EXCLUSIVE: Chris Chalk will star as James Baldwin in the latest installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud series—Feud: Capote’s Women.
During a conversation for an upcoming episode of Deadline podcast 20 Questions on Deadline, Chalk, who is currently starring in HBO series Perry Mason, revealed the exclusive news of this new role in Season 2 of Murphy’s FX show.
“I’ve always wanted to play him,” Chalk said of Baldwin, adding that the set was “such a supportive environment, like mind-blowingly supportive,” but that the role—which he already shot several months ago, directed by Max Winkler—was by no means easy.
“We shot 20 pages in two days,” he said. “I got the script and was like, ‘That’s a lot of words.’ I had a little mini panic attack… but it was amazing. Then there was a five-page monologue.”
Chalk, who plays private detective Paul Drake in Perry Mason, has also starred in Gotham, Homeland, 12 Years a Slave and When They See Us. One of his earliest roles was in the 2010 Broadway production of Fences, alongside Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.
Feud: Capote’s Women, based on Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book with a script from Jon Robin Baitz, follows the story of Truman Capote’s friendship with a group of society women he called his “swans”.
Capote ultimately used the women’s lives for a thinly-veiled expose he wrote for Esquire in 1975, “La Côte Basque 1965”—a betrayal that led to his banishment from society.
Deadline previously broke the story of Molly Ringwald‘s casting on Feud back in September. She will play Joanne Carson, ex-wife of Johnny Carson, while Calista Flockhart stars as Barbara ‘Babe’ Paley, Naomi Watts as Jackie Kennedy’s sister Lee Radziwill, Chloë Sevigny as C.Z. Guest and Diane Lane as Nancy ‘Slim’ Keith. Truman Capote will be played by Tom Hollander.
Feud: Capote’s Women is set to be released this Fall.
For the full podcast interview with Chris Chalk, check back here on Friday and subscribe to 20 Questions on Deadline here.