fb-pixelThe cast of ‘Feud’ has been announced. I can die happy. - The Boston Globe Skip to main content
TV Critic’s Corner

The cast of ‘Feud’ has been announced. I can die happy.

Susan Sarandon will play Bette Davis.Claudio Onorati/ANSA via AP

Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford.

Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis.

Sarah Paulson as Geraldine Page.

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland.

Judy Freaking Davis as Hedda Hopper.

I can die now.

This cast list is going to come true in a 2017 FX anthology series from Ryan Murphy called “Feud.” And I’m a little obsessed with it. The show will revolve around a different dispute each season, in the manner of Murphy’s “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story.” The first eight-episode round of “Feud” will take on the epic battle between Crawford and Davis on the set of the amazing 1962 film (and camp classic) “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Advertisement



There can be something distracting about watching actors play well-known real people. They have to somehow merge their own interpretation of the real person with the public image that we all know.

When Michael Sheen plays William Masters on “Masters of Sex,” it works easily because Masters was not seen by the public very often. But when Sheen plays the more visible Tony Blair, which he has done in three movies, it’s a trickier venture — one that Sheen has, um, mastered.

Recently, Murphy did a decent job casting “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” with some hits (Paulson as Marcia Clark) and misses (Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson).

Let’s see if the “Feud” cast can pull it off. If Sarandon is awful and wishes she weren’t in the series, we’ll have only one thing to say to her: “But cha ARE, Sue, you ARE in that show.”


Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.