Feud (TV series)

• Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford/Blanche Hudson
• Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis/Baby Jane Hudson
• Judy Davis as Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist
• Jackie Hoffman as Mamacita, Crawford's housekeeper
• Alfred Molina as Robert Aldrich, director/producer of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte
• Stanley Tucci as Jack L. Warner, head of Warner Bros.
• Alison Wright as Pauline Jameson, Aldrich's assistant

• Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland, Davis's friend and fellow actress who costars with her in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and participates in a 1970s documentary on Crawford
• Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell, Davis's friend and fellow actress who participates in a 1970s documentary on Crawford
• Kiernan Shipka as B. D. Merrill, Davis's daughter
• Dominic Burgess as Victor Buono, an actor who costars in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte
• Reed Diamond as Peter, Joan's latest paramour
• Joel Kelley Dauten as Adam Freedman, a documentary filmmaker
• Molly Price as Harriet Foster Aldrich, Robert Aldrich's wife
• Ken Lerner as Marty, Crawford's agent

Feud features appearances by a number of actors, directors and other historical figures of the period, including:

• Naomi Watts as Babe Paley
• Chloë Sevigny as C. Z. Guest
• Tom Hollander as Truman Capote
• Calista Flockhart as Lee Radziwill
• Diane Lane as Slim Keith
• Demi Moore as Ann Woodward
• Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson
• Treat Williams as Bill Paley
• Ella Beatty as Kerry O'Shea
• Joe Mantello as Jack Dunphy
• Chris Chalk as James Baldwin

Jon Robin Baitz wrote the teleplay for all eight episodes,[10] and though Gus Van Sant was initially announced as the director of every episode, Max Winkler was confirmed by Chris Chalk as also being a director on the series.[11][12] It will premiere in winter 2024.[13]

Ryan Murphy, a fan of Davis since his childhood, interviewed the actress just months before her death in 1989. The agreed-upon 20-minute interview lasted four hours, and inspired his characterization of Davis in Feud. He said, "When I would ask her about Joan Crawford ... She would just go on about how much she hated her. But then she would sort of say ... 'She was a professional. And I admired that'."[14] Murphy first conceived Bette and Joan as a film years before the FX series, and approached both Sarandon and Lange about the lead roles.[15] Sarandon said, "It just felt like it didn't have a context, just being bitchy and kind of funny, but what else? In expanding it to eight hours, you could get more complexity and so many other characters."[16]

Feud: Bette and Joan was being written at the same time that Murphy was forming his Half Foundation, which promotes an increased presence of women in film and television production positions.[16] The series features 15 acting roles for women over 40,[16] and half the episodes were directed by women, including actress Helen Hunt.[15] Initially conceived as an anthology series, Feud, developed by Murphy, was picked up to series by FX on May 5, 2016.[17] Bette and Joan was inspired by the real-life feud between Crawford and Davis,[17] and explores issues of sexism, ageism, and misogyny in Hollywood.[16] Its eight episodes were expanded from a feature-length screenplay Murphy had optioned called Best Actress by Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam.[18]

Sarandon said, "In our story, it was a fact that [the people behind Baby Jane] encouraged the animosity [between Crawford and Davis], first of all to control them, second of all to make what they thought was more onscreen tension, and that really hasn't changed a lot."[16] Melanie McFarland of Salon wrote that the series shows "just how brutal the Hollywood system was on some of the greatest talents in its firmament" and that it "cuts to the root of why collaborating and delighting in the fall of the mighty is eternally marketable."[19] The Crawford-Davis feud was also documented in Shaun Considine's 1989 book Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud.[20]

Susan Sarandon (left) and Jessica Lange (right) star as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Frequent Murphy collaborator Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon were attached to star as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Feud. Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, Judy Davis, and Dominic Burgess were also a part of the cast, in the roles of Robert Aldrich, Jack L. Warner, Hedda Hopper, and Victor Buono, respectively.[17] In August 2016, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sarah Paulson joined the cast playing Olivia de Havilland and Geraldine Page, respectively.[21][22][23][24]

In September 2016, it was reported that American Horror Story executive producer Tim Minear would be co-showrunning the series with Murphy. Jackie Hoffman joined the cast as Mamacita, Crawford's housekeeper.[25] In November 2016, Molly Price, Kathy Bates and Alison Wright joined the cast of the series, in the roles of Harriet Foster, Joan Blondell, and Pauline Jameson.[26][27][28] In January 2017, it was announced Kiernan Shipka was cast in the series as Davis's daughter, Barbara "B.D." Sherry.[29]

Sarandon admitted to initially being "overwhelmed and terrified" about the prospect of portraying Davis accurately. She said, "She's so big and she really was so big, so I tried not to make her a caricature or someone a female impersonator would do ... That was my fear, that she would just be kind of one-dimensional."[16] Lange said her performance was informed by her view that Crawford's "brutal childhood" was masked by the "beautiful, impenetrable veneer of this great, gorgeous movie star ... So she was always on, which is a tremendous burden in and of itself, but always there was this thing lurking underneath of being this poverty-stricken, abused, unloved, abandoned young child and woman."[16] Both Sarandon and Lange researched their roles by reading books by and about Davis and Crawford, and watching and listening to TV performances and recordings.[15][29]

