Mark Ricker On Recreating the Illustrious and Essential Homes for ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’

A writer’s home is his haven, and the space where he works can be integral to his process or influence his words. If the author of In Cold Blood couldn’t concentrate in his environment, he might not have been able to write such elegant and morose prose in order to do the case or its subject justice. While watching FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, you notice how the apartments of the infamous writer and his former socialite brood also use their homes as home bases. Production designer Mark Ricker packs every nook and cranny with items and fabrics that serve as a comforting place to retreat as love and friendship become become weapons in a war on status and society.

You cannot notice how Capote dresses his home differently than of his beloved Babe Paley even though they spend every moment that they can with each other. Capote spent the money he made writing In Cold Blood on an apartment at the United Nations Plaza. Ricker reveals how they opened up the space, but one cannot help be drawn to the large portrait of himself hanging on a red wall in a lounge where Capote set up a place to write. I couldn’t help but think of Dorian Gray as a younger Capote’s eyes gaze down at you. The dark wood and the Tiffany lamps add an air of sophistication even if we wonder if the paperweights and books hold a personal significance.

The Paley St. Regis apartment, decorated by Billy Baldwin, feels like it stretches on forever. Their living room has shades of tobaccos and maroons with a fireplace flanked with gold candlesticks. The tented curtains feel like eyes fluttering shut from the emotional turmoil seen in that apartment. By contrast, Babe Paley’s bedroom (seen prominently in a touching scene between Naomi Watts’ Babe and Diane Lane’s Slim Keith), feels comforting with its pale blue hues and subtle, elegant wallpaper.

Ricker’s work extends to create the ravishing realms of La Côte Basque (with its tinges of salmon) and Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball, and he fully transports us back to a time of seemingly unattainable grace and style. The emotions and barbs hurled throughout this limited series have the ability to sting, but Ricker revitalizes a dreamy landscape full of sophistication.