Graham Campbell Is Immersed in Ryan Murphy’s World

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After making his Broadway debut in "Appropriate," the Juilliard-trained actor stars in new teen thriller series "The Shards," adapted from Bret Easton Ellis' novel.

Graham Campbell is a few minutes late, but he has a good reason.

“ This just dropped,” says the actor, turning his phone toward the Zoom screen, which shows a current lineup of the most-watched series on Disney+. “We just got off the phone with Mr. Murphy because we’re number one on Hulu.”

“The Shards” debuted its first two episodes on Wednesday, and a little more than a day later had already become a hit for the streamer.

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“ It’s really exciting because, one, we’re very, very proud of it, and two, something that we felt to be true, and seems to be the case, is that we really honored the book in a big way, and people are responding to that,” Campbell says of the show, which is a collaboration between Murphy and novelist Bret Easton Ellis.

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“The two of them are so specific aesthetically and also culturally and storytelling-wise,” Campbell adds. “I would argue that they might be two of the most distinct world builders in American history.”

The series is based on Ellis’ 2021 auto-fiction novel, which follows a group of privileged high schoolers at an elite prep school in Los Angeles in 1981. Their dynamic is disrupted by the arrival of a new student, and the looming threat of a nearby serial killer targeting teenagers. Campbell stars in the murder-thriller, which airs weekly through Sept. 9, as Thom Wright, a popular jock who’s dating Kaia Gerber’s Susan Reynolds.

“ I think this character and this group of characters — or at least the story we’re telling — is a pretty intense commentary on privilege, and what happens when the elite are left to their own devices and ultimately cave in on themselves,” Campbell says. “ [The show] takes these picture-perfect All-American archetypes, and completely flips them on their heads.”

Campbell immersed himself in Ellis’ book during the casting process, during which the tight-knit dynamics of the show’s core friend group were already solidifying.

“Ryan has a unique ability to see people at their core,” Campbell says. “And then he begins to build the puzzle based on those essential elements of everyone that he’s collected. We sort of took the chemistry that he saw and created, and ran with it.”

Murphy was a pivotal creative figure for Campbell during his own teenage years.

“ Ryan really shaped my cultural schema from an early age. I grew up on ‘Glee.’ I grew up on ‘American Horror Story.’ I feel like a lot of the way that I understand myself is through his writing,” the actor says. “So to be able to semi-originate a character in his cinematic universe is like — you gotta be kidding me.” And while the saying goes “don’t meet your heroes,” Campbell adds that the experience of working with Murphy “exceeded every expectation.” “In this case, I would say meet your hero and hang out with him as much as humanly possible, because to be in that guy’s orbit is a gift.”

Campbell, a graduate of the drama program at Juilliard, began his professional career on Broadway in 2023 starring in the Tony-winning revival of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play “Appropriate.” After a few short films, he made his feature debut in the indie film “Late Fame,” which was released in theaters a few days after “The Shards” premiered on FX.

“ I feel like I’ve been lucky at this point in my career to only work on things that have unbelievable writing,” Campbell says. “And so I’m just sort of following the writing, regardless of what medium in which it takes shape. I would love to return to the theater — I grew up in the theater. I probably feel most at home in the theater,” he adds. “But again, I just keep encountering these incredible scripts and incredible stories and being able to collaborate with these people that have such holistic points of view about the way they want to tell them. I feel like a pretty lucky young guy.”

With “The Shards” continuing to unfold onscreen weekly through mid-September, Campbell is hanging tight for another call from Murphy that they’ve been picked up for a second season.

“ If all goes according to the plan,” Campbell says. “We should be in the early 1980s for a little while longer.”

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