Ewan McGregor parties at Studio 54 and cosies with Liza Minelli in first look at camp new Ryan Murphy series
Ewan McGregor plays Halston in a new Ryan Murphy series. (Netflix)
Netflix has released tantalising first-look images of Ewan McGregor as gay Studio 54 icon Roy “Halston” Frowick in its upcoming limited series.
McGregor will play the famous fashion designer in the Ryan Murphy series, simply titled Halston. A release date for the five-part series has been confirmed as 14 May.
Netflix released two images of Ewan McGregor as Halston on Friday (23 April), showing him sitting at the fashion designer’s desk and speaking on the phone in his New York office.
A number of polaroid-style images were also released, giving a first-look at Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli and Gian Franco Rodriguez as Victor Hugo.
Ewan McGregor. (ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA/NETFLIX)
Netflix also released polaroid-style photos of David Pittu as Joe Eula, Rebecca Dayan as Elsa Peretti and Rory Culkin as Joel Schumacher, while another image shows the cast filming a scene set in New York’s iconic nightclub Studio 54.
Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli. (Netflix)
Gian Franco Rodriguez as Victor Hugo. (Netflix)
Rebecca Dayan as Elsa Peretti. (Netflix)
David Pittu as Joe Eula. (Netflix)
The cast of Halston shooting a scene set in New York’s Studio 54. (Netflix)
Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli and Ewan McGregor as Halston. (Netflix)
Rory Culkin as Joel Schumacher. (Netflix)
According to a synopsis released by the streamer, Halston will follow the fashion designer “as he leverages his single, invented name into a worldwide fashion empire that’s synonymous with luxury, sex, status and fame”.
The series will show Halston battling to keep control of his most “precious asset” – his name – following a “hostile takeover”, Netflix teased.
Ewan McGregor was ‘the only choice’ to play Halston in the Netflix series
Television mogul Ryan Murphy is an executive producer and writer on the hotly-anticipated limited series.
Speaking to Tom Ford in a Vogue interview, Murphy said McGregor was “the only choice” to play Halston in the series.
Ford confessed to Murphy that he originally thought the Scottish actor was “completely wrong” to play Halston, but he was won over when he saw the series.
“He was, to us, the only choice,” Murphy told Ford. “The thing that Ewan got about Halston was that Halston had a vision in mind of who he wanted to be in life. He was self-created.”
Halston rose to international prominence in the 1970s for his unique and minimalist design style. He became a staple of the Studio 54 scene and was often photographed in the nightclub with high-profile friends such as Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol.
Tragically, Halston tested positive for HIV in 1988. He died two years later from Kaposi’s sarcoma, which he developed as a result of AIDS.
