Hayes Warner

Be Warned

Stepping Into the Ryan Murphy Stratosphere and Determined to Make it as a Multihyphenate, The Shards' Hayes Warner is Breaking Down Doors

PHOTOS BY randall slavin
WORDS BY TAMARA RAPPA

Listen to the extended podcast interview and find Story + Rain Talks and Hayes Warner's episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

Tamara Rappa: On set at our cover shoot, you and I talked about the fact that we're both native New Yorkers. You attended Spence, known for strong academics, and followed that with Northwestern University, where you did move on to study musical theater. When when did it become apparent that the arts and performing were where your interest lay, and did it surprise your parents?

Hayes Warner:  I always knew this is what I want to do.  I  watch home videos;  me forcing my siblings to dance with me and perform for my family. I remember when I was seven, I was at some sort of fair at my school for the different after school programs; I begged my parents to let me audition for Broadway Babies. I did a child theater program,  I was in shows starting at age six or seven. Neither of my parents supported are in the arts or know anyone  in entertainment really at all. They saw it as exciting; that I had this hobby, and it was  interesting. I made it a goal of mine to prove that I could do this as a career. As I got older, and and in high school, I was doing internships and and working at small record labels to learn about the industry and figure out how I could make it a profession. I knew from the second I could talk that I wanted to perform.

TR: In this world of Upper East Side prep school, how do you satisfy your interest in music, and did your friends get it? 

HW: There was such pressure on academics, but especially at Northwestern. I've always been a competitive person, and that also bled into my academics. I really valued academics. I wanted to do well in school. Northwestern was my dream school, I knew it was hard to get into, even the  arts program. I always cared a lot about it and I made sure that school was a priority for me. A lot of artists give it the backseat. The criticism that I was posting YouTube videos singing online and auditioning? There was really no one in my grade at Spence who was really interested in the arts in the way that I was. People just saw it as my hobby and something I did on top of academics. They might have thought that one day I would have to get a 'real job' and put it aside. That was the attitude surrounding me growing up. You can do this while you're in school, as long as you get good grades, and you get into a good college. I kept getting good grades so that everyone would leave me alone. I kept pursuing and pushing and proving that I could do this professionally.

TR: What do you think growing up in New York City has given you as a person, as an artist? 

HW:  I was around such a diverse group of people, always. I was around people from different backgrounds, in different careers, on different paths.  I think I have the ability to connect with different people. In college my friend  group was very diverse. I was very, very lucky because when it came to the arts, even though Spence was not very arts-heavy, I was still able to participate in many auditions, shows, programs.  Lindsay Mendez, who is a huge Broadway star, became a mentor to me. I had access to all these types of people. If I went outside of my  academic circle of high school pressure, I could really dive into the arts and and learn a lot about musical theater. 

TR: What was the very first song that sparked inspiration for you? 

HW: Probably like, the Black Eyed Peas or Flow Rida, Club Can't Handle Me. My first concert was Black Eyed Peas. Ludacris was opening and you know he's saying, 'Put your middle fingers up in the air!' I was six,  My dad was like, 'Don't do that!'. I remember being obsessed with pop stars. From the second that I went to a concert at Madison Square Garden, I became obsessed with pop culture and Britney Spears and Fergie and Hannah Montana...all these just female pop stars. I was so drawn to them.

TR: What was college like? How did you find your crowd, and how did you spend your free time in college?

HW: One of the reasons I wanted to go to Northwestern so badly was because it has a really strong academic program, but it also has a really strong musical theater program. I  lived between  both those worlds, and they felt pretty divided.  I had my theater friends, and then I had academic friends.  I double-majored. I was very into the musical theater world, and I also had  friends elsewhere. I was going out with my friends from theater, and then I'd switch hats. It was like a mish-mosh. I loved my friends. I've always  been really focused on, how do I make a career in entertainment?  So I became the president of and revived this club, it was a record label for student artists called Night School. it was really cool; we helped to fund  music videos. We would help find funding for people who wanted to be music artists, and we'd connect them to producers in Chicago. Artists who went to Northwestern, we'd connect them with videographers at Northwestern or set designers at Northwestern. I was recording music with some people at Northwestern who wanted to be producers. I found my realm of people, the people who wanted to be in music. I kind of figured out this music industry backdoor. I was super-involved in it, and I was the president for two years. I was also interning at Sony Music. I got a summer internship, and then I kept interning with them throughout the year. I worked in distribution at this place called The Orchard, which distributes independent labels. I got to work on Bad Bunny projects and and get involved in the marketing campaign. I got to understand how distribution works. At the same time,  I was releasing my own independent music, and learned how to do it from interning at Sony. Full circle, I ended up signing with Sony, seeing all those people I worked with years later. Sorry, [laughs] that was a long winded answer!

