Long before he pitched the idea for a show about her iconic feud with Joan Crawford, Ryan Murphy knew Bette Davis. A fan of the actress since age eight, Murphy wrote her so many letters they became pen pals. Shortly before her death in 1989, he spent four hours interviewing her.
Last night's episode of Feud chronicled the dramatic events of the 1963 Oscars, where Davis lost the Best Actress prize in a stunning upset, and was forced to watch Crawford accept the award on Anne Bancroft's behalf. Davis was the frontrunner for her performance in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, and winning the award would have made her the first actress ever to win three Oscars.
"She told me she was devastated," Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter, revealing that he drew heavily on real-life conversations with Davis in writing the episode. "She thought she should have won it and it was very important to her to be the first to win three... When I walked in to meet her the first thing she said to me was, 'Do you want to hold my Oscars?' She had great pride in them."
But even setting aside the validation of the prize itself, Davis told Murphy that she felt missing out on the Oscar had cost her professionally. "It does guarantee you more years of steady work," said Murphy. "People will take a chance on you and it reignites the studio's belief and passion in you. So she felt that she lost opportunities because of that. That she would have been seen differently as a person living in the present and not as a relic from the 1930s and '40s. It was sad for her and I felt badly for her. She obviously had a great amount of pain and regret over it."
Comparing the drama of 1963 to the unprecedented screw-up at this year's Academy Awards, Murphy said, "They were both similar in that they were both huge upsets. Everybody expected La La Land to win and in 1963 I think Bette Davis, from everything we've read, was absolutely considered to be the front-runner and a lock. Her loss was very surprising to people and interestingly enough was very surprising to her... This year and that year both had major upsets that definitely became a thing of legend."
