Netflix will begin streaming Its
limited series Halston on May 14.
The series stars Ewan McGregor as gay
fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick. McGregor, 50, also served as an
executive producer on the show. The series from Legendary Television
has been in development since 2019.
Halston rocketed to fame after he
designed the pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her
husband's 1961 presidential inauguration. Celebrity clients included
Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Margaux Hemingway, Elizabeth Taylor,
Bianca Jagger, and Liza Minnelli.
In a recent interview with Variety,
McGregor responded to comments by out actor Billy Porter (Pose).
Porter noted that while gay actors are typecast into flamboyant
roles, straight actors win awards for taking on gay roles.
“I hear the discussion and I respect
both sides of it,” said
McGregor, who has played gay in Velvet Goldmine, I Love
You Phillip Morris, and The Pillow Book. "I haven't
walked in Billy Porter's shoes. I don't know what it's like to lose
out parts when you might feel it's to do with your sexuality. So I
can only respect his point of view."
He continued, saying that had the
series dealt more with Halston's sexuality, casting a gay actor would
have been appropriate. “In this case … I felt like it was just
one part of who he was,” McGregor said.
Producer Ryan Murphy, who called
McGregor “the only choice” to play Halston, has painted the
series as a deep dive into Halston's personal life, telling Vogue
that Halston became an “out-of-control personality” after the end
of a 10-year-relationship with Venezuelan-born artist Victor Hugo.
“It was interesting when we were
researching it because Halston, I think, used drugs and sex as a
release from the pressure, from the creation, from the worry of
having the lights turned off, and we made sure to dramatize that,”
Murphy
said. “Many creative people burn out from too much sex, too
much drugs or alcohol, too much pressure. So we wanted to be careful
to make that part of his creative experience.”
The series ends in 1990 as Halston dies
from complications related to AIDS at the age of 57.