Igby Rigney is exhausted.
It’s a day before “The Shards” launches, and he’s just gotten back from Berlin, the final stop of a global press tour that also took him to New York and London. When the series debuts on FX on Aug. 5, he’ll be celebrating at the official launch party at a roller rink in Los Angeles.
Right now, during this brief moment of calm, he’s home in L.A. and resting with his cat, Plusha, who meows throughout our Zoom interview. “I feel like a Bond villain,” he says, petting the animal in his lap.
Rigney plays Bret in “The Shards,” Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 autofiction opus that follows the author in his high school years. Bret navigates teenage social politics, the drug-fueled excesses of 1980s Los Angeles and his closeted homosexuality, all while a serial killer stalks the Valley and picks off his classmates in an increasingly gruesome fashion.
The series marks the first time the 26-year-old actor headlines a major project. “They asked if I wanted to see the reviews when they come in. I guess they’ll put them in a packet,” Rigney says. “I was like, ‘Oh man, do I? I don’t know.’ I think I said, ‘Yes, I’ll take the packet, but I can’t promise to read all of them.’”
Ryan Murphy said at the New York premiere that about 500 actors auditioned for “The Shards.” What was your audition process like?
Yeah, I got the sides in my inbox, and I was super excited because they asked me to come in person to a studio in L.A. for the initial read. That’s very special, because so many times you don’t even get into the room with people until chemistry reads. I was over the moon to be doing it the old-fashioned way — getting to go in, meet the casting director and build a tape together with someone who knows exactly what they’re looking for.
We had a ton of fun in the room. Ryan saw that tape, and asked me to come to New York. That’s where I met [future co-stars] Graham [Campbell] and Hayes [Warner] at that initial callback with Ryan. I came in, and Ryan asked, “Have you read the book?” I was like, “No… I haven’t.” I think I gave a reasonable answer: I was so enamored by the sides he’d written, and I knew this was ultimately going to be an adaptation, so I wanted to focus on the material at hand for the audition. He said, “Great, that was awesome. I’d love to see you again, but go read the book. You must read the book before I see you next.”
So I did. I actually listened to the audiobook, which is read by Bret. Then I came back in and did a chem read with Graham and a chem read with Homer [Gere]. Ryan encouraged us to play. He approached it much more like an acting class or an acting exercise. It didn’t feel like a typical audition or a judgmental process. It wasn’t, “Are you good enough to play this part?” It was more, “Let’s play around, figure this out, and see how all of this feels.” Luckily, it all went well.
Your narration is a big part of the show. How did you craft the character’s voice, and did you base it on Bret’s reading of the audiobook?
I wanted to use it as a reference, because it’s so interesting how people speak and what they choose to emphasize — where you can hear excitement and patterns like that. I found an interview with Bret in his early 20s, which was the closest I could find to what he would have sounded like in high school. I listened to that a bunch, and I worked with Ryan to make sure it wasn’t distracting, and that it was all in service of telling the story.
Did you meet with Bret at any point? Has he been involved in your crafting of the character?
No. I mean, he’s been involved with the crafting of the character, but he’s been working with Ryan primarily. I’ve never gotten to meet him.
Would it have been helpful to meet Bret, do you think? Or was it beneficial to have that distance?
I don’t know, just because I haven’t had that interaction. Just being able to focus on the scripts and lean on Ryan and what he was hoping to bring to life has maybe led to more clarity and was less overwhelming for me. I didn’t have access to Bret and I don’t have access to whatever information I could have potentially learned from that, so I could just let that piece go and really focus on what Ryan was giving us on the day.
It’s interesting, because your part is both a real person and a fictional character.
That’s what’s so interesting about the book: So much of it is told with the phrase “I remember.” I remember I was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway. It’s almost like a motif in the text. I remember this, and I remember that. It’s all in retrospect, which is interesting to play. There’s a potential unreliable narrator element to it. Naturally, he is remembering a time that was very long ago, and we’re bringing that time period to life in the present.
What was it like to film on location in L.A.? Sadly, that’s a rare thing these days.
