Ryan Murphy credited 1981 as the most formative year of his life, marking when he turned 16, learned to drive, went on his first date, and came out. That same year, he said, the New York Times published an article about a disease called AIDS, an event that shaped how he understood intimacy. Murphy is receiving the Norman Lear Award at Variety's Showrunners Breakfast on Aug. 14.
Rather than write a memoir, Murphy said he found an alternative approach in adapting Bret Easton Ellis' novel "The Shards," a faux-autobiography set in 1981 Los Angeles. Ellis, who was working on his debut novel while a serial killer stalked the city in the story, shared Murphy's foundational connection to that year's specific atmosphere and cultural details. Murphy said Ellis originally resisted a limited-series approach, pushing instead for a longer dramatic format.
"He always thought this could be a three-year dramatic series, if not longer," Murphy said. "You have the space and time and energy. You're not doing nine or 10 episodes. You're going to try and do 30. That's how I could add some of my own personal things in there."
Murphy credited his friendship with Lear, who began influencing him after watching an episode of "All in the Family" in 1977, with teaching him to follow his instincts rather than listen to doubters. When Murphy first approached Ellis about adapting the novel after a previous attempt with HBO and director Luca Guadagnino fell through, Ellis was skeptical. Murphy said he told the author: "I have greenline power. I'm telling you, I want to make it."
For the impending all-stars season of "American Horror Story," known as "AHS13," Murphy indicated that elements from past seasons will resurface. Murphy said that while working with the young cast of "The Shards," he mentored them in a way he wished he had been mentored starting out, meeting them almost every weekend to share stories of his early years in Los Angeles.