The Shards’ Owen Painter Reflects On Working With Tim Burton and Ryan Murphy, Teases His Next Thriller Hot Year
From Wednesday to The Shards, Owen Painter is booked and busy.
Speaking with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado at the New York City premiere of The Shards, Painter opened up about joining the cast of the highly anticipated Ryan Murphy show. “It was really great. He's so thoughtful,” Painter said. “I felt like I was in good hands. […] He gave us access to the thought process in a way that a lot of directors don't. They want to play games with actors sometimes.”
Rather than keeping his vision to himself, Murphy would walk the cast through the creative behind each scene and the references that inspired specific shots. “You got to feel like you were a part of the storytelling too,” he said. “You were achieving that goal together.”
Painter recalled that preparing for his role as stoner Matt Kellner in The Shards was a “long process.” “It was a lot of just thinking about […] what the book meant to me, the ideas of it. I felt like, a lot of times making this, we were more adapting how the book made us feel than literally adapting the text,” he explained about Bret Easton Ellis’ novel. “I just got to think about the art project of the book for a really long time, so that was really nourishing for me.”
Reflecting on his breakout role in Wednesday, Painter said he was really “lucky” being on that set. “I miss them so much,” he said. “They're having a good time over in Dublin. I just met a lot of great people and hopefully lifelong friends, so that's my main takeaway from it. It was just so much fun too. I just got so lucky. I kind of didn't even realize until it was over, [between] those sets and Tim [Burton].
Working with horror legends Burton and Murphy gave Painter a lot of purpose as an actor. “Especially with the auteur persona that they have, […] it can be intimidating or frightening for certain people or those can be thoughts that you're having,” he said. “With Tim, I learned that my job is my job. It's my job to bring these ideas and to make things happen just as much as it is the director.”
Up next, Painter will appear in Roxy Sorkin’s feature directorial debut Hot Year alongside Kathryn Newton, Dove Cameron, Cole Sprouse, and Storm Reid. “I just finished that up. We had so much fun. It's Oklahoma City. I learned how to play pool to the best of my ability. It's a blast. It's a revenge thriller,” he told me. “To me, there's a little bit of Superbad in there. We were just having so much fun and it's all a young team. Roxy, the director, is in her 20s. That's pretty exciting to be a part of.”
Catch The Shards when it premieres August 5 on FX.
