Igby Rigney’s next role is something special. In Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of The Shards, Bret Easton Ellis’ unsettling, noir-tinged novel about a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends, Rigney plays a fictionalised version of Ellis himself. For those familiar with the book, you’ll already be picturing its dark, decadent 80s Los Angeles – its unease and obsession, glitz and gore – only here it’s refracted and heightened through Murphy’s singular, hyper-visual storytelling. It’s a recipe for edge-of-your-seat TV, and for Rigney, it’s a project poised to accelerate him into the mainstream.

Alex James Taylor: I really want to talk about The Shards. I’m super excited for it. What can you actually tell us about it?
Igby Rigney: Oh, boy, I don’t want to get in trouble. [laughs] I can tell you that the show is based on the book and it’s inspired by those characters. I can confidently say that the first episode really feels a tonne like the book, and that’s the only one that I’ve seen so far.

AJT: And Bret Easton Ellis actually worked on the adaptation himself, was he on set with you at all?
IR: No, he was never on set and I never got to meet him, which was potentially a good thing because I think I would have jumped too much into a comparison of like, trying to [replicate] this specific thing. I did a lot of research into older materials of his and interviews [he’d done]. Obviously Bret in the book is a fictionalised version of himself in high school, and I really wanted to capture the essence of that, and what his voice would have been like when he was younger.

AJT: Can you take me through your thoughts when you first got the script, and your first moves in general when you get a script you like and begin to think about the character?
IR: When I got the script for the audition, the thing that I really responded to on the pages was that… Sometimes the lines just make sense in your brain. I’ve noticed that the easier it is for me to memorise something, the more that I feel calm about it, because those thoughts kind of line-up in my head. And then when I got this project, I mean, I went into the first audition having not read the book because I wanted to honour what was
on the page and just roll with that, in case it was going to be different, and also to not to set expectations up for myself mentally. Then Ryan [Murphy] told me to read the book, so I didn’t actually read it, I listened to the podcast because I knew the voice was going to be an important part of it for me, or at least to try and find Bret and play around with that [Bret Easton Ellis narrates the audiobook]. And I fucking love that book. It’s so good.

AJT: He really pulls you into his world.
IR: It was also so cool being in LA and living in Studio City blocks away from Buckley, and when he’s like, “I took a ride on Valley Vista and then a left on Mulholland” – I’m like, “I’m making these turns right now!” I’m in the car listening to it and driving the same route. I loved that, you just can’t help but imagine everything in a real context.

AJT: And how was it working with Ryan?
Igby: Ryan was so fantastic. I grew up watching Glee with my mom as a kid, and then I watched American Horror Story by myself because she wasn’t super into the horror element. [laughs] So Ryan Murphy is the guy. Working with him as a director was so nice, and I think because he was also producing, he was able to kind of be in a scene with us, and we would rehearse it, and he had the ability to be like, “Yeah, this isn’t working. We’re going to change this dialogue. We’re going to shift this tone. Let’s shoot it this way.” There was so much fluidity and aliveness to the process that made it really, really seamless. He’s very direct about what he wants, and for me, the thing that I found working with him was that a lot of his direction was very… like choreography. It almost became a dance between the camera, the line, and the intention. And I really loved it, because it was like a whole- body sensation and experience.

AJT: He’s got such a rhythm to his work and a distinctive pace. Did that help knowing his work and style so well already?
IR: Maybe, yeah. I went in having seen Monster and some of his more recent stuff that I thought was going to be analogous time-period-wise, and being able to see his aesthetic for that. I think it served me in the long run, but I did learn that you just have to do the homework and then forget about it, because whatever Ryan wanted on the day was what was happening.

AJT: It’s having the preparation in your back pocket, but then letting go of it when you’re in the moment. You said about the era, it’s set in the 80s, right?
IR: Early 80s, 1981.

AJT: How was it being in that world of 80s LA?
IR: It made it so tactile, and for me, it made it a lot easier, because it immediately jumps you into a character. Playing something modern, there’s always that touch of you, or you could fall back into your patterns, but because we were in period cars, in period clothes, you look in the mirror and you’re like, “That’s definitely not me.” [laughs] And we got to work in a lot of the houses that are just a couple of blocks away. Some days I walked to set. Being in that different era was very cool, because LA still has all of that stuff.

AJT: For sure, you can still feel it. Do you remember first falling in love with acting as a kid?
IR: I actually wanted to be a guitar player, and I was doing music primarily. Then I went to a performing arts camp that had a rock programme but also had musical theatre, and one of my friends dared me to audition for a musical. I really enjoyed that process, and then it just kind of kept rolling. After I had done a few small community shows, I realised that I wanted to not just show up and have fun – I wanted to be good at this. After that, I definitely took more notice of films and it became more of an obsession. I was lucky enough to grow up around the Jacob Burns Film Center in New York, and my dad and I used to go. I remember seeing Moonrise Kingdom at the right age for that to just absolutely rock my world. I was fourteen, and we should absolutely run away and live in the woods!

AJT: Without a doubt! And you also have the film Charmers coming soon.
IR: That was such… I got to be in Oregon with my best friend, Johnny [Berchtold] and make a movie together.

AJT: So, you were friends before the movie?
IR: Yeah, we met a couple years ago because we have the same manager. I read the script, and I was like, “I want to do this.” And then I asked Matt [Berns, director] if they had cast the brother yet, and they were like, “Oh yeah, we cast a brother.” Then that guy dropped out and I was like, “You have to get my friend Johnny on this.” And they were like, “We love Johnny!” We did it in like, three weeks, up in Oregon. It was really fun.

AJT: What can you tell me about that?
IR: It’s about two brothers whose parents are out of town for the weekend, and the older brother wants to host a party. Essentially, nobody shows up to this party except a girl that they meet at the liquor store while they’re buying booze. And it becomes a whole debaucherous night of just the three of them. It’s this really, really sweet and wholesome coming-of-age story about two brothers who are struggling, having never spoken about deep family trauma, and then this person brings it out of them across a weekend and they finally get to have that conversation.

AJT: What kind of stuff do you get up to outside of acting – how do you switch off?
IR: Recently, I’ve been training in Tai Chi.

AJT: That’s cool.
IR: Yeah, it’s just been a really beautiful tool, physically, mentally and spiritually, to experiment and figure out where I’m holding tension and what I need to let go of.

AJT: It’s funny, a few actors I’ve spoken to recently have told me that they practice martial arts. Maybe it comes from a need to do something active with your body.
IR: I think so. I was initially drawn to it physically, but there are so many beautiful mental exercises and philosophy in Taoism. Holding two truths at once and riding that S-curve in the middle of duality – it’s been really helpful for me to relax and focus and be present.

Hair and makeup by ADAM MARKARIAN using ORIBE HAIRCARE and DIOR BEAUTY
Wearing Cartier