TV SERIES · 2017–
Feud
48 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (48)
- #001
The series spent seven years in development, with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon attached, before it was finally greenlit.
- #002
Catherine Zeta-Jones claimed she did not contact the 100-year-old Olivia de Havilland for advice about the character she played, but instead consulted her father-in-law Kirk Douglas, who was also 100. She claimed Douglas described de Havilland as "Aaah Olivia", Bette Davis as "Aww, she was a broad. She told it as it was," and Joan Crawford as "She was out of her fu@king mind!"
- #003
During each episode's opening credits, the names of both Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon alternate depending on who is billed first that week, as if their respective Feud (2017) characters were battling for top billing.
- #004
Cult filmmaker John Waters plays B-movie director William Castle, a casting choice that fulfills a wish of Waters, who was heavily influenced by Castle. The production did nothing to make Waters resemble Castle, so that any viewer who knew him would get the joke. Waters also recorded a commentary track for Mommie Dearest (1981), the biographical film about Joan Crawford. William Castle was known for his gimmicks, and Waters said, "When he finally said he wasn't going to do gimmicks anymore, he went out and did the biggest gimmick of all; Joan Crawford!" for Strait-Jacket (1964).
- #005
Three Oscar winners — Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Zeta-Jones — play three other Oscar winners: Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, respectively.
- #006
Susan Sarandon claimed she never met the real Bette Davis, but in the 1980s Davis said through a mutual acquaintance that Sarandon was the actress she had chosen to play her in a biographical film. Sarandon was interested, but the project was never followed up and the two women never corresponded.
- #007
In the series, Joan Crawford's maid Mamacita resigns because of Crawford's mistreatment of her in 1964. In real life, Mamacita continued working for Crawford until 1970, when Crawford ran short of cash and was forced to downsize.
- #008
The scenes of the 35th Academy Awards (1963) in episode 5 were shot at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the actual venue of the 1963 Oscars.
- #009
Olivia de Havilland, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, was 100 years old when the series aired. Asked for her opinion, de Havilland said, "As I did not see the series, I cannot make a valid comment on it… However, in principle, I am opposed to the representation of people who are no longer alive to judge the accuracy of an event concerning them."
- #010
Months of preparation went into staging the unbroken tracking shot at the Oscars in which Joan Crawford accompanies David Lean backstage to the press room. The original theatre was extensively remodelled, so a replica set was meticulously recreated.
- #011
Although Bette Davis appears to maliciously wear Joan's old wig, in fact neither of them knew about it until after filming, because the wig was well maintained.
- #012
This marks Treat Williams's final performance, following his death in a motorcycle accident the previous year.
- #013
According to director Walter Hill, Robert Aldrich's daughter was unhappy with her father's portrayal in the series. For example, in real life he had developed What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) before giving Joan Crawford the chance to star, rather than the reverse as dramatized in the series.
- #014
Season 1 is based on Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam's feature screenplay "Best Actres", which appeared on the 2009 Black List, a compilation of the year's most liked unproduced screenplays.
- #015
In 2006, Susan Sarandon narrated the Emmy-winning Turner Classic Movies documentary Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006). Sarandon went on to play Davis in this series.
- #016
Susan Sarandon claimed she was aware of four or five projects since the 1980s in which she was proposed to play Bette Davis.
- #017
In the real film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), it is more explicit that Robert Aldrich and the stars were aware of the film's self-referential nature as the central issue. Clips from earlier Joan Crawford and Bette Davis films actually appear in the film and are commented on. Robert Aldrich had also previously directed the behind-the-scenes Hollywood picture The Big Knife (1955).
- #018
Susan Sarandon broke her foot during production and wore a supportive boot kept out of frame as much as possible.
- #019
Truman Capote's article "La Côte Basque, 1965", which provoked the feud between him and the society women he had previously befriended, was first published in Esquire magazine in November 1975.
- #020
In the first episode, Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina) wears his tie open but cut short near the bottom. This matches the way the director wore his tie early on in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962).
- #021
Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon were both nominated at the 67th Annual Academy Awards (1995), the ceremony at which Lange won the Oscar for Blue Sky (1994). Sarandon would win the following year for her performance in Dead Man Walking (1995).
- #022
When the series was renewed for a second season in February 2017, it was to be titled "Buckingham Palace" and focus over 10 episodes on the relationship between King Charles III and Princess Diana. The story was shelved in August 2018. In April 2022, it was announced that the second season would instead be called "Capote's Women," focusing on reflections of a roman à clef based on the lives of several New York socialites by Truman Capote.
- #023
Jessica Lange claimed she had never seen Mommie Dearest (1981), in which Joan Crawford is portrayed harshly, and raised doubts about whether she wanted to watch it for the series.
- #024
The series shows Crawford filming What Ever Happened to Baby Jane while living in her Brentwood mansion. However, she had sold that mansion in 1956 and no longer owned it by 1962. Crawford's primary residence was her apartment in New York; she kept only a small apartment in Beverly Hills.
