Chris Chalk scores role in new season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series Feud

Actor Chris Chalk will star as James Baldwin in the latest season of Ryan Murphy's Feud series, Feud: Capote's Women. Speaking for an upcoming episode of Deadline's podcast 20 Questions, Chris Chalk, who currently stars in HBO series Perry Mason (2020), revealed the news of this new role in season two of Murphy's FX series.

“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 (pictured), who plays private investigator Paul Drake in Perry Mason (2020), has also starred in Gotham, Homeland and When They See Us.

Feud: Capote's Women, based on Laurence Leamer's bestseller with a script by Jon Robin Baitz, follows the story of Truman Capote's friendship with a group of society women he called his "swans."

Capote ended up using the women's lives for a thinly veiled revelation he wrote for Esquire in 1975, La Côte Basque 1965, a betrayal that led to his ostracism from society.

In September, news broke about the role of Molly Ringwald (Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) in Feud. She will play Joanne Carson, Johnny Carson's ex-wife, while Calista Flockhart (Brothers & Sisters) stars as Barbara 'Babe' Paley, Naomi Watts (The Watcher) as Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee Radziwill, Chloë Sevigny (The Girl From Plainville ) as C.Z. Guest and Diane Lane (Y: The Last Man) as Nancy 'Slim' Keith. Truman Capote is played by Tom Hollander (The White Lotus).

Feud: Capote's Women premieres next year.