The all-star cast of Ryan Murphy’s ‘Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans’, including Demi Moore, Tom Hollander, Diane Lane, Chloe Sevigny, and Naomi Watts, wore their chicest outfits as they attended the Disney FYC event at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening.
The second installment of Murphy’s FEUD anthology is based on the best-selling novel Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer. The series was written for television by Jon Robin Baitz and follows acclaimed writer Truman Capote as he surrounds himself with New York’s high society of wealthy, glamorous socialites and is banished from their group after sharing an excerpt from his new book, Answered Prayers.
Executive Producer Alexis Marin Woodall, who has worked with Murphy on ‘American Horror Story’, ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’, and ‘The Watcher’, emphasized that the show’s loose structure with time as part of the series’ appeal.
“It’s really a trademark of how Ryan tends to tell stories because no one’s story is linear,” shared Woodall. “Think about when you go to dinner with a friend, and you start talking and three conversations later you’re like, wait a minute, now we’re back to the beginning… the show has an understanding and correlation of how thematic structures in Truman’s life are playing out.”
Chloe Sevigny, who plays C.Z. Guest, pointed toward the series as one that she would want to watch as a reason for joining the ensemble cast. “I was really yearning for something a little more glamorous to watch on T.V., and I always like a little escapism mixed in with the hard truths of what’s happening in the world right now,” explained Sevigny. “So, I thought, oh, I think audiences right now maybe need a little bit of that.”
The series highlights a bygone era of beautiful and distinguished women, and costume designer Lou Eyrich reflected on a certain character, Slim Keith, played by Diane Lane, as one of the more difficult characters to dress. “The only [woman] visually we had trouble with was Slim because there were fewer photos of her,” recalls Eyrich. “She wasn’t as much into being in front of the paparazzi, so the images we had were from the forties and fifties when she was a model, but then in the seventies, eighties, we couldn’t find anything, even the black and white ball.”
Although there were fewer details to draw on, Academy Award nominee Diane Lane still found ways to relate to Slim. “I felt more and more into a kind of girlfriend, love with Slim and a kind of fandom of her and how many people knew and loved and appreciated her.”
Central to the opulence and non-linear storytelling is director Gus Van Sant, who pieces the puzzle of these doyennes and their friendship with Capote. Naomi Watts, who plays Barbara “Bebe” Paley, noted how Van Sant’s directional style motivated creativity and freshness in every scene.
“Gus is not so traditional. The cameras were often moving, so it didn’t necessarily mean that your line would happen on the move, so you just always had to be on,” reflected Watts. “You’re always giving your best as an actor and it kept everything alive, and it was unconventional and just kind of creative and cool.”
Capote vs. the Swans is available to stream on FX on Hulu.