When a storyline has a whodunnit reveal, some actors want to know how the script ends immediately. Others want to be left in the dark. But during filming for Ryan Murphy‘s new thriller The Shards on Disney+, the cast were constantly guessing what was real.
Speaking to TV WEEK, leading stars Igby Rigney, Hayes Warner and Homer Gere explained that Ryan Murphy asked the cast, which also includes Kaia Gerber and Graham Campbell, to play their characters two different ways: innocent and guilty. The co-creator and producer, famous for series such as American Horror Story and Glee, wanted the story to remain ambiguous.
What is The Shards about?
The high school thriller is based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis – the same writer who wrote American Psycho. So you can expect some twists!
Set in 1981 Los Angeles, The Shards follows high school student Bret (Igby Rigney) and his group of privileged friends, Susan (Kaia Gerber), Debbie (Hayes Warner) and Thom (Graham Campbell) as they enter their senior year. The arrival of enigmatic new student Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) also coincides with a serial killer, nicknamed The Trawler, who is terrorizing the city.
Is it just a coincidence?
“One of the things we keep saying is we don’t know who The Trawler is either,” Igby, 24, tells TV WEEK. “So, Ryan gave us opportunities to do different takes of each scene as the killer, and not [the killer]. And then all of it was decided in the edit; it was a cool process. But Ryan was so involved in this, and I felt like I could go to him with any questions.”
Hayes adds that Ryan helped her understand the complicated dynamic between high school sweethearts Bret and Debbie.
“I was struggling with, why is Debbie with Bret?” she says of their alter-egos. “Igby and I were able to dive into it with Ryan who explained to us that there’s a layer of friendship there. It really helped me understand them.”
Homer says his character was quite particular and purposely led the audience to question his motives.
“He could be personable or quite murderous,” Homer, 26, says. “But in other scenes, Ryan wanted to show a sense of who this guy is; he’s a new kid at school and people can relate to that.”
An era revisited
Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that Homer is the son of Hollywood legend Richard Gere. He shares the screen alongside Kaia, the daughter of famous model Cindy Crawford.
During the 1990s, Richard and Cindy were married but didn’t have children together. Homer is the son of Richard and his ex-wife Carey Lowell, while Kaia is daughter to Cindy and husband Rande Gerber.
However, the connection was immediately recognized by the young duo when they met on The Shards, and they have since become close friends.
The ‘creepy’ encounters on The Shards
Whilst filming the horror show, life imitated art a little when strange disturbances took place – including a break in!
“I was broken into where I was living in Los Angeles at the time,” Hayes recalls. “It was creepy the way it happened and reminded me of The Trawler; there was dirt on the walls – I immediately moved!” she says.
Meanwhile Igby contended with a rogue swing in a playground, the stuff of nightmares!
“We were filming at a school and there was an unsettling swing that continued to creak in the breeze,” Igby says. “We’d just wrapped and it was maybe 3am and I kept walking by it… it was not okay!”
Complete with a killer soundtrack and 80s nostalgia, the production is a visual feast as the ‘other half’ exhibit their wealth and influence. But a serial killer doesn’t care for materialistic things… they care more about murder.
As their friends go missing and paranoia and obsession reaches an all-time high, everyone could be a suspect.
The Shards is available now on Disney+
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