What Tony Nominations Mean to Sarah Paulson and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Emmy-winning actress Sarah Paulson is no stranger to entertainment industry awards shows — but even so, her current Tony nomination, for her lead performance in the Broadway play “Appropriate,” is a big deal for her. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “I won an Emmy for ‘American Crime Story’ and it was an extraordinary experience, but I don’t remember anything about the night.

Nothing about it,” says Paulson on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. Speaking in a conversation with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the Tony-nominated playwright of “Appropriate,” she adds, “Somehow this nomination has felt to me like really being seen for the first time in a particular way.” On “Stagecraft,” Paulson and Jacobs-Jenkins spoke candidly about their experiences and memories of the Tony Awards.

Both said they’re enjoying the often exhausting ride of the nominations whirlwind, while also recognizing that trophies are far from the only metric of career success and creative fulfillment. “I’m kind of an Off Broadway girl, and so this awards season, I’m blown away by how much energy gets expended in the six weeks between Tony nominations and the actual event,” Jacobs-Jenkins says. “And like, I don’t have enough clothes for this!” A MacArthur-winning playwright who also created Hulu’s TV adaptation of “Kindred,” Jacobs-Jenkins continues, “There’s a million ways to have a career in the field, but you can’t deny that all of America tunes in to see this part of the theater calendar.

And that’s really a big deal.” Paulson, who describes “Appropriate” as “one of the greatest creative experiences of my life,” goes on to reveal how it felt to be nominated for a Tony for the first time.