RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Logo text Hayes Warner first read The Shards — Bret Easton Ellis' fictionalized memoir about a serial killer targeting his high school classmates in Los Angeles — when it was just a glimmer in superproducer Ryan Murphy 's eye, and she couldn't stop imagining it on the screen. When she found out it was getting made into a series, she called her agent immediately: She was ready to drop everything for a chance to play the poor-little-rich-girl lead, Debbie Schaffer. Never mind that the pop singer had never booked a professional role before.
"I describe it as my seven-month battle because I wanted it so bad," the 27-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter. She briefly turns on her Zoom camera to apologize for her current state — in a salon chair with foils in her bright blond hair — but it's days before the FX show is set to premiere, so the multitasking is forgivable. Related Stories TV 'American Horror Story: 13' First Teaser Returns Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Twisty the Clown, Rubber Man and More for All-Star Season TV How 'The Shards' Blew Up at HBO -- and Ended Up in Ryan Murphy's Hands
No matter how badly she wanted the role, she would have to convince casting directors she could handle it. She'd been working as a pop singer for her entire adult life and performed on stages as prominent as Lollapalooza, but despite studying musical theater in college, Warner had no body of acting work to point to.
Before getting the chance to audition, she needed to send in a tape. Thankfully, she had a trusted collaborator. "I did the self-tape with my dad in my living room," she says. "It was one of my first self-tapes. I mean, I'd acted my whole life, but it was the first time that I was really targeting [a project]. I heard that Ryan wanted to meet me in New York, which was a crazy, out-of-body experience."
It was at an April 2025 audition, at some corporate office in New York, that Warner first met Igby Rigney and Graham Campbell, who would become her eventual co-stars. Then came the meeting with Murphy, which went well. But there was still one last step.
Warner headed to Los Angeles for a screen test, with Murphy present. "I walk into the room and there are a million other blondes that I've seen in epic TV and film, and I think to myself, 'All right, OK, I'm done.' "
She pushed through the experience. At one point, Murphy gave her a note. She didn't understand what the producer had meant but never asked for clarification, fearing it might reveal her inexperience. Whatever he'd intended, it appeared that she hadn't delivered: It was the end of her Shards journey. "None of the blondes get Debbie, but the boys do get cast," she recalls.
Warner and the other actresses decided to get drinks and commiserate over the experience. "Everyone else has a bunch of projects lined up, and they're all talking about it," she recalls. "I'm thinking, 'Fuck, I just want to be Debbie Schaffer.' "
Her friends, family and representation urged her to move on. Unwilling to let go of her dream role, she ignored the advice. "I wrote Ryan a letter," she says.
"I said to him how much his work meant to me and how I would love another chance to do a self-tape or come to him wherever he was with notes because I didn't really understand what he was saying," she says. When she didn't hear back, it only deepened the heartbreak. Everyone, it seemed, had been right. This time, she would move on.
Warner threw herself back into music and headed out on a tour. She found herself in Midland, Texas, later in 2025, when she received an email from Murphy with more notes and a request to see her again. Her first panicked thought: "I have no ring light!"
"I'm manic. I get a bedsheet at Bed Bath & Beyond and tape it up in the Best Western in Midland," she says. "I send in the self-tape, with my dad on FaceTime reading for [the character of my mom]."
The makeshift setup, the second attempt at a self-tape and the personal note to Murphy had evidently worked — the day after she sent in her tape, she got the phone call: She'd booked the role of Debbie. The only catch? She needed to move to L.A. in two weeks to start shooting.
The actress promptly withdrew from the tour she was opening for and set off to Hollywood to join her castmates. As she recalls, it wasn't so much a hard decision as a "complicated" game of logistical Tetris. "But I had even said in my letter to Ryan, I would drop really anything for this project," Warner says.
She dove into the eight-month-long production as only a musician could, accompanied by a Spotify playlist she found that compiled all of the songs mentioned in the book.
Warner emphasizes that Murphy knew she was a touring musician "first and foremost" and enlisted her to create music for the series, and now sends her references whenever he hears a song that he thinks she'd be good at performing.
She hopes to book another role soon, but says acting has taken a back seat since The Shards wrapped this spring. Warner says she's been in near-constant studio sessions for music for the series and for a new album. The still-unnamed project, which she swears she was working on prior to the role, might sound a little familiar to anyone tuning in to the series. She admits, "It's very Shards -y."
This story appeared in the Aug. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .
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