Louise Fletcher, who was awarded an Oscar for her role as Nurse Ratched in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and created an image of authoritative evil so compelling that the character’s last moniker could hold a TV series 45 years later, died aged 88, on Friday at her home in Montdurausse, France.

Also read: Who is Sarah Paulson?

Fletcher was the third woman to win an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for a single appearance. Her performance was so captivating that, in 2020, the Ryan Murphy-Evan Romansky Netflix series Ratched — a sort of prologue to the novel and film starring Sarah Paulson — only actually required the single-word title to elicit the anxiety and mercilessness conveyed by Fletcher decades before.

But Paulson experienced an initial hesitancy in the preparation for the role. She said she did not want to watch Fletcher’s performance, “I felt worried that there’d be self-inflicted pressure to recreate, emulate something that was so very special.”

Also read: 5 iconic Louise Fletcher film and TV roles

She did, however, observe and highlighted the nurse’s future as a way for her to reverse-engineer her own past. She also concentrated on the eyes.

“I felt that she was so alive and yet revealed so little that not only was it a lesson in stillness and the performance, and how doing all that can be so powerful, especially when it’s infused with so much internal life,” Paulson added.

Paulson stars in the series alongside actors Finn Wittrock, Cynthia Nixon, Jon Jon Briones, Charlie Carver, Judy Davis, and Sharon Stone.

Also read: Who was Louise Fletcher?

On September 6, 2017, Netflix announced that the production had received a two-season series order. Netflix supposedly outbid Hulu and Apple, who were also keen to work on the project.

Evan Romansky created the show and also authored the pilot. His script was finally accepted by television producer Ryan Murphy, who spent a year acquiring the rights to the Nurse Ratched character as well as the involvement of the Saul Zaentz estate and Michael Douglas, who possessed the screen rights to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Murphy co-directed and executive produced the pilot with Douglas, Aleen Keshishian, Margaret Riley, and Jacob Epstein.

Also read: Louise Fletcher death: Age, family, and net worth

Fox 21 Television Studios, The Saul Zaentz Company, and Ryan Murphy Productions were among the production companies involved in the series.

The series’ score was composed by Mac Quayle, a frequent collaborator with Murphy, and extensively recycles from Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score.