“I always wanted to adapt Bret’s work,” the prolific creator behind American Horror Story, Love Story, Glee says.

For Murphy, 1981 was a seminal year. Like the characters in his TV adaptation, it was a year of firsts. Every reference in the book felt familiar, from clothes to music to code-switching from the protagonist based on Ellis. I told Bret: ‘I get it. I lived it.’ I guess it worked, because he let me have the rights.”

The Shards, starring Igby Rigney (as Ellis), Hollywood offspring Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere, along with Evan Rachel Wood and Wes Bentley, premiered Wednesday night with its first two of 9 episodes.

Murphy talks about how his passion won over Ellis as he goes inside the casting process — “We saw 500 actors for these parts” — of an “emotional” production, how they approached the eroticism, and reveals that he and Ellis have plotted three-season series from the start: “It certainly will launch discussions.”

I read all of Bret’s books the moment they come out. I always have, ever since his first book. And when it became available, I kind of swooped in and begged and pleaded and I was thrilled that I could get it. I was thrilled that I was at the time able to, after many years.

Your pitch to Bret?

My pitch was that I’m going to get it made. I’m going to make it something that  you would like. He and I are similar age. When I talked to him, all you can do in those situations is come from a place of passion.

I have been asked for years, “Why don’t you do something about your life? Why don’t you do something about your childhood?”  My pitch to him was that 1981, the year the book is set, was the most important year of my life. That was the year I turned 16. That was my first date. My first driving lesson. I lost my virginity. I really understood those kids, and particularly the Brett character.

I understood what it was like to pretend you’re one thing by day and be a different thing by night, talking about my gay life. I really understood that character, who is autofiction but kind of based on Bret, who code-switched between identities. I knew what the clothes looked like; I wore them. I knew what the music sounded like. All of the references in the book, I knew what they were.

But I did have a run-in with Casey, and he was cool. He was like, “I’m so thrilled that you are doing this and that you get to tell this story. We love Bret and we love you.” It was just very kind. It felt like everybody was rooting for each other.

I have no idea, and Bret never talked about it other than that he had his own experiences. I was trying to come from a place of passion to get the rights.

It was February 2025 when you came in?

That may have been when the rights closed. Bret and I had met and got it nailed down earlier than that.

Bret wanted a more hands-off approach with this adaptation

The other thing that Bret said: “I think that this story could be multiple seasons.” The book is very dense. People will love these characters. So we had always talked that, in success, this is a three- or four-year series where it takes place over the course of one school year.

Bret co-wrote these first two episodes with you

My working relationship with him was great. He made it very clear: “I’m here if you have any questions.” I had a great template with the book. Everyone in the cast had the book, so if we had a question, we flipped to the page in the book. Or we asked our writers assistants, “Can you review this scene?” Many scenes, the dialogue is verbatim from the book, so that was incredibly helpful.

When you’re creating a show that goes three or four years, you have to add new characters that are in the tone of the book.

He was wonderful and always available, particularly with our producers who were on the ground, Brad Simpson and Nina [Jacobson. We showed Bret the first 2 episodes when they were complete. From what I hear, he really loved them. Bret has his own way of talking about his work and adaptations in the media, which I’ve always respected. It was kind of a: “I’m here if you need me, but also, do your thing.”

This story has all the makings of a Ryan Murphy show

Bret and I never talked about the identity of the killer. Obviously, the killer is a person; that’s very clear. But the subtext of that year was ingrained in the writing because I had my first sexual experience in February 1981, and then three or four months later was the New York Times story about how there’s  new, mysterious disease killing gay men.

My adolescence, as it was for millions of people, was always that intimacy was intertwined with death and trauma.

That idea that everybody is being hunted and taken out at the prime of their lives by this mysterious killer, was very interesting to explore. I spoke to the cast about that. All of that trauma and yearning and longing and pain and wanting to be accepted was baked in, particularly in the pilot

I felt it very deeply. Obviously, throughout my entire career I’ve done a lot of pieces about the AIDS epidemic. It was my experience. The Shards is a whodunnit. But I really understood, “Wait, why are people I love dying?” Because I lost so many friends in a personal way.

Compare The Shards to your other recent shows? 

