Feud: Capote vs. Swan may have ended in March, but there’s still much to discover when it comes to Truman Capote and his relationship with New York’s elite. On the new episode of Still watching, playwright and Capote vs. Swan recordsman Jon Robin Baitz Stop by the podcast to discuss the making of the eight-episode series with Ryan Murphy and how he decodes Truman Capote’s enlightenment (Tom Hollander) after the author sabotages his friendship with his “swans”: Slim Keith (Diane Lane), Guest CZ (Chloë Sevigny), Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart), and his favorite, Babe Paley (Naomi watts).
“Despite Susan Sontag’s brilliance, I personally don’t really have much interest in the camp,” Baitz said. Still watching host Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, And Chris Murphy. “I know it’s a curse to say, but I’m interested in melancholy and sadness and loss and the clock running out and the pain of losing the things that make you Friend.”
Below, Baitz opens up about the importance of intelligence in acting, learning from Mike Nichols, and coping with the times.
Vanity Fair: How do you and Ryan feel about the tone of the show?
Jon Robin Baitz: We had extremely intimate conversations, often late at night, over the phone, as we worked on the project together. Usually comes with a martini. We will talk about the meaning of love and what friendship means.
I think we’ve both been through that moment in your life—maybe in the late ’50s, early ’60s—when you’re suddenly on the other side of the seesaw, and the clock is ticking. congestion, but now even less. You are vaguely aware that the passage of time is different now. We all notice that life speeds up as we get older. This is also about what you value in your life as it changes, as the clock ticks. I found Truman so reckless that it hurt so much that I talked a lot about that.
It is also a show about the end of an era — not just for these individuals but for an entire era in American life. We see this when CZ Guest goes hat shopping in episode six and realizes that no one actually wears hats anymore.
I think it’s my favorite episode. It is “Hats, Gloves and Homosexuals”. It was a very sad episode for all the reasons you mentioned. It has all the things I love. You notice that the glove counter at Saks is gone. [The swans] got rid of feeling like the center of the world – which is something that can happen to you in New York to this day. You have the illusion that it is the most important place in the world. Suddenly, everything disappeared. The very important fashions that you worship—that you coin—are funny. And I guess the other part of the show that’s so great in that episode, for me, is the way time leaves you behind. Nothing is finite, and what is beautiful today will become scary tomorrow, or a joke.
Can you talk a little about the casting process? Is Tom Hollander first on your list?
Tom was right there, in sync with Naomi Watts performing Babe. It all came together very quickly. Tom made a version of Truman to show how much range he has and the depth he can reach. It’s a psychological insight into people, and it’s not a sketch. I always say you have to look for intelligence. That’s how you build metaphors. It’s a certain kind of intelligence. Not necessarily someone who can do quantum physics, but living in metaphor.
Let me tell you a short story that helps clarify this. I helped the late Mike Nichols. He’s directing a new play by Clifford Odets Country Girl. I’ve made some minor modifications to it with legacy’s permission. I watched Mike rehearse, and his whole method of rehearsing was to tell anecdotes and somehow convey what was wanted, what was needed, the temperature of a scene, through anecdote. You either got that or you didn’t. It’s about abstract, associative thinking. All these actors have that quality. Diane Lane, Calista Flockhart, Chloë, the swans, and of course Joe Mantello. He almost – and this is a compliment – acts like a director. So you act very well and I think that’s 90% of everything.
