'Feud' director Ryan Murphy on working with women over 40

— -- Ryan Murphy is emphasizing the importance of creating more roles for women, particularly those over the age of 40.

Murphy — the creative force behind TV favorites such as "Glee," "Nip/Tuck," "American Horror Story" and now "Feud" — told ABC News it's time for change in Hollywood.

"I do work with a lot of women in my company, and I write a lot of roles for women over 40. I think in 'Feud' alone we have 15 roles for women over 40, which I'm very proud about," he said in a recent appearance on ABC News' "Popcorn With Peter Travers."

"And I hear it time and time again that there's these amazingly talented women who at the age of 40, you're just sort of figuring out who you are and you're getting started, and then — boom — down comes the curtain and the industry doesn't write to them," he added, suggesting that Hollywood is missing out. "They're not interested in that demographic — which has never made sense to me. Because that demographic controls so much money and has so much economic power."

That lack of balance partly inspired Murphy to produce and direct the new anthology series "Feud," airing on FX. This season tells the story of the rivalry between the legendary actresses Joan Crawford (played by Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (played by Susan Sarandon) and how the two came together to work on the classic film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

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"I was really interested in the 'Baby Jane' story because when Bette and Joan made that movie, they were done," Murphy told Travers. "Their careers were pretty much wrapped at 50. And I, as a man, am 50, and I feel like I'm just getting started," he said.

Murphy added, "So in the writing process, when I was writing it and working on it, I came to that place where, well, how would I feel if I was just sort of figuring out my power and my strength and what I was good at and down came the wall and people said, 'Bye-bye. Go out to pasture'? I was moved by that, and I felt for them. I just felt that there were these two legendary women who should have had a much greater third act."

"All of ... their male contemporaries were alive and kicking," he continued. "And they [Crawford and Davis] were fighting for the scraps. And they were very ambitious women, and they kept fighting until the very end."

Travers asked Murphy if he has always been crazy about the era of Hollywood when Crawford and Davis were acting.

"I grew up in Indiana. I was an altar boy, with a very strict father. And movies were always my escape. I escaped into them, and the Bette Davis connection was weird, because I was very much raised by my grandmother, who kind of was Bette Davis. She looked and acted like Bette Davis," Murphy said. "I had an instant maternal feeling about her. And I guess it was a way for me to be with my grandmother when I wasn't with my grandmother."

And when he was 10 years old, he said, he wrote a letter to Davis.

"I just said how much I admired her and how much 'you made me feel happy because you remind me of my grandmother,'" he said. "And I think that touched something in her — this little weirdo 10-year-old writing a fan letter, which I probably was the only one at the time — and she was sort of tickled by it, I think."

Be sure to watch the video above to see Murphy's full interview with Travers.