TR: We're going to talk about The Shards, Ryan Murphy's latest series based on the book by Brett Easton Ellis. You are one of four key stars and it's brought explosive exposure and achievement into your life as an actor. But what do you consider to be your first break, beyond what you're experiencing right now with Shards?

HW:  I'd always wanted to be in music and had literally no idea how to do it, so I'd say it was the little wins, the little victories, like going viral on TikTok, signing with a manager, signing with CAA for touring. The biggest moment for me was when I went back to Chicago a year after graduation to perform at Lollapalooza. It was a huge full circle moment for me because I had worked so hard at Northwestern to figure out how I could be in music... and then here I am,  performing at the festival of my dreams! That, for me, was the first moment of,  'Okay, we're we're moving'."
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TR: there anyone you've gotten to meet in entertainment who's impressed you with either their creative process or work ethic? 

HW:  Yeah, you know, this year I got to really work with Troy Sivan and his creative camp. He worked on the music for The Shards and I was actually living in his guest house as his closest collaborator. I was listening to what they were doing and hearing about his experience, and what that did for his music career. Getting to see inside his mind and getting advice from both his team and creatives, but also from Troy, was really interesting and really cool.

TR: How are you thinking about your music career these days and how you're going to move forward?

HW: what's so exciting to me, in music, are the people who are multihyphenates, they are the people I look up to. People are always asking me, 'Which do you choose, music or acting?' My favorite artists are total creatives...Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo...even Madonna. They all do so much. For me, The Shards adds to my creative world, it adds to my creative resume. I'm so excited about the new acting projects coming my way. It all adds to my story as an artist and it makes the music that I'm making, more specific and interesting. And it's creating more life experiences for me.  I'm also really excited about the doors that the The Shards has opened for me musically. The larger your resume is, the more people care about who you are. The music industry is very gatekeepy. When you have something buzzy going on, big people want to work with you. I'm getting really awesome opportunities in music that I don't think would have ever been presented to me if it weren't for The Shards.

TR: When did you first feel like a public figure?

HW: I don't know that I've ever felt like a public figure. Honestly, maybe just getting recognized? Or when I first started doing music, having people know my song and and come up to me or come to my shows as fans. That was really, really cool. Seeing the same people come to shows more than once meant people were supporting me. Moments doing Shards press, being out and about and people saying,  'I watched The Shards and you are great'. Those types of situations. At the same time, I am for sure more of a homebody. I view it as work, going out and promoting and a being a public figure. I don't know that, you know, I crave that.

TR: Have you experienced anything tied to fame that you're hoping to  keep at bay or avoid? 

HW: Totally. The people I look up that I mentioned, talk a lot about this subject. They talk about keeping your friends whom you've grown up with close to you. Being a musician, it's given me the opportunity to see it all as a job. When you go on stage, you're stepping into a persona. Growing the persona, growing the 'brand', creates a distinction between me and that. it's the same with acting, Showing up on set, being kind to everyone---that's me. Then, in the few minutes up to rolling, I'm becoming and getting into my character. Creating a boundary and a divide between the two is really important.  I feel like I've been pretty good at it, so far.  I hope to keep honing it, to keep creating the distinction.

TR: Ever present, is social media. Have you given thought as to how you're going continue to tackle it as a public figure going forward? 

HW: I have always had to use it as a marketing tool, so I have  a very close relationship to social media. I know how important it can be and I've learned to have fun with it, to not take it too seriously. Even on set my friends and I will make funny TikToks to pass the time. I love looking at Reels and and TikTok. I will say, I have experienced hate before, for sure, with my music. But it feels a little bit less specific. If someone doesn't like a song or a video, I can kind of push it back. But when someone is criticizing The Shards? It's different. I've learned to not read the comments; different people are going to receive things in different ways. We really poured ourselves into The Shards, so it stings a bit. I'm really learning how to deal with it. I'm learning about what to read. One of my best friends, Kaia [Gerber] deals a lot with social media and and the public response, so she has really helped all of us and guided us...

TR: ...She must have such great advice.

HW: ...Such great advice. And Ryan [Murphy], too. Ryan, on the day before The Shards came out, sent out paragraphs and paragraphs on what reviews mean, what press means, what not to read, and what to care about. They've both, and he, specifically, have been really, really helpful.

TR: When exactly did you start pursuing acting? 

HW: I was in my first musical when I was six, at this place called French Woods, which actually, funny enough, Igby [Ringney], who plays Brett in Shards, also attended. We didn't know each other. So many people from that program have become important creatives. I think that that's where I really got started. I was taking acting classes an learning about Meisner and Lee Strasberg and  Stella Adler. I was eight, learning about these things. In some ways, you know, when I talk about getting The Shards, it is my first professional acting gig.  But I did do a lot of theater. As soon as I able to walk, I was auditioning for plays! Theater created a foundation for my approach to acting. What was very different about The Shards for me was the set life. 

