Homer Gere Shares His Theory About ‘The Shards’ and Robert Mallory

[This story contains major spoilers from The Shards finale, “Stairway to Heaven,” and some spoilers from The Shards novel.]

Homer Gere has a theory about Robert Mallory.

“You can’t understand him because, in my opinion, he’s not real,” says the actor who plays the mysterious character in Ryan Murphy‘s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis‘ classic novel, which recently concluded its nine-episode first season.

“He’s a reflection of all the people around him. That’s why, from the viewer side in, in particular, you’re like, Who the fuck is this guy? Why is he acting like this? Why is he so different with all these people? That’s something Ryan [Murphy] brought up early on as an option, and I was like, ‘That’s kind of great.’ He’s reflecting off every person he’s talking to. It makes him kind of scattered. It’s an incomplete view of a person, because he’s not really a person. That’s the best way I can put it.”

The season one finale of The Shards ended on a cliffhanger by design. Creator Murphy, who has taken liberties from the source material, and Ellis have plans to turn the show into a three- or four-season offering. So as Gere and the audience await official news on a season two renewal, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the breakout actor, and son to Richard Gere, about his theories for the show (like why he thinks Robert is definitely not the killer) and how his first major role is changing his life: “I’m feeling pretty good. I’m happy to be here.”

In interviews you’ve given, I’ve seen you talk about how acting wasn’t always what you wanted to do, and here you are as a great Robert Mallory. I know you landed Euphoria [final season] and The Shards pretty much back-to-back.

I had like two days off in between. It was really kind of amazing how it worked out.

What gave you the acting bug?

The choice was really made in college. I had a close friend who’s now a producer for Disney who started this club at Brown called Brown Motion Pictures. They get funding from the university to make three or four short films, and they do a whole thing where they cast it and get directors, and they have some screenplays. I had a friend involved with that who connected me with someone else who was doing a student thesis film. She said this role would be really good for me, and I auditioned. I was in a room with, like, 20 people I knew, and it ended up working out. That was the first time I did any acting.

It was a student film. We had six or seven shoot days, but they were 12-hour days, and that was the first time I felt like I was doing something I could spend that long doing. I wasn’t getting tired. I hadn’t really had an experience like that before. Even though, in my childhood, it was like, “No, there’s no way that I’m doing this.” Not because I didn’t respect the job, but because I wasn’t a drama kid in high school. It wasn’t in my world. And then I tried it, and I was like, “I should pursue this.” If I can make a living doing something you really like doing, you go for it.

For The Shards, I read that you first auditioned for Thom, and I know Graham Campbell [who plays Thom] also first auditioned for Robert. How did your casting process go?

I never read with Graham‚ I only ever read with Igby [Rigney, who plays Bret]. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think the way they did it is the audition for Bret went out first, and everyone did Bret. I think Graham also auditioned for Bret in the beginning, and then they narrowed it down from there. So I got Tom first, and then I sent that in and they said, “Maybe you’re Robert,” and I did Robert. They liked that more. [

And you hadn’t read The Shards book before you auditioned, right?

No. For the first audition, I was obviously aware of Bret Easton Ellis. I’d seen what everyone else has — American Psycho, Less Than Zero. But I hadn’t read his books, although my stepbrother gifted me American Psycho when I was 14, which was way too young to have access to that.

Life has come full circle.

I know. For the first audition I hadn’t read it, but then I got a callback, and I took that weeks-long period to listen to the audiobook, narrated by Bret Easton Ellis himself, which is really great. It’s really funny and good. I recommend it.

How did you approach how you wanted to play Robert? Because from the moment we meet him, we can’t quite figure him out, and you keep that up the entire season.

I found it more and more over the course of shooting the season, but one of the basic parts was that I had to maintain that I couldn’t figure him out either. You can’t understand him because, in my opinion, he’s not real.

Really?

I think this is a guy who doesn’t really exist from his own side. He’s a reflection of all the people around him. That’s why, from the viewer side in, in particular, you’re like, who the fuck is this guy? Why is he acting like this? Why is he so different with all these people? That’s something Ryan [Murphy] brought up early on as an option, and I was like, “That’s kind of great.” So it became almost in the way that a sociopath or psychopath would be. He’s reflecting off every person he’s talking to. It makes him kind of scattered. It’s an incomplete view of a person, because he’s not really a person. That’s the best way I can put it.

So he didn’t have sex with Bret (Igby Rigney) in episode eight because he’s not real? It was definitively all Bret’s imagination, in your opinion?

I think people are giving Bret way too much trust. That’s kind of the key to the whole story for me: this is a guy who’s retelling his past, 40-something years later. Let’s take it with an ocean of salt.

He’s not the most reliable narrator.

No.

So if you think Robert could be a figment of some of these characters’ imaginations, what does that say about the serial killer hunting 1981 L.A., The Trawler? Are you guessing it could be one of the main characters, or do you feel like The Trawler is a metaphor as well?

It can be both. From a story perspective, you could pin it on a couple of people, and then from a symbolic perspective, I know Ryan has talked about it representing the AIDS epidemic in the early ’80s. I think that’s powerful, and it speaks to a lot of people’s experience during that time. I have my own opinions about who I think it was in the book, but we’re not at that place in the show yet, so it’s hard to say. And I don’t think it has to be just one person‚ iI could be a combination of people. But I will say, I don’t think it’s Robert.

Why?

From a viewer perspective, it’s too on the nose. When I was reading it, it was like, “Okay, you’re going to tell me he’s the killer the entire time, and then he is the killer?” It just doesn’t make sense. And there’s another reason from the book, but that’s a big spoiler.

