and make a movie about that, the relationship that Carol and Abby had prior to the movie – the beginning. It would be sort of interesting to do, I think.”

After the interviewer said she’ll “pitch” the idea, Paulson quipped: “I’ll talk to Todd Haynes and Cate Blanchett and see if they’re interested.”

Set in the early 1950s, Carol starred Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird, a glamorous woman experiencing a difficult divorce who falls in love with an aspiring female photographer, played by Rooney Mara.

The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Actress for Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress for Mara. It has since been hailed as one of the greatest LGBTQ+ films of all time.

Paulson, who also won praise for her performance, was discussing the queer classic during a press junket for her brand new Netflix series, Ratched.

A prequel to classic movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the long-awaited thriller series stars Paulson as the infamous nurse and heartless title character who uses her authority to torture her patients.

Ratched is set in 1947 and follows Mildred as she arrives in Northern Carolina to “seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind,” where she will present herself as the “perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be.”

The series, which has received a two-season order at Netflix, also stars Cynthia Nixon as Gwendolyn Briggs, Judy Davis as Nurse Betsy Bucket, Sharon Stone as Lenore Osgood, Jon Jon Briones as Dr. Richard Hanover, Finn Wittrock as Edmund Tolleson and Charlie Carver as Huck.

Deep breath for even more star power: Alice Englert as Dolly, Amanda Plummer as Louise, Corey Stoll as Charles Wainwright, Sophie Okonedo as Charlotte and Vincent D’Onofrio as Gov. George Wilburn. Harriet Sansom Harris, Brandon Flynn and Hunter Parish have also been cast in undisclosed roles.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Paulson said she “identified very deeply” with Mildred’s loneliness and that is what ultimately drives the character, “a pursuit of survival and of finding some sense of home.”

She continued: “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. Sort of an animal need that blinds her to the inappropriateness of some her actions.”

Michael Douglas, who served as producer on the original film, will return as executive producer alongside Aleen Keshishian, Margaret Riley and Jacob Epstein of Lighthouse Management & Media. Writer and creator, Evan Romansky, will also co-executive produce with Paulson.

Ratched premieres 18 September on Netflix – watch the latest trailer below.