- #025
Ironically, the primitive man mask used in the low-budget Trog (1970), which Joan Crawford turned her head away from in disgust, was actually left over from the production of the big-budget science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), also shot in England. The ape head was a state-of-the-art prosthetic designed by the original artist to create realistic eye and jaw movement as well as a radio-controlled tongue. Unfortunately, the head was not refitted for the new artist, resulting in a worn sweater-mask look. The Trog mask made for this series was recreated to resemble the worn, discarded mask from the original Trog; the makeup matched only the fur and dirt on the hands, and the mouth, lips and tongue moved through the performance of Mike Mekash, a longtime makeup artist on Ryan Murphy's productions. It was created by VVDFX, the makeup effects company of Vincent Van Dyke, who also created the age makeup for Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland, applied by Mike Mekash and Eryn Krueger Mekash.
- #026
The series features Barbara Merrill, Bette Davis's daughter. Merrill would later write a book about her life with Davis titled "My Mother's Keeper" (1985).
- #027
In real life, Freddie Francis, the B-movie director of Trog (1970), had a more successful career in Hollywood as a cinematographer, winning two Oscars for that work.
- #028
The Tudor-style house where Bette Davis lived appeared in the film "Donnie Darko."
- #029
Joan Crawford had been in films since 1925; Bette Davis since 1931.
- #030
The first season is a mixture of fiction and reality regarding the historical rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford; biographies, facts, rumors and tall tales are used to build the narrative, but some facts are misrepresented: 1) In the series, during a dinner, Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) tells Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) that she lost her virginity at 25. However, during The Dick Cavett Show (1968) in 1971, the real Bette claimed she lost her virginity at 26, when she married. 2) The series changes the date of the magazine ad in which Bette sought work in Hollywood. In reality it was published before the production of "Baby Jane" began; the ad was a kind of personal joke about the situation of aging actresses. 3) In the pilot, Robert Aldrich tells Jack L. Warner that he wrote the script for "Baby Jane" himself, but in real life the script was written by Lukas Heller.
- #031
Jessica Lange was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Frances Farmer in Frances (1982), a role originally offered to Faye Dunaway. Dunaway turned it down because she had just been cast in Mommie Dearest (1981) and, after playing Joan Crawford, did not want to play "another crazy movie star."
- #032
Epilogue: "Slim Keith died in 1990. C. Z. Guest died in 2003. Joanne Carson died in 2015. Lee Radziwill died in 2019. The manuscript of Answered Prayers was never found."
- #033
Freddie Francis, the director of Joan Crawford's last film, Trog (1970), was the cinematographer on Cape Fear (1991), which starred Jessica Lange, who plays Joan Crawford in this series.
- #034
The series features many Oscar winners and nominees; the winners include Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kathy Bates. The nominees include Judy Davis, Stanley Tucci, Diane Lane, Naomi Watts, Demi Moore and Chloë Sevigny.
- #035
Although Ann Woodward was a real-life figure, she does not appear in Laurence Leamer's book on which the second season is based.
- #036
Lee Radziwill, played by Calista Flockhart in the second season, was Jackie Kennedy's sister.
- #037
At one point in the series the two divas discuss their Oscar rivalry, and Joan Crawford says that Bette Davis has "Bookend Oscars whereas I only have one." In reality, Jessica Lange has two Oscars to Susan Sarandon's one. Total nominations: Lange 6, Sarandon 5.
- #038
Pamela Churchill appears in Laurence Leamer's book on which the second season is based, but she does not appear as a character in the series.
- #039
Jessica Lange had previously appeared alongside Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates in American Horror Story (2011).
- #040
The lead actors of the second season, Demi Moore and Calista Flockhart, share a birthday on November 11. Moore was born in 1962 and Flockhart in 1964.
- #041
The series features many Oscar winners and nominees; among the winners are Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Catherine Zeta-Jones, along with two Oscar nominees: Judy Davis and Stanley Tucci. Interestingly, Judy Davis is an Emmy winner and won for portraying another Oscar nominee, Judy Garland.
- #042
Creator Jaffe Cohen was a member of the international touring comedy stand-up tour "Funny Gay Males" and co-wrote "Growing up Gay."
- #043
Catherine Zeta-Jones had previously worked with Stanley Tucci on the films America's Sweethearts (2001) and The Terminal (2004).
- #044
Gus Van Sant was originally set to direct all eight episodes of the second season, but as production was about to begin it was decided that others would direct episodes 5 and 7. The producers told him this was for his own good, since directing them all would be exhausting, and although Van Sant initially objected, after completing the first four he came around to their view.
- #045
Both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kathy Bates appeared in a series and a film about the Titanic, respectively.
- #046
Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci had previously appeared in the film Shall We Dance? (2004) and The Lovely Bones (2009).
- #047
Alfred Molina and Stanley Tucci had previously worked together on the film The Impostors (1998).
- #048
Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates appeared together in the film Men Don't Leave (1990).
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