The book never identifies who The Trawler is.

Not outwardly, but you see that it’s probably Bret in the book, because he has the scratch on him — the bite mark from where Susan (played by Kaia Gerber in the show) got him. But again, this has nothing to do with the show, because we’re not there yet.

The Shards finale brings us about a third of the way into the book, right?

Probably. More or less.

And it firmly puts you all on the board as suspects, also for Terry’s (Wes Bentley) attempted murder. Do you feel like Robert is on the board for Terry’s finale attack?

From the perspective of Bret, who’s telling the story, totally. I think if Robert so much as looked at Terry, Bret would use that as concrete evidence. But yeah, I think he is. There’s that little moment with Steven [played by Jordan Roth] in the finale after the argument between Robert and Bret, and we were like, “What are they talking about?” There are seeds to go on. The main throughline is that there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, and little hints throughout the show that support any conclusion you want to make.

I spoke with Igby Rigney earlier this season, and he said that by the end of this season, people will either be Team Bret or Team Robert. He believes in Bret, you believe in Robert. Have you always believed in Robert? Or have there been times when it was hard for you to be the advocate of your character?

There are some things where, as Homer, I’m like, “I wouldn’t say that if I was innocent.” But I framed it this way: Robert’s the guy who comes to the school and is weirdly mature for his age; he weirdly has this worldliness. I think he’s playing this coy game with everyone, and he sees that Bret is really the only one who’s smart enough and questioning enough to play the game with him. But Robert’s not playing it right, and that pisses him off. So I think it’s all tongue-in-cheek poking. I see why, from Bret’s perspective and the audience’s perspective, that would make them think he’s the killer, but I think there’s a deeper cat-and-mouse game in Robert’s mind. I think it’s a game.

But yes, I am Team Robert for sure. It would be so weird if Igby and I did not feel that way about our characters.

Ryan Murphy said he and Bret Easton Ellis are aiming for a three- or four-season show. The show has expanded from the source material, so you never know which way Ryan could go. Is there anything you’re really excited to explore in a second season, based on where you ended?

There are some scenes from the rest of the book that I really want to see happen. The finale thing in the apartment with the knives would be so fun to shoot. Obviously, I want to finish out the book. It’s a lovely piece of source material, and I love living in that world with all those people. I want to see what else we can do with Robert’s costume and with his hair — the hair is a constant evolution. I’m also excited to see what Ryan and the writers throw in, because the “Dance Off!” episode was not in the book, and that was incredibly fun to shoot.

I spoke to a few people about your dancing. I know you did it for five nights, probably 100 times during overnight shoots when filming the “Robert’s Party” episode.

That was a tough one. And then I got to do it again [in “Dance Off”].

You liked the dancing?

Yeah. You don’t really get to have an experience like that in any other line of work, both making a fool of yourself and being on top of the world in front of like 300 people. Of course, I want to do more of that.

Would you call yourself a dancer now? Would you go on Dancing With the Stars?

I’m a dancer for pleasure, for fun. Well, I guess I am a dancer for work now, for this show. I like dancing. I go dancing all the time. But I’d never done any choreography before. I’d like to do more. I took a lot of the moves we used and I’ve been using them all over New York; in my apartment, in other people’s apartments. The move with the shoulder.

When I read your Vogue interview, and I also said this to Kaia Gerber, I felt like I was reading a therapy session, because you both opened up about your fears going into the show’s release.

Rob Haskell [the interviewer] is just like a psychiatrist.

That’s what Kaia said, also. You said you were concerned about Robert not being likable.

That was more about me not being likable. That was Homer.

How do you feel now, after seeing the reaction to the show and finishing the season?

This is what I thought was going to happen, and I’m really glad that it did: after the [Bret and Robert] hookup scene at the end of episode eight, people see as proof that Bret might not be telling the truth about everything. I think that changed the opinion toward Robert, where maybe we’re not trusting everything Bret’s saying, and maybe Robert’s not as bad as he appears to be. So I think there’s been a shift after that.

I do think there now exists a Team Robert in a way that didn’t a couple of episodes before the finale. So I think that job is accomplished.

I also loved reading about how you quickly addressed your parents’ iconic history with Kaia right off the bat. How did you two find your chemistry so quickly after that? [Note: Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford were married in the 1990s.]

She’s just a nice, normal, interesting person, so it wasn’t that hard to find chemistry. It was more like, “Alright, we can’t meet each other and not say something about it, otherwise we’re going to completely ignore it.” It was one of the first things we said, and then we never talked about it after that. It was funny, because I was aware of Kaia, obviously‚ She’s my dad’s ex-wife’s [Cindy Crawford] daughter‚ and I’d never met her. And then I met her, and she was normal, and we’re friends. We chat pretty often.

You two are dating now on the show, so a season two should be interesting.

We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

You have a film next, but now you’re also in Ryan Murphy’s world, which means we could always see you in another franchise of his. Do you view this as a launchpad? What’s the Hollywood reaction been, and what do you want to do next?

I think it’s a launchpad in that it’s my first kind of leading role, so in that way, it opens you up to some other interesting things. What I really want to do is work with great directors, people who have a strong vision and an intellectual side to what they’re doing, an artistic side. That’s kind of the whole game when you’re an actor: working with people like that. The reaction’s been good. Having these two projects, Euphoria and The Shards, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m happy to be here, and hopefully some more opportunities come my way.

The Shards is now streaming its finale and all of season one on Hulu. Head here for THR‘s show coverage.