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Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were not just huge Hollywood stars, they were larger-than-life personalities — which makes them perfect as the subjects of the eight-part FX series "FEUD: Bette and Joan."
Of course, the two screen queens had a hand in creating their images. Crawford once said, "I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door."
And executive producer Ryan Murphy ("Glee," "American Horror Story," "People vs. O.J.") said that, shortly before her death in 1989, Davis told him "she felt that she was never going to be anybody unless somebody could impersonate her."
For years, countless comedians did bad imitations of Davis saying, "What a dump!" — a line from the 1949 film "Beyond a Forest."
Of course, David herself did that repeatedly toward the end of her life on various TV talk shows.
Davis and Crawford's huge egos clash in "FEUD," but it's more than just the story of two women at each other's throats.
"Underneath these huge personas," said Susan Sarandon, who stars as Davis, "was this pain."
"A big part of this show is what Hollywood does to women as they age, which is just a microcosm of what happens to women generally as they age," said Jessica Lange, who stars as Crawford.
"FEUD" is about ageism, sexism and the indignities visited upon women in Hollywood. It recounts both the end of their rivalry and, in a way, the end of Hollywood's golden age.
Davis and Crawford were among the biggest stars under the studio system. By the 1960s, they were desperate for work, considered over-the-hill has-beens by those studios.
They were in their mid-50s.
But then they co-starred — for the first and last time — in the B-movie thriller "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" And, briefly, they were on top once again.
"FEUD" recounts two women who loathed each other making that movie, and what happened afterward.
It's very funny at times. It balances on the edge of comedy/drama and sheer campiness — reflecting the lives of Davis and Crawford.
But it is not the sort of over-the-top, unintentionally hilarious portrayal that the 1981 Crawford film biography "Mommie Dearest" became. Nobody screams "No more wire hangers!" while beating a child with one.
From the outside, Davis and Crawford led "such charming lives," Murphy said. "But the deeper we got into the material, the more painful it became." And "FEUD" portrays "how I really felt they were mistreated at the end."
Not just how they mistreated each other — and they do — but how they were mistreated by Hollywood.
This is a 55-year-old story, but executive producer Dede Gardner believes it is "deeply modern." Because Hollywood — because America — hasn't changed that much.
"These women were treated brutally and made to treat one another brutally," Gardner said. "And, seemingly, this was the only way anyone was going to get ahead. And I don't think much has changed in that regard."
Murphy said that was the impetus behind "FEUD."
"Women are still going through this sort of stuff today," he said. "And we really wanted to lean into that aspect of the show."
So, yes, the series is about the sometimes vicious "FEUD" between the actresses. But it's also about women, including a subplot in which "Baby Jane" director Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina) slams the door on the hopes of his assistant, Pauline (Allison Wright), who wants to write and direct a movie of her own.
Crawford slams that door, too.
(The large cast includes Stanley Tucci as studio chief Jack Warner; Judy Davis as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper; Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland; Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell; Sarah Paulson as Geraldine Page; Dominic Burgess as Victor Buono; and Kiernan Shipka as B.D., Bette Davis' daughter.)
Even today, the entertainment press loves nothing more than to write about supposed feuds among actresses. And not so much about actors.
You can certainly argue that Hollywood is kinder to older women today than it was in 1962. Lange is 67 and Sarandon is 70 — considerably older than Crawford and Davis are when they were making "Baby Jane."
"But I don't think it's changed that much, really, to tell you the truth," Lange said. "I really don't."
"Well, we're working," Sarandon said.
Both Oscar-winners said roles like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, ironically, aren't easy to find. Lange said it's "not necessarily a question of age or looks, but that the problem is, "if the powers that be don't find that there is anything viable or interesting in a story about a woman of a certain age, those films aren't going to be made."
And Sarandon said that in the early 1970s "when I started, it was over by 40." And she agreed that "aging actresses still have the same problem" Davis and Crawford encountered.
A problem that Murphy is fighting with "FEUD," and with his personal commitment to guarantee that half the directing jobs on his projects go to women.
Every time he begins work on a show, he tells department heads, "'You have two jobs, which is to do a great job, and I would like 50 percent of your crew to be women or minorities.' I really have made an effort within my company to do that — to bring different points of view — because I think it matters, and I think it's important in our world."
Twitter @ScottDPierce —
On TV ...
"FEUD: Bette and Joan" premieres Sunday on FX — at 8 p.m. on DirecTV and Dish and 11 p.m. on Comcast.