A lot went in to getting Feud: Bette and Joan right, especially for Susan Sarandon.
"Just terrified me, the idea of trying to make her live in the moment and be real and something that brought audiences in that weren't distracted by an imitation of this character that was so over the top actually," Sarandon told E! News about the challenges of playing legendary actress Bette Davis. "It took me at least about five weeks before the fear-fun ratio went in my favor because I was just so self-conscious, which usually isn't me."
Sarandon stars opposite Jessica Lange (in the role of Joan Crawford) in the series about the real-life feud between two Oscar-winning actresses before and after they filmed Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962.
"When you're playing somebody who's so well-known," Sarandon said at the premiere of Feud: Bette and Joan, "it's really scary. I don't know, I should've talked to a lot of those drag queens that do her because they don't seem to be scared at all. They've got it down and she loved that. She felt that really was a sign that she made it."
See how the actors transformed in our guide to the characters of Feud: Bette and Joan and their real-life counterparts. The cast for the new FX series also includes Stanley Tucci, Alfred Molina, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kiernan Shipka.
Feud: Bette and Joan premieres Sunday, March 5 at 10 p.m. on FX.