First Look at Sarah Paulson in RATCHED, a Series Based on the Nurse in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
Thanks to Netflix and Vanity Fair, we have a series of photos to share with you giving us our first look at Ryan Murphey’s upcoming series Ratched. This is a prequel series to the classic 1975 Jack Nicolson film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and it will focus on a younger Nurse Ratched, who is played by Sarah Paulson, and how she ended up turning into the monster that she became.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of my favorite movies, and Nurse Ratched is one of my favorite villains. I’ve been extremely excited about this series and its great that we finally have our first look! The original version of the cruel and calculating character was masterfully played by Louise Fletcher, who won the Best Actress Oscar for the role.
When the project was first announced three years ago, it was reported that the series will consist of 18 episodes, and it will give us the origin story of Ratched. It follows the young nurse in 1946 who is seeking employment “at a Northern California psychiatric hospital where disturbing experiments on the human mind are conducted.” It will follow Ratched’s “journey and evolution from nurse to full-fledged monster. The series will track her murderous progression through the mental health care system.”
When talking about his approach to bring this character to life again, Murphy explained that he wants the series to flesh out Nurse Ratched beyond being a “sort of a shorthand for barbarism.” He added:
“She became almost like a catchphrase for any sort of institutional abuse of power. What was interesting was trying to create an emotional character from a reputation that’s very cold…trying to figure out every little detail about her childhood, her relationships, her sexuality. Because when people think of Ratched, they think of her as shutoff and cruel and uncaring.”
Paulson also talked about the character saying that she hated Ratched “very, very deeply” when she first watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But, after playing the younger version of the nurse, she now sympathizes with the character, saying that she “identified very deeply with her loneliness.” The actress went on to say:
“A lot of us are on the planet trying to figure out how to survive our childhoods, our environments, our circumstances. And to have an opportunity to do a deeper dive into this invented character that has become so pulsating with life for so many people, to figure out why she is so cold…so removed… By the time you get to the end of the first season, you will not wonder how and why Mildred became the way she did. You may question her actions, you may have judgment about it—but you will understand it. It will make sense to you.”
The series also stars Sharon Stone as a fabulous eccentric heiress named Lenore Osgood. Other characters include Dr. Hanover (Jon Jon Briones), a physician who is conducting these controversial experiments; Nurse Bucket (Judy Davis), who is a the strict nurse; Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock), a mass murderer; hospital staff members Dolly (Alice Englert) and Huck (Charlie Carver); Charles Wainwright (Corey Stoll) a private investigator; Louise (Amanda Plummer), a motel manager; Governor George Wilburn (Vincent D’Onofrio), a sleazy politician; and his campaign manager, Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon).
Check out the collection of photos below and let us know if you’re looking forward to watching this show.
