The first thing that you’ll notice about FX‘s new Ryan Murphy show The Shards is that it opens with a disclaimer that the show we’re about to watch is strictly fictional. “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

The second thing you’ll notice is Igby Rigney‘s voiceover, which sets in over a blank, black shot. A perfect visual void that forces us to focus in on the honey-rich tone of Rigney’s voice as he says: “In late May of 1980 — May 23rd to be exact — The Shining opened, and I wanted to see it as soon as possible.”

Igby Rigney plays “Bret Easton Ellis” in The Shards, a character who is not only based on a real person, but one of the FX show’s co-creators and executive producers.

FX’s The Shards is an inventive adaptation of an already groundbreaking novel. Real life author Bret Easton Ellis — famous for his landmark novels Less Than Zero and American Psycho — originally released his genre-bending book The Shards as an audiobook, which he narrated for his podcast’s Patreon supporters. It was later released in print and became a bestseller. The novel is a fictionalized memoir, where Ellis reimagines his senior year of high school overlapping with a serial killer’s rampage through the mansions of the Hollywood hills. FX’s The Shards sagely plays with this conceit, casting rising star Rigney as Bret, the show’s (unreliable) narrator and captivating leading man.

Rigney’s version of Bret manages to not only evoke the essence of the real life author, but also the energy of his most famous characters. The perfectly fit, perfectly outfitted Bret of FX’s The Shards arrives on screen feeling as much like a younger version of Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman as an idealized vision of Bret Easton Ellis as a young man. What’s more is that Rigney makes his Bret Easton Ellis a fully realized character that stands apart from his iconic inspirations.

When DECIDER caught up with the stars of The Shards last week, we asked Igby Rigney how he managed to not only nail Bret Easton Ellis’s voice, but also make it his own. Rigney answered humbly, “Oh gosh, with a lot of help.”

“I think Ryan Murphy was a huge guide in that and we spent a lot, a lot of time on figuring out the voiceover and the tone of the voiceover,” Rigney said. “Obviously Bret’s book and his narration is so iconic. And I really wanted to respect how important that was. But yeah, we spent a lot of time in post figuring that out and figuring out, you know, how is this going to read?”

“Obviously our show’s a little different so we wanted to create something that was unique and respectful because we all love the book, especially since Ryan and Bret were involved in the creation of the show as well.”

Rigney’s Shards co-stars then jumped in to explain just how hard the actor worked on nailing this part of the performance.

“But it’s funny because we all wrapped,” Homer Gere said, “and then Igby didn’t wrap, you know.” 

“Yeah,” Rigney confirmed.

Hayes Warner then joked: “Igby’s still not wrapped.” 

“But the voiceover is really a central part of the whole show,” Gere said. “And Igby’s work did not stop.” 

“I wrapped in June,” Rigney said.

“That’s crazy!” Warner said.

Want to learn more about how fact blends with fiction in The Shards? Here’s everything you need to know about the real Bret Easton Ellis vs. The Shards‘s version of the character…

Who is Bret Easton Ellis? All About the Real Writer Behind The Shards:

Bret Easton Ellis is an American author famous for being part of the “Literary Brat Pack” of the ’80s, a clique of bright young writers who used their own generation’s lifestyles of glamour and excess as inspiration. Ellis was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended the prestigious Buckley School. He attended Bennington College in Vermont, where he became close friends with fellow writers Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem.

When Ellis was 21, his first novel, Less Than Zero was published and became an instant sensation, inspiring controversy and a Hollywood adaptation starring a young Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey, Jr. Ellis followed this up with The Rules of Attraction and American Psycho.

Ellis continued to write books and screenplays over the years, but The Shards might be his biggest literary success since his early work. He is also the host of the popular Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.

Is The Shards Based on a True Story?

Uh, sort of? Ellis has long loved blurring the lines of fact and fiction.

Like the real Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards‘s Bret was born and raised in LA, dreamed of being a writer, and was toiling away at a draft of Less Than Zero while attending Buckley.

What didn’t happen in real life? Well, everything involving the serial killer known as The Trawler. We don’t know if the personal drama that tears Bret’s friend group apart is inspired by real events, but there wasn’t a killer targeting Ellis and his cohort. The major events of the novel are fictitious and the FX show makes additional massive dramatic changes to the book that are just there for entertainment.

The first two episodes of The Shards premiere on FX and Hulu tonight, August 5, at 9 PM ET.