For Capote vs. The Swans, Naomi Watts was cast to star as Babe Paley in April 2022.[30] In August, Chloë Sevigny, Tom Hollander, Calista Flockhart and Diane Lane would be added to the cast.[31][32] The following month, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald were added to the cast.[33][34] In March 2023, Chris Chalk announced his involvement in the season.[35]

FX renewed the series for a 10-episode second season on February 28, 2017, with Murphy and Jon Robin Baitz attached as writers. Initially planned with a focus on the relationship between Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales,[36] the season was first titled Charles and Diana, then renamed Buckingham Palace,[37] with Matthew Goode and Rosamund Pike cast in the titular roles.[38] Plans for Buckingham Palace were eventually scrapped in August 2018.[39] In November 2019, Murphy stated he was open to resume work on Feud.[40]

An April 2022 announcement unveiled new plans for the second season, with Jon Robin Baitz serving as showrunner/writer and Gus Van Sant as director: Capote vs. The Swans will focus on the fallout of a roman à clef by author Truman Capote based on the lives of several New York socialites.[11]

Murphy gave several interviews about Feud during the 2017 Winter TCA Press Tour.[41] The show's first teaser trailer was released on January 19, 2017, and the second the following day.[42] That same week, Lange and Sarandon appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as Crawford and Davis.[43] FX released another teaser on January 23, two on February 5, one on February 7, and one on February 8.[44][45][46][47][48] A short commercial for the show also aired during Super Bowl LI.[49]

Feud had its official premiere at the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on March 1, 2017.[50] Before the show's premiere, FX held screenings of the pilot episode at several gay bars across the United States.[51]

The first season of eight episodes, Bette and Joan, premiered in the United States on March 5, 2017 on FX[52] and on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2017.[53]

The original television soundtrack of Feud: Bette and Joan, with music by Mac Quayle, was released in two editions: a regular edition with 23 tracks, and a limited edition with 31 tracks.

Feud received highly positive reviews, with major praise for Lange and Sarandon's performances. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 91% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While campily and sweetly indulgent, Feud: Bette and Joan provides poignant understanding of humanity, sorrow, and pain while breezily feeding inquisitive gossip-starved minds."[54] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[55]

Melanie McFarland of Salon called the writing "creatively wicked" and the series "outrageously fantastic", praising Lange and Sarandon for their performances and for "tempering their decadent rages and vengeful spats with a gutting sense of loneliness that tempers its lightness in solemnity."[19] Verne Gay of Newsday wrote that the series is "Full of joy, humor, brilliant writing and performances, and a deep unabiding love for what really makes Hollywood great—the women."[56] People called the series "bitter, biting and entertaining".[57] The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber described the first few episodes as "deft and satisfying" but suggested that "maybe six installments, rather than eight, were all this tale needed".[58] Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx wrote that the series is "big and it's catty, but it's also smart and elegant, with the old Hollywood setting toning down some of Murphy's more scattershot creative impulses."[59] Emily Nussbaum, in The New Yorker, praised Murphy's ambition and lauded both stars, saying of the series, "Beneath the zingers and the poolside muumuus, the show's stark theme is how skillfully patriarchy screws with women's heads—mostly by building a home in there."[60]

Not all reviews were positive. Sonia Saraiya of Variety compared Bette and Joan unfavorably to Murphy's The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, writing that Feud is "neither as brilliantly campy and hateful as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? nor as contextualizing and profound as People v. O. J. Simpson."[18] David Weigand of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the series a mixed review, criticizing the script and Lange's performance, but praising Sarandon's, writing: "Lange is always interesting, but she’s only occasionally convincing here as Crawford. The voice is too high, for one thing. Sarandon fares better, as much good as that does with such a lousy script."[61] The Guardian also criticized the series for being "lightweight", noting, "At just eight episodes, there’s almost too much to cover and at times, one craves a little more depth to certain moments." They singled out Lange's performance, however, writing, "Lange in particular moves past just an easy impression to something with far more weight. In a reversal of fortune that would make Crawford cackle in her grave, it’s likely that she’ll be the one up for awards at the end of the year rather than her co-star."[62]

On June 30, 2017, a day before her 101st birthday, actress Olivia de Havilland filed a lawsuit against Feud: Bette and Joan for inaccurately portraying her and using her likeness without permission.[63] The lawsuit stated that the pseudo-documentary-style of the series leads viewers to believe that the statements made by the actress portraying de Havilland in the show are accurate, but that in fact de Havilland had not said such things in real life.[64] The various defendants filed a motion to dismiss under California's "anti-SLAPP" law. The trial court denied the motion but, on March 26, 2018, the California Court of Appeal, Second District, reversed the decision and ordered the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that no person can "own history". The Court of Appeal further ruled the defendants were entitled to be reimbursed their attorneys' fees.[65] De Havilland filed for estoppels to pursue action with higher courts, securing a restraining order against Murphy and the production company from airing Feud until further review and a court date with the United States Supreme Court. In January 2019, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.[66]

The first episode drew 2.26 million live-plus-same-day viewers, which Deadline.com characterized as "solid" and made it the most watched program on FX that week. In comparison, the premiere of The People v. O. J. Simpson attracted 5.1 million viewers in 2016, and the FX limited series Fargo got 2.66 million in 2014.[2][67] The premiere earned 3.8 million viewers in the Nielsen live-plus-three-days ratings, and 5.17 million viewers total when including two encore broadcasts, making it the highest rated new series debut on FX since The People v. O. J. Simpson.[68][69]