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

When Feud: Capote vs. Swans premieres Wednesday night, viewers will see Treat Williams in his final starring role.

The actor spent some of the final days before his fatal motorcycle accident in June on the set of a new FX series about Truman Capote’s confrontation with Manhattan socialites, whom the author called his “swans,” following the release of his raunchy film. The story “La Côte Basque, 1965.”

Williams, who has died aged 71, portrayed CBS co-founder Bill Paley, the powerful husband of Capote’s former friend Babe Paley (Naomi Watts).

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

A look back at some of Treat Williams’ most famous roles

The British actor, 56, believes Williams “was so happy to be there” working on Quarrel and they found him “so generous and talkative.”

Tom Hollander as Truman Capote in ‘Feud: Capote vs. Swans’.

Pari Duković/FX

Watts, also an executive producer Capote vs. Swanstells PEOPLE that he thinks Williams “did his best” when it came to playing Bill Paley.

“Every day he was delighted by those incredible scenes,” continues the mother of two children (55). “He was talking about, ‘I can’t believe I have such good material.’ And I think we all felt that way, even some of those scenes where he was acting horribly – the character, not Treat!”

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Babe was dying of lung cancer when Esquire published “La Côte Basque, 1965,” in which Capote exposed an affair Bill had with the wife of the governor of New York. Despite his supposed philharmonic, Bill continued to care for his wife in her dying days, which Williams accomplished, according to Watts.

“In the moments when Babe is at the end of his life, he had emotions that were so readily available,” she says. “And I think it had to do with him being at this point in his life where he was so grateful. We’re all absolutely heartbroken about it and devastated that he won’t be able to see his wonderful, wonderful work up there.”

Treat Williams as Bill Paley in ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.’

Pari Duković/FX

Quarrel director Gus Van Sant actually met Williams decades before they worked together on the Ryan Murphy-led limited series.

“Treat and I met once at an audition a while back, I think in the ’90s,” Van Sant, 71, tells PEOPLE. “But other than that, we haven’t seen each other since. And he grew up in the 60s in the neighborhood where I grew up in Darien, Connecticut. He was from Rowayton, Connecticut. So there were a lot of people he was related to, and our family knew that I knew. And it was fun to talk to him about the ’60s, because we’re the same age and we’ve both experienced all the things that happened in our community.”

Ryan Murphy shares ‘Last Thing’ actor Treat Williams told him after wrapping Feud: Capote vs Swans

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

“He would often tell a long story to someone on set to the point where the first AD had to shut him up,” he shares. “It was really tragic that he left us.”

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Feud: Capote vs. Swans premieres Wednesday at 10:00 PM ET on FX.

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Source: HIS Education