Chris Chalk To Play James Baldwin In Ryan Murphy's 'Feud: Capote's Women' At FX

Chris Chalk

Chris Chalk, best known for his role in the hit TV show Perry Mason, is set to play James Baldwin in Ryan Murphy's latest TV series, Feud: Capote's Women. The series is a continuation of Murphy's previous Feud series on FX, which focused on the rivalry between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. This time around, the anthology series delves into Truman Capote's social circle, as chronicled in Laurence Leamer's book, Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era.

The book details the true stories behind Capote's never-released final novel, Answered Prayers, and captures "the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his 'swans'." Capote's betrayal came in the form of a 1975 Esquire expose he wrote called "La Côte Basque 1965." The series is set to debut next year and also stars Molly Ringwald, Calista Flockhart, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Tom Hollander, and Chloë Sevigny.

During an appearance on the Deadline podcast 20 Questions on Deadline, Chalk expressed his excitement to play Baldwin and noted that the set was "mind-blowingly supportive." He also revealed that he shot "20 pages in two days," as well as a five-page monologue. Murphy has been known for his efforts to include marginalized voices in period pieces, including his projects Hollywood, which retells classic Hollywood stories through the eyes of people who were discriminated against due to their race, gender, or sexual orientation, and Pose, which centers on LGBTQ Black and brown people in New York during the 1980s and 1990s.