Sarah Paulson on the “harrowing” real-life backdrop of her new thriller ‘Hold Your Breath’

Sarah Paulson stars in the new thriller Hold Your Breath, which is now streaming on Hulu. Set in Oklahoma in 1933, when biblical dust storms ravaged the Midwest, the creepy film has Paulson playing a mother grieving the loss of one of her daughters, while trying to keep her two surviving daughters safe amid the apocalyptic setting.

“I love the idea of the backdrop being this part of our country’s history, this hideous storm,” Paulson tells ABC Audio.

With people desperate to keep the dust out of their lungs, they resorted to wearing masks, which draws an eerie parallel to the COVID-19 era, she agreed.

“Our writer, Karrie Crouse, had written the screenplay prior to the pandemic,” Paulson says. “It’s funny how history can repeat itself. And although this was not an airborne illness that was plaguing that part of our country during that time period, it certainly was a harrowing thing.”

As if the dust storms aren’t enough to worry about, there are rumors of a murderous drifter afoot, and those fears come to a head when a mysterious man shows up, played by The Bear‘s Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

“I would watch him read the phone book. I’d watch him walk across the street. I’d watch him do just about anything,” Paulson enthused about the actor. 

“And when the filmmakers said, you know, ‘What about Ebon?’ I … just jumped out of my chair. I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, please. Yes!'”

She added, “And that was before I got to be on The Bear. So I got to have this experience with him first. It was so, so special.”