Igby Rigney opened up about how “confusing” the process of filming The Shards was — especially when the cast was shooting multiple different takes of the same scene.
“[Creator] Ryan [Murphy] was really fun in the way that he directed us where he would have us do multiple takes multiple ways,” Rigney, 23, exclusively told Us ahead of the season 1 finale on Wednesday, September 9.
The actor, who plays Brett, never knew which version would make the final cut.
“We were never clued in on which take he was going to use. And then I’m sure some of those takes got combined to make it extra confusing,” Rigney continued. “But getting to have the narration sometimes was a little challenging on set though.”
He added: “Because everybody around me is having fun, and I’m staring deeply into the middle distance thinking about this big, long paragraph I have, but I’m not saying it out loud.”
The Shards is a TV adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis‘ fictionalized memoir about his high school years. The 2023 release was Ellis’ first in 13 years and has a disclaimer stating that all the major players in The Shards are fictional — apart from the narrator.
Executive producer Brad Simpson offered more insight into the creative approach when it came to teasing the show’s biggest mysteries.
“It’s interesting to see what made it and which takes Ryan chose from. Because it was just a way to get different performances out of people,” Simpson noted. “So he would do that and he would tell every director coming in that when he filmed them. He would go, ‘OK, now play the take like you’re hiding something or like you’re the killer.’ It was just to see what they did.”
Simpson considered the concept useful, saying, “It was to get different responses from them. And then that stew was put together in the cutting room, and I think Ryan just used the takes that made sense. It wasn’t even with an objective toward tipping your hat. He really would do a lot of performance takes with the cast.”
The screenwriter praised Murphy for the approach.
“I’ve been on other Ryan shows where he’s just going for something very specific. But he had a lot more fun and leeway on this show where he wanted the actors to play things in different ways — and the show gets more and more bizarre as it goes on.”
Simpson compared the vision to prolific producer David Lynch and his hit campy series Twin Peaks.
“These characters fall into this world that is, like, so alien to high school. They’re high school students by day and being hunted by a killer by night. But it was a lot of fun. The cast had a lot of fun,” he shared with Us.”Once we were in the groove of those last couple episodes, it just got more and more twisted on set and more and more fun. We were really going toward this crescendo.”
He concluded: “The cast really felt instant nostalgia for the season because it is the first big thing for a lot of them. The first TV series for a lot of them, and they all got along so well. … Ryan used to love sitting around and asking them who they thought the killer was.”
The Shards airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX.
