How Truman Capote Might Maneuver A Catty Social Media World: ‘Feud’ Stars Naomi Watts & Tom Hollander – Crew Call Podcast
Much like our social media-driven news cycle today which is fixated on cancelation and schadenfreude, there arguably was a judge, jury and executioner style in Truman Capote’s published Esquire pieces, read “La Côte Basque 1965″ about New York City female elites. Ryan Murphy and Jon Robin Baitz’s latest FX limited series Feud: Capote vs. Swans dives into Capote’s deconstruction and takedown of the fancy ladies he supped and partied with.
How in God’s name would Capote operate in a social media world?
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We kick around that notion today with the series’ stars Tom Hollander who plays the tender, though nitpicky and sassy Capote, and Naomi Watts who plays the author’s best friend, though a betrayed one.
Hollander acknowledges that there remains today, like decades ago “a ghoulish fascination about the glamor and the compromises” of high society women, “there’s sort of a style porn that’s going on” says the actor.
“It’s about reputation, isn’t it?” add the actor.
“If he had been exposed to social media, then there would have been a back and forth, wouldn’t there? There would have been an opposition to it. If he’d said something like that on social media, then there would have been a whole lot of other people saying, ‘No, that’s not true.’ That would have been the polarization that you get with social media.”
“With them (the Swans) they lived with that pain and regret,” says Watts about the women’s audience with Capote, “‘Should have I dealt with that differently?’ ‘Should have I said more to tell him that he was so horrific in what he did?’ It would have been more combative if it was in social media, if it was a war in today’s world. But like everything. I think the central themes are all the same, and they’ll always be the same in humanity, but they just manifest in different ways, in different times.”
We talk with Watts and Hollander about the complex friendship between Paley and Capote (“They loved each other, and it was safe because it wasn’t a sexualized thing…Truman saw all the cracks and opened her up,” says the actor who once lost out to playing the New Orleans born author to Toby Jones in Douglas McGrath’s movie Infamous); what drew them to their roles and how hair and make-up worked into the dramatic process.
Our conversation with the duo is below:
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