Trivia / Feud

• California Doubling: For the Trog sequence, a Hollywood lot stands in for Bray Studios, which is portrayed as a Thamesside studio rather than a converted manor house in rural Berkshire.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Bette Davis gave Susan Sarandon her nod to play her in a hypothetical film adaptation of her life. After several projects that never got off the ground, she got her wish here.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange (70 and 67, respectively, during production) play Bette and Joan from their 50s to around 70.
  • David Kimball, in his mid-sixties, plays a grey-haired Freddie Francis, who at the time was a dark-haired 52-year-old.
  • 71-year-old John Waters plays 50-year-old William Castle.
• Development Hell: The series was in development for about seven years - with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange on board - before it was finally given the green light. Then, after the first season aired, plans for a second season fell square back into this, lasting about half a decade.
• Disowned Adaptation:
  • Olivia de Havilland, one of the few individuals depicted in the first season's story to still be alive during its initial airing, flatly refused to watch it. She was opposed to making portrayals of real people who are no longer alive to give their own viewpoint. Later on, she sued FX over being portrayed as selling her co-workers out in an interview that never actually happened, as well as calling her sister Joan Fontaine a "bitch" (though they famously had their own lifelong rivalry, de Havilland insisted that she'd always prided herself on her decorum and would never use that word).
  • Robert Aldrich's daughter was annoyed with how her father was portrayed in the show. In real life he had developed What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? before offering a part to Joan Crawford - rather than how the show depicts it.
• Fake American:
  • Londoner Alfred Molina plays American Robert Aldrich.
  • Pauline is also played by English actress Allison Wright.
  • British actor Dominic Burgess plays American Victor Buono.
• Fake Brit: British directors Freddie Francis and David Lean are played by Americans David Kimball and Anthony Crivello.
• Fake Nationality: Austrian-Swiss Maximilian Schell is played by American Phillip Boyd.
• Hey, It's That Place!: Bette Davis' house was used in Donnie Darko.
• Irony as She Is Cast: At the time of production and broadcast, two-time Oscar winner Bette Davis was played by one-time winner Susan Sarandon, while one-time Oscar winner Joan Crawford was played by two-time winner Jessica Lange.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Due to Olivia de Havilland's lawsuit, the series has yet to see a DVD release.
• Production Posse: Bette and Joan stars Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Kathy Bates have all played prominent roles in other Murphy projects.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Closeted gay actor Victor Buono is played by gay actor Dominic Burgess.
• Saved from Development Hell: Plans for a second season (about Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage and divorce) fell apart due to the lawsuit filed by Olivia de Havilland, which had a chilling effect of sorts on Murphy continuing not only Feud, but also American Crime Story, which in the latter case was compounded by a Troubled Production while attempting to shoot a season about the fallout of Hurricane Katrina. While American Crime Story eventually aired a third season based on the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Feud was considered DOA for several years. Then, in April 2022, it was announced that a second season called Capote’s Women was greenlit, and would star Naomi Watts, be directed by Gus Van Sant, and be showrun by Jon Robin Baitz.
• What Could Have Been: The show's second season was to be entitled Buckingham Palace and would focus on the relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. However, this was ultimately scrapped.

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