Tom Hollander Says He Still Hasn’t 'Really Mourned'FeudCostar Treat Williams: 'It’s Very Tragic' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tom Hollander (left) and Treat Williams.Photo:Cindy Ord/Getty; Rachel Luna/Getty

Cindy Ord/Getty; Rachel Luna/Getty

WhenFeud: Capote Vs. The Swanspremieres Wednesday night, viewers will seeTreat Williamsin his last major role.

The actor spent some of the final days before hisfatal motorcycle accidentin June on set of the new FX series that tells the story ofTruman Capote’s fallout with Manhattan’s socialites, who the author called his “swans,” in the aftermath of releasing his salacious “La Côte Basque, 1965” story.

Williams, who died at age 71, portrays CBS co-founder Bill Paley, the powerful husband of Capote’s former confidante Babe Paley (Naomi Watts).

“It’s very, very tragic and it’s quite difficult for us to talk about because he was right there just now,”Tom Hollander, who portrays Capote inFeud, tells PEOPLE of Williams' death. “We haven’t really mourned him. We were just getting to know him. He was a very, very sweet spirit. He was the most positive up, glass-half-full enthusiast.”

The British actor, 56, believes Williams “was so happy to be there” working onFeudand considered him “so generous and talkative.”

Tom Hollander as Truman Capote in ‘Feud: Capote Vs The Swans’.Pari Dukovic/FX

Pari Dukovic/FX

Watts, also an executive producerCapote Vs. The Swans, tells PEOPLE she thinks Williams “gave it his absolute all” when it came to playing Bill Paley.

“He was delighted every day with these incredible scenes,” themom of two, 55, continues. “He talked about it, ‘I cannot believe I’ve got such good material.’ And I think we all felt like that, even some of those scenes where he was behaving horribly — the character, not Treat!”

For more onFeud: Capote Vs. The Swans, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.

Babe had been dying of lung cancer whenEsquirepublished “La Côte Basque, 1965,” in which Capote outed an affair Bill had been having with the wife of a New York governor. Despite his alleged philandering, Bill continued to care for his wife in her dying days, a performance Williams nailed according to Watts.

Treat Williams as Bill Paley in ‘Feud: Capote Vs The Swans’.Pari Dukovic/FX

FeuddirectorGus Van Santactually met Williams decades before they worked together on theRyan Murphy-helmed limited series.

“Treat and I had met one time at an audition a while ago, I think in the ‘90s,” Van Sant, 71, tells PEOPLE. “But besides that, we hadn’t seen each other since then. And he grew up in the ‘60s next door to where I grew up in Darien, Connecticut. He was from Rowayton, Connecticut. So there was a lot of people that he was related to that our family knew that I knew. And it was fun to just talk to him about the ‘60s, because we’re the same age and all the things that happened in our community we both experienced.”

Van Sant found Williams to be a “really a fun person to talk to.”

“He was often telling a long story to somebody on the set to the point where the first AD had to quiet him down,” he shares. “It was really tragic to have him leave us.”

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Feud: Capote Vs. The Swanspremieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

source: people.com