Sarah Paulson Unrecognizable in First Look as Linda Tripp in ‘American Crime Story’ Season 3

Sarah Paulson has played a variety of different characters during her creative partnership with Ryan Murphy. American Horror Story has placed her in dual roles, blinded her as a witch, dropped her at a freak show with two heads and much more. But her return to American Crime Story for the upcoming Impeachment season might be her best transformation yet.

Paulson appeared in the first series of American Crime Story, The People Vs. OJ Simpson, as prosecutor Marcia Clark. While she sported Clark’s iconic hairstyles, her return to the anthology series as Linda Tripp takes her transformations to new heights.

Tripp was a co-worker of Monica Lewinsky at the Department of Defense and her purported friend. During the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the scandal surrounding it, Tripp was revealed to have been recording her conversations with Lewinsky regarding her relationship with Clinton.

The whistleblower quickly became a celebrity and fodder for Saturday Night Live, infamously played by John Goodman at the scandal’s height. Tripp passed away earlier this year in April after a battle with cancer.

Impeachment will feature Beanie Feldstein as Lewinsky, Clive Owen as Clinton, Billy Eichner as Drudge Report founder Matt Drudge and Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones. The series will focus on the women of the scandal, with writer Sarah Burgess exploring “the overlooked dimensions of women who found themselves caught up in the scandal and political war that cast a long shadow over the Clinton Presidency,” according to a description by FX.

For Paulson, she told Entertainment Weekly that her goal with the role wasn’t to judge Tripp for what she did in the public eye. Instead, she hopes to pull back some layers. “I like to play the horrible, because there’s always an opportunity to learn a little bit more about what we think we know,” Paulson told the outlet.

Impeachment: American Crime Story has no firm premiere date yet and Paulson noted that principal photography started this week. The photo shared by the actress comes amid reveals for Murphy’s other series, American Horror Story and its spin-off American Horror Stories.