RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The actor who plays the high schooler at the center of Ryan Murphy's FX adaptation of Ellis' classic book speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about the show everyone is talking about.
Logo text [This story contains spoilers up to episode four of The Shards .]
Igby Rigney was a big Ryan Murphy fan when the audition came to him for the lead role in The Shards . The process took a couple of months and, after landing the pivotal part, he dove head first into the book by Bret Easton Ellis on which the FX adaptation is based.
Rigney still hasn't met Ellis, who co-wrote the first two episodes with Murphy and then took a step back in what has been described as a "godfather-y approach" with the nine-episode adaptation that Murphy and Ellis plan to turn into a multi-year series . But Rigney has heard that Ellis is enjoying his take on Bret, the 17-year-old protagonist and narrator who is a fictionalized version of Ellis in his autofiction classic. Related Stories Critics' Conversation Critics Pick Summer TV's Beauties and Bores THR Spotlight Pop Singer Hayes Warner Never Acted Professionally in Her Life. Ryan Murphy Cast Her in 'The Shards' Anyway
"Obviously, the book has a very specific ending, but we're deviating from the source material a little bit in bringing it to the screen, so I'm not sure how any of that is going to play out," Rigney tells The Hollywood Reporter of Murphy adding in new storylines and characters to extend the show into three or four seasons. But by the end of season one, "people are going to be very split between the characters of Bret and Robert," Rigney says. "We do get to a point of picking sides."
The most recently released fourth episode, "Robert's Party," brought Bret and Robert, the latter who is played by Homer Gere, to their most antagonistic point yet. Over the course of a debaucherous party thrown at the Hollywood Hills mansion belonging to Kaia Gerber's character Susan Reynolds' father, a handful of the main characters were involved in a near-attack by a local cult leader, and Robert ends up needing to be resuscitated after hurling himself into the pool to cap off an erratic-turned-violent dance number that Rigney says Gere rehearsed "at least 100 times."
"There is definitely a pre-dance Homer and post-dance Homer — like his whole personality has changed since doing that in front [of everyone]," says Rigney, whose Bret was the one who sent Robert drinking — and then dancing — after telling the new kid in town that he heard the rumor that Robert may or may not have killed his mother.
Below, Rigney shares his casting story as he dives into his approach to playing Bret, details what it's like to play in the world of The Shards on a recreated 1981 Los Angeles set where he's chain-smoking chamomile cigarettes ("I would not recommend anybody picking up that particular habit," he says) and talks about the future of the adaptation.
Ryan Murphy told THR they saw 500 actors for The Shards . How familiar were you with Bret Easton Ellis and his book The Shards when you went out for the part of Bret, and what was your audition process like?
I wasn't familiar with Bret beyond American Psycho , to be honest. I hadn't read any of his stuff. I was familiar with Ryan, so when I got that audition in my inbox, I was freaking out. It was also a special audition because it was the first one I had done in person in almost a year, after the strikes and COVID moved everything over to Zoom or tapes. That was exciting and a whole different experience.
Being in the room, you get to be with a casting person who knows what they're looking for and who is reading with you. Ryan was also there. I went to New York. That was the first question he had for me: "Have you read the book?" I said no. I intentionally didn't try to jam the book in before that initial meeting, because I wanted to focus on the script and the sides in front of me and not get overwhelmed with extraneous information that may or may not end up being in the show or a part of the character. So that went well. He told me to read the book before he saw me again in L.A.
Then I did my chemistry reads with Graham [Campbell, who plays Thom] and Homer [Gere, who plays Robert], and Hayes [Warner, who plays Debbie] was there. It was really fun, and a long process. I think it was a couple of months.
Have we seen the scenes you auditioned with yet in the show?
Yes. We saw one of them in the stables, and we saw one of them at the mall. Homer and I, that was our scene that we did together [at the mall]. The "Yeah, you don't like being followed?" scene. Super fun.
Bret wrote the first two episodes with Ryan, and then handed off the torch, so to speak. Do you know if Bret was involved in your casting, and if he had a say in who played Bret?
I have no clue. I have no idea. I have heard him, through other people, say very kind things about me, and I'm excited that I'm being received positively in that particular arena. But besides that, I don't really know anything more.
It's interesting because you're playing Bret, but it's a fictionalized version. So did not being in touch with the real Bret, in ways, help you create this character you're bringing to the show?
Probably. I think it lends itself to a lot of clarity in the performance, because my point of contact for who the character of Bret is is really Ryan. It's Ryan's vision, and Ryan is very clear about where this was going, how he wanted it. Obviously, we discovered it along the way a little bit, especially with the voiceover in post and figuring out how that was going to sit with the show. So I think it has been a good thing.
Now having read Bret's books — I'm a huge fan! I think it'd be awesome to meet him! I'd be fan-girling out.
Is there one thing you'd want to ask Bret now?
If he really wore his pants that tight. Because, man, how did you sit at the typewriter and work on your novel in those fucking tight pants? ( Laughs .) Or did you take the pants off before y...
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