Ryan Murphy Reveals 3 ‘The Shards’ Actors Who Didn’t Have to Audition & Why He Chose Them
Ryan Murphy‘s brand new series The Shards is currently airing on FX on Hulu and it features a cast made up of both newcomers and veterans.
The show, based on Bret Easton Ellis‘ autofiction novel, is set against the vivid backdrop of 1980s Los Angeles and follows a group of privileged high school seniors at an elite prep school as they navigate identity, sex, jealousy, obsession and the dangers lurking beneath the surface of American adolescence.
In a new interview, Ryan revealed three actors who received direct offers to be in the show without having to audition.
Kaia Gerber as Susan Reynolds
Ryan revealed that it was Bret‘s idea to cast Kaia Gerber in the role of Susan Reynolds. He had already pitched the idea to her before Ryan came on board to create the show!
He told THR, “When I met with Bret, I said, ‘Do you have any casting ideas?’ He said, ‘Not really. But I think Kaia Gerber would be great as Susan.’ I said, ‘Well that’s interesting, because I cast Kaia when she was 18 in her first thing ever [American Horror Story].’ So I knew Kaia. Once I got the rights, I called her. She had met with Bret on another project and he had mentioned The Shards, but Kaia kept it secret. She really wanted to do it and Susan was her favorite character in the book, so that was a piece of cake.”
Evan Rachel Wood as Liz Schaffer
Ryan had been looking for another project to do with Evan Rachel Wood after working with her 20 years ago on the movie Running with Scissors.
He told THR, “Evan Rachel Wood, I had worked with in Running With Scissors, and always wanted to work with again. She just got the offer and said yes.”
Wes Bentley as Terry Schaffer
Ryan worked with Wes Bentley in 2014 on the pilot Open, which did not get picked up to series.
He told THR, “Wes Bentley, I did a pilot for at HBO called Open that did not go. I always wanted to work with him. He got the offer and said yes.”
How Ryan cast everyone else…
Ryan told THR, “The rest of the cast was months and months and months of auditioning. Many of them came in and read for three or four different parts and we would mix and match them. It. It was a very long process, but it was really fun.”
“My casts are very star-studded where people just get offers; I talk to them and they do it or they don’t. But this one, I really wanted to spend a lot of time auditioning people. We saw like 500 actors for these parts. I think that February date was the date we started the casting process, pre-production and all of that stuff,” he added.
Ryan noted that when Igby Rigney walked in the room, he thought the actor looked like a young Bret Easton Ellis. He said, “He has that mysterious aura about him where he’s an observer. He very quickly in my mind was the one to beat. But Igby also read for other parts. I hadn’t done anything like that in a really long time.”
We have some surprising details about the killer in the series.
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