Ryan Murphy Goes Inside ‘The Shards’: How Bret Easton Ellis’ Dark Memoir of Love and Murder Was Made for TV: “We Saw 500 Actors for These Parts” (Exclusive)

***What was your familiarity with Bret Easton Ellis and his 2023 autofiction/horror novel, The Shards, before you got involved in adapting it for TV? From what I hear, he really, really loved them. I said, “Well that’s interesting, because I cast Kaia when she was 18 in her first thing ever [American Horror Story].” She had met with Bret on another project and he had mentioned The Shards, but Kaia kept it secret. I’m friends with Richard Gere and I’m really good friends with Cindy Crawford.