It is the first time I’ve ever really done anything about my childhood.

I had it a little bit in some works, but not recently. Not to the level of which it moves me and I really understood it. I got very emotional making this, because you’d be directing and playing a song from Mood, and it would take you back to this period, either joyful or upsetting. I found it to be very cathartic, and I spent a lot of time with that young cast. We had many dinners. I talked to them about what it was like to be this age in that year, pro and con. There was lot of beautiful, wonderful things — the clothes, the music, the excitement of being on the cusp of a new decade. You feel like the world is your oyster at that age, and you’re not prepared— nor should you be — for any trauma or death.

I’ve written about my youthful experience in other things, but I’ve never done a period piece that reflects my time as a young person like that

Casting process? 

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, I had worked with in Running With Scissors, and wanted to work with again. She just got the offer and said yes. Wes Bentley, I did a pilot for at HBO called Open that did not go. He got the offer and said yes. Then the rest of the cast was months of auditioning. Many came in and read for three or four different parts and we would mix and match them.  It was a very long process, but it was really fun.

When Igby Rigney, who plays Bret] walked through the door, I was like, “He looks like a young Bret.” 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. 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.

Homer Gere and Kaia Gerber first meeting each other, joking about their famous parents Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford

That was a private meeting with Kaia and Homer. I’m friends with Richard Gere and I’m really good friends with Cindy Crawford. Homer was someone who auditioned and walked in the room, and everyone was kind of blown away by his presence and what he could do as an actor. So when we got time to make offers, I talked to Kaia and Homer about: “Are you all cool with this? Because the media is certainly going to write about it.” That’s not why Homer got the part. It was because he was always the best actor for that role. He auditioned many times. If at any point along the way Homer or Kaia or their parents said, “I’m not cool with that,” then I would not have done it. I tried to be respectful and they were all very gracious about it. Everybody was wonderfully adult and open and responsible.

Deeply erotic show, and not as sexually graphic as the book

I’ve done shows with high school characters, and I love doing them. That arena is really interesting. It’s an arena of first times: First kiss. First make-out. First sexual experience. First break up. I always thought it was a story of longing and romance more than sexuality. Also, I’m a parent. I have 3 young boys. I’ve done erotic and sexual shows. I wanted it to be tasteful and palatable.

The sexual content is there, but it’s tasteful. I would watch the show with my teenager. It certainly will launch discussions. We were all conscious of that. A lot of this cast is new, and I didn’t want to put anybody in any situations in any scene. Iask actors is, “What do you feel comfortable doing?” I always empower actors in those situations.

You co-wrote and directed the first episode, which establishes the tone for entire series

Always in success for me was the three-year plan, so it was like: “How much do you reveal?” The great thing was that we had a book, so there really are no spoilers when you’re adapting a book. In the book, the character of Bret is unreliable narrator. There’s that Nora Ephron quote: “If you’re a writer, everything is copy.” I felt that, if the show progresses, people start to call Bret out on the idea that he himself might be involved or culpable. Why? That’s in the book.

When we were in preproduction, we looked at those movies, at the color scheme and outfits. I found 1981 to be a very interesting year because in my mind, the ‘80s didn’t become the ‘80s really until the end of ’82 and ‘83. That’s when it became the neon colors with Cindy Lauper and Madonna and Prince. They were all working in ‘81, but ‘81 was still very heavily influenced by the Studio 54 era with the clothes, and you could still get a disco song on the radio. It was two different time periods. The ‘70s were really based on the ‘40s, the post-World War II “these are the good times now, the war is over.” That was all in our minds as we were making this.

Bigger budget than usual?

No, it was somewhere in the middle. It was not a high budget. Usually, my things are very high budgets because I have a lot of stars in them and stars are expensive. But this was, for the most part, an unknown cast. The hard thing about it was: “How do you get the clothes right?” It’s period, so you have to spend the money on the clothes. You had to find locations in L.A., or in the L.A. area that were, for the most part, gone. The great thrill that I got was that we got to build the Sunset Hamburger Hamlet. I spent many, many days there as a younger person in the ‘80s. It was modeled on the Sunset Hamburger Hamlet, and also the Westwood location. Those things cost money. But it’s firmly in the middle. I thought it was a responsible budget.