No one plays James Baldwin on screen, but Chris Chalk made it look easy

22.02.2024 - 20:05 / polygon.com / James

James Baldwin is, to put it mildly, foundational. Oft-quoted and adapted across media, Baldwin’s work still forms the spine of our modern understanding of racial and sexual liberation, yet — perhaps out of reverence — he’s rarely been portrayed dramatically on-screen. Chris Chalk, in other words, had monumental shoes to fill in portraying the beloved writer, who, as a well-documented orator, many Americans are intimately familiar with. Chalk takes on the challenge with aplomb, giving a scene-stealing turn in this week’s episode of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

In the episode, titled “The Secret Inner Lives of Swans,” Chalk’s Baldwin visits Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) to shake the writer out of his near-suicidal malaise following the publication of Capote’s essay exposing the scandals of his socialite friends. The two spend a day roaming New York having a wide-ranging conversation cutting at the core of Feud’s themes: the shallow performances of the wealthy, the thinly veiled racism and bigotry underpinning high society, and the artist’s duty in portraying them.

Sitting down for a Zoom conversation with Polygon, Chalk — an exuberant and loquacious presence — contemplated a lot of the same things, talking about Baldwin’s legacy and imagined tension between both literary giants.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Polygon: I know when the casting was announced you said you’d always wanted to portray Baldwin. He’s someone we haven’t really seen on screen in a professional context much. Did that make your job harder, easier? Is there anything you wanted to accomplish with this little time you have?

Chris Chalk: I don’t think it was harder or easier that no one else has played him. I think that I took in that as the gravity of how important it was. I think that he’s a person that people don’t toy with. One of the things I panicked about — not panic, I’m being hyperbolic — but the thing that was stressing me was, the made-up stress, was like: Nobody touches him and everyone likes him. During his time — he was, you know, an openly gay, effeminate Black man — he couldn’t be the biggest part of the Black Power movement. So he’s off in Paris, but everyone still liked him. And we like him even more and more today as we become a kinder society that’s going, Oh my god, this guy had so many good points. And we weren’t listening even then. He continues to be a teacher.

So, yeah, man; tons of pressure, tons of excitement, tons of, like — it’s not a test, but seeing how, with the time I’m blessed with, how well can I embody this man whom I so adore, without being in such adoration that I make him non-human? You know what I mean? And that was the beauty of this opportunity is, not too much