Sarah Paulson Reveals the ‘American Horror Story’ Season She Can’t Stand: ‘So Underwhelmed’

Sarah Paulson isn’t holding back about the one American Horror Story season she despises.

The actress, 51, listed her favorite to least favorite American Horror Story characters during a September 4 interview with Entertainment Weekly. While season 2’s Lana Winters is her “all-time favorite,” she admitted which season and character comes in dead last: Roanoke.

“I don’t — Roanoke is at the end,” she confessed. “People get mad at me. I don’t care. Bite me! Bite me hard! I don’t give a [expletive]. Sorry!”

The sixth season, which aired in 2016, starts as a spooky documentary called My Roanoke Nightmare. Paulson plays Shelby Miller, who is haunted along with husband Matt in their creepy North Carolina home. Then the season flips into a botched sequel and found footage, with Paulson taking on a second role as Audrey Tindall.

“I don’t like it! It’s not for me!” she told the outlet. “I like a lot of things about it, but that one wasn’t for me. I don’t give a [expletive] about that season. Sorry!”

The All’s Fair star certainly not alone in the hate department. Fans have been split on Roanoke since day one. On the show’s Reddit page, it’s easy to see how polarizing the season was. One disappointed viewer trashed the season as “cringey and lazy,” saying it broke their suspension of disbelief. But a devoted defender claimed that anyone who doesn’t love it has “zero taste in horror,” praising its wild mashup of The Conjuring, Blair Witch Project and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Paulson has been a fixture on Ryan Murphy‘s television series for years, but this isn’t the first time she’s publicly aired her feelings about Roanoke. Back in 2021, she told The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast that she “was so underwhelmed by the whole experience.”

“I felt really kind of trapped by my responsibility and my contractual obligation to do American Horror Story,” she added.