Annaleigh Ashford understands why Paula Jones hates her Impeachment: American Crime Story portrayal

Los Angeles Times

Ashford tells the Los Angeles Times of Jones calling her FX portrayal "inaccurate" and "cartoonish":  “It probably feels so uncomfortable to have your story told while you’re still around to tell it yourself, but I hope that she can see how much love we really gave to her.” Ashford was tapped to play Jones because showrunner Sarah Burgess needed someone who could find the emotional truth beneath the tabloid spectacle. “The tone of the show is so absurd and the kaleidoscope of characters around Paula so bizarre at times that I feel I handed Annaleigh scripts that risk feeling like a Jenna Maroney vehicle,” says Burgess, referring to the narcissistic actress played by Jane Krakowski in 30 Rock. “She plays the comedy in Paula’s scenes without losing the almost unbearable vulnerability of Paula moment-to-moment.” Ashford, who was an adolescent at the time of the impeachment, says the project forced her to consider the role she played as an eager observer of the media circus. “I knew this story through the lens of late-night comedy because I watched Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. And I laughed a lot at these women because I was told that that’s what you were supposed to do.”