When we first heard that Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon would star as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in FX’s upcoming anthology series, “Feud: Bette and Joan,” we couldn’t wait to see their transformations. Well, the day has finally come.
Entertainment Weekly released its latest magazine cover on Thursday, featuring a first look at the two stars in their full getups. The two are dead ringers for the iconic Hollywood actresses.
As the Instagram caption notes, “Feud” will “chronicle the intense relationship between Davis and Crawford that began in their heydays of the ‘30s and ‘40s.” The show will also explore how the iconic actresses came to co-star in the 1962 film “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”
For a little context: Davis has been quoted as saying, “The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’” Crawford reportedly once said Davis looked like she “never had a happy day — or night — in her life.”
Sarandon, Lange and series creator Ryan Murphy opened up about the project in the latest issue of EW.
Sarandon explained that, while she was doing research for the role, she found a number of similarities between herself and Davis.
“I never saw myself as being one of the beautiful girls … So I kind of understood and related to that,” she said, while Lange said she couldn’t be more different than Crawford.
For Murphy, though, the series does more than tell the story of two rival actresses.
“I wasn’t interested in just doing this broad, campy [show],” he told EW. “I was interested in the idea of sexism, ageism, misogyny. Turning 40, 45, 50, and feeling like you’re at the height of your powers and people saying, ‘Well, you’re done.’”
Lange expressed similar sentiments during a panel at the Television Critics Association press tour.
“I think this film we’ve touched on it in a very profound way,” she said. “Joan was 10 years younger in this time than I am now, and her career was finished.”
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