TR: Can you share a story about your career that you find yourself reflecting upon that maybe you haven't been able to have the opportunity to share yet? 

HW: Not a specific story, but I think about  when I talk to people who want to be actors, younger people like my younger sister's friends, it feels like  smoke and mirrors. How to break into the entertainment industry, especially when you don't have a mentor, is very confusing to them. Something that I'm really proud of myself for, is that without a mentor, I took the reins and I self-educated myself bit by bit, whether I was getting a job at a label, doing research, or reading books. Then it all starts to make sense, even if you don't realize it in the moment. Now I really understand music and entertainment and acting. Four years ago, I felt so overwhelmed and confused, and I wasn't even aware that I had been teaching myself as I was going. It's something I look back on and I'm proud of.

TR: Are you someone who really needs to fine-tune their surroundings to cultivate inspiration? When I talked to our recent cover star Jewel, when told me that when she taps in, she taps in, and it can be anywhere. 

HW: I don't know that I tend to think about things that way, just because I'm so chaotic. I'm always moving around. I'm never really in one place. For the past four years people have been wondering where I'm living, and, I don't know...I'm on tour.  I find inspiration from the chaos and from things ever-changing and and nothing ever feeling so still.  But I'm having an incredible time in LA. I love the weather. Weather is huge for me, which I didn't realize until now. Being in a warm environment has made me feel so much better. 

TR:I know you're set to attend a lot of fashion week, which is exciting. How would you describe where you are in your current look and also, what is your travel style?

HW: I think it's kind of melding right now. Getting to be in so many incredible eighties pieces for the past nine months, I've noticed that that does influence my style now, even if subconsciously. I've been loving shoulder pads and voluminous hair. Little things from the eighties have kind of trickled in. In my music style, I've always loved edge. I love leather, I love rock and roll. I have to be comfortable when I travel. I so appreciate people that look good, and I'm I'm starting to delve into what is comfortable but looks good; I'm caring more about that.

TR: What is on your Spotify playlist, including your own songs that you may be like listening to a lot right now? 

HW:  I've been listening to a lot of the pop girls right now. They  inspire me so much. I love hard-hitting. Slayyter just released an album that I love. It's so good. So I'd say  Beat Up Chanels, I listened to a lot on set. She has a song called Cannibalism,  it's really good. I would also throw in Charlie. I love Charlie XCX. and I love Troy Sivan. I would say, Charlie's new album, Wink Wink, would probably be on there. I love  Blondie. I used to listen to a lot of Blondie,  like Call Me. Duran Duran would be on there. A lot of the things I was listening to during shooting, I just fell in love with, like Video Killed the Radio Star. I love that song. I love, love Olivia Rodrigo's new album. I would say that Honeybee would probably be on there. I love my song Predator. It's very dark and industrial and probably the closest to what I'm doing right now. A lot of my new music hasn't been released, yet. And I have two songs in The Shards that I'm proud of. 

TR: You went after your role as Debbie in The Shards. Have any experiences or observations struck you in this process of diving into acting in this way, and being connected to and pursuing the project? Has anything surprised you or delighted you? Has there been anything unexpected about it?

HW: I think two things have surprised me. I came in very prepared with a foundation of acting,  I'd done a lot of background research. I really was so nervous that I wanted to come in prepared. But something that surprised me, was set life, the hours, the amount of work. It's a marathon. We were doing 16 to 18 hour days, five days a week, sometimes six days a week, and with photo shoots on the weekends. Looking at episodes one through nine, I can see it physically on myself, just how tired I became. There's having to still learn your lines, sometimes getting a script the day before you have to shoot a scene, and  after you've done a 16-hour day. You're learning those lines when you get home, and maybe your acting coach is not available, because it's midnight. You have to just trust yourself, and trust your gut. The stamina and self-care became so important to me. If we get a season two, I'm going in very differently! Yes, the acting prep is really important, but how can I go into a project physically, so that I can make it through eight months of that amount of work, still putting myself in the scene as much as I can? There's having very upsetting, crying scenes, or physically taxing scenes that I would have to do over and over with each setup. When I'm on stage, it's adrenaline...but you cannot rely on adrenaline on set. That was very surprising, that was learning in the moment, for me. Learning to not crash out on caffeine, switching from coffee to matcha. It was a lot of learning as I went. What's delighted me, honestly, is how close I got with my cast. Sure, you can hang out, you have someone who has your back, you know.  It was that, sure. But it also was that we could take risks together  in scenes. Ryan encouraged improv. Specifically with my character from the first day of the first scene, he was like, 'Improv!'  All of that made the script. So much of the series is improv. So much. What what really sticks with me is experiencing Ryan Murphy's directing on my first set day ever.  It was the scene in episode one where Robert Mallory comes to the table for the first time and we meet him at at school. In that opening scene he wanted it to feel like friends at a table who had known each other forever. By hat point we were all really close, we'd done pre-production together, and hung out. So it felt really close and comfortable. Ryan said he wanted us to improv and just be ourselves. I just started spewing... my tit on the side...angular...I want to smell a chip. That was all me just playing around with my friends, trying to make them laugh. I knew Debbie, and I knew the first three scripts, and I read the book, and I just was trying to make my friends laugh, as Debbie.  I thought that it was just an exercise; I did not think it would make the show. I was so surprising to seem while watching episode one. My god, this is in the show! I think Ryan put together a group that  really were meant to be friends.  Knowing all of our personalities, it might not have gone that way, but it it really worked.

