11. Bette Davis' Words of Wisdom to Jessica Lange
"I met Bette once," Lange said. "We did an event together…I was maybe 26 at the time. I remember her saying to me, ‘You better court the press, honey!’ That was her advice.”
12. Joan's Crawford Actual House Is Still Standing in Los Angeles.
"The house that you see on Feud is based on Crawford's real house that she lived in when she first became a star," production designer Judy Becker explained. "She kept redesigning and renovating and changing the house. It started out as a very traditional Spanish-style mansion, and it turned into this kind of federalist Hollywood regency style thing by the end. It was completely unrecognizable. She changed the facade as well, but the house is still there. It now looks like a 1980s McMansion. She also had plastic slipcovers on everything. The blue and white color palette is pretty close to what she had toward the end of the time she lived in the house. And she always had a portrait of herself over the mantel, so we had one made of Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford for Feud." [Pictured below: The set of Crawford's living room on the FOX Studios lot].
Jessica Radloff
13. Joan Crawford's Bathroom Really Did Have a Refrigerator in It.
Yes, Crawford had a mini fridge in her bathroom so she could store her witch hazel and lemons and vodka. "All of which were used to help preserve her appearance, except the vodka," Becker said. "She really had that, and she was obsessed with her skin and lemons and witch hazel and ice cubes." [Picture below: The re-creation of Crawford's bathroom on the Fox Studios lot].
Jessica Radloff
14. There Was a Real Restaurant Called Perino's.
Joan and Bette hung out at the Hollywood institution, which was only recently turned into condominiums. "We reproduced it [for Feud]," Becker said. "That's where Mommie Dearest was shot a little bit as well." The restaurant closed in 1986 and torn down in 2005.
15. Props from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Were Used in Feud.
"Some of the original furniture—the piano, the sofa, and the bird cage—that was used on set for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?," Becker told us. "My set decorator, Flo[rencia] Martin, found those, and we put them in the set. It was a pretty fun thing to talk about when people were looking at it."
Feud airs Sundays on FX.
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