It was so cool. It was insane to be listening to the book, driving the streets that he’s talking about — also commuting in L.A. for me was a first. I know the routes through the hills now way more intimately than I ever thought I would. It certainly made me feel like I finally do live here now. I can confidently navigate the city without a map — not that that’s ever a good idea, because you never know where traffic is going to show up. But L.A. is almost a character in the book, and I think the show is such a beautiful visual love letter to the city.
There’s even a supposed secret shortcut to the Valley…
It exists, I think.
Say more.
If Terry Schaffer has access to it, then it must be a real thing. No, I love the L.A.-specific Easter eggs, and the shot of Cielo Drive, and the references to the history of the city. There is so much myth that surrounds Los Angeles, and that’s what makes it feel so alive to be here — both in reality and in the show. It’s an almost mythical place. There’s an unreliable history about Los Angeles. Will we ever know if a lot of those tropes and references are true?
Speaking of unreliability, so much of the book takes place in Bret’s head, and it’s unclear whether he is inventing certain things or actually seeing them. Plus, as you said, he’s recalling these events from decades later. How did you convey that unreliable factor on-screen, and how did you think about that while playing the part?
The way we bring that unreliability to life on screen is in the interactions between Bret and Robert. Some of those interactions happen only between them, with no witnesses. When they’re described to the group of friends by each character [after the fact], the descriptions are always different. We’re not sure who is lying and who is being truthful.
The story requires a psychosexual relationship between Bret and Robert. How did you create that chemistry with Homer Gere?
That was something Ryan helped us with in the chemistry read. He encouraged us to play with the dynamics and find the buttons we could push on each other. What created a physical response, and how could I surprise Homer and try to throw him off in a scene? We played this interesting game of tennis. But also, Homer and I love each other so much, and we’ve spent so much time together. The chemistry is real, because we’re trying to push each other’s buttons, but there is this underlying smile of, “Man, you’re really good at this, and I love doing this with you.” Those were some of my favorite scenes to film.
What were the most challenging scenes to film?
A big challenge actually came from how close we all got in real life. Bret has an interesting role in the friend group as this observer. He’s more connected to the world at large, and he’s starting to become isolated from his friends even though he cares deeply about them. He’s aware of all these happenings outside of their purview, and the more he tries to build a connection and reach out about the things that concern him, the less his friends want to entertain those conversations.
The isolation was hard to play because we’d be in a scene together as a group of friends. As actors, we’re all friends and having the time of our lives, and I had to lock into this thing of “nobody is listening to me.” I’m remembering passages of voiceover in my head while everybody else is having a conversation around me, and I’m trying not to smile and join this group of lovely people that I adore spending time with.
You could have gone Method, but then that would have been a more miserable experience.
I know. That definitely would have made some things easier, but then I would have missed out on so much!
Your character, at least in the book, has quite a bit of sex. Was that something you thought about when auditioning? Did it make you nervous?
I definitely thought about it, but it wasn’t something I was very worried about. I wanted to make sure that I could pull it off in a way that was good for the screen and good for whatever aesthetic values Ryan had for the story. But I didn’t have any nerves about that. Obviously, we’re living in the time of intimacy coordinators, so all of it is carefully choreographed and specified and monitored. It’s like doing a dance under a microscope. It’s not a big cause for concern for me.
There’s been a huge press blitz for “The Shards.” Over the past couple weeks you’ve been in New York, London, Berlin and Los Angeles. How does it feel to be No. 1 on the call sheet for a show like this?
I’ve had so many people, as they would say in “Lord of the Rings,” share the load with me. Ryan did a very special thing in creating this super tight cast. Everybody made us feel welcome and protected on set, and we had a little summer camp experience. It’s more unnerving that this experience I shared with a group of people I love is now being presented to the world. That’s a crazy trip. But I didn’t feel a ton of weight because everybody around me was so amazing. With the press tour, sometimes I felt a little bad because we were having so much fun with each other that maybe some of the questions weren’t given a satisfactory answer.
This interview has been edited and condensed.