TR: You walked away from the project with some really great friends. Do you think about what your next project might bring, and the fact that it might be very different from this?

HW: Yes. On one hand it makes me sad because I loved going to set, knowing the people around me so much, and and so well. On the other hand, it makes me really excited. I got so lucky with my character. Everyone had their specific thing they had to do throughout. Debbie's mom and dad are very dark characters who have their struggles. Everyone's character arc develops, but I got to be the comedic relief in our group scenes, I got to be the one who doesn't care, who is kind of aloof, a ditzy cokehead blonde. I loved the comedy, I loved the improv, I loved being on my feet and laughing. What this project showed me is that I'd love to do comedy.  I also got to do these really psychologically dark scenes with Evan Rachel Wood and Wes Bentley. It made me excited to keep working with new actors. With them, I was like, my God, this is a totally different dynamic. I got tastes of different genres on [The Shards] set, and I'm excited to tackle whatever is right for my next project whatever feels exciting.

TR: Can you describe the world of a Ryan Murphy production, from your point of view? 

HW: Yes, I can't speak for others, and many of his actors repeat from his old projects. I met a lot of the Love Story cast. On The Shards, he was incredibly, incredibly involved. He directed three episodes. He was on set all the time. What was so crazy to me about his work, is how involved he is in every single department. If I had a hair out of place, he, himself, would come over and fix that hair. He's in the hair department, in makeup, in costumes... he had to approve every single thing. It's his vision. It's the entire world around it, and no stone goes unturned. Everything is so detail- oriented. You feel the pressure and the excitement of each department, especially when he's there on set every day just trying to get everything perfect. At the same time, it felt very big... getting to be on a set that has a budget, and I I'm not sure what that budget was, but it was exciting, and and beautiful. You get to see these incredible sets that are built just for your show. The PCH is rented out... all these like insane things that, in my wildest dreams I would never have thought I'd be a part of. Seeing the PCH blocked off, like that is crazy! What was amazing was the personal relationship with Ryan. We went to dinners with him during shooting. We he we had a group chat with him, and we still text every day about what's going on. We  went to dinner with him last week. Having that personal relationship with him made me really comfortable even though he is such a force and has so much power, and and is so incredible. You really feel like you can laugh with him or ask him a question about your character or make a comment,. It's a very interesting dichotomy.

TR:  What did you think of Sarah Pigeon's performance and her success? Did you binge Love Story like everyone else? Now she's got this Emmy Nom. We did a story on her back in 2023.

HW: You did?! We were in the middle of heavy shooting when it came out. It was really exciting to see the excitement around it, and and the buzz, and what a cultural phenomenon it became. When I'd go on TikTok, I would see clips of it or and it was so interesting, because we were with Ryan every day while it was happening. I got to hear a lot of behind the scenes stories. I got to meet Sarah. I feel like she's incredible and great. We've we've met a bunch of times. A lot of the cast, and Constance Zimmer was on that show, also came over to The Shards. So I felt very involved in what was going on and how exciting it was. We were so busy while it was coming out, so I could only really watch like a clip here and there. Since we've wrapped, I have completely binged it and think she's absolutely incredible. She's so grounded in her performance. She comes alive. Sarah talked about her hair a lot. Sarah didn't wear a wig. That helped her a lot in her performance. None of us had wigs, except, some of the other characters like Evan had a wig, and Jordan. My hair got bleached. It is huge. It was a lot of work. I think a lot of Love Story's world, what I'm trying to say, came spliling over into Shard's world.

TR: To play Debbie in The Shards, you had to learn how to ride a horse. How else did you prepare to play Debbie, literally but also mentally?  And was it difficult or easy to shed your character?

HW: One way that I really prepare,d was by reading the book many times. It is such a beloved book. I highlighted my parts. I'd reread it any time there was a scene from the book. I made sure to reread the scene and make notes on my performance. Everything was an honor for me, and to the book. For my performance, I wanted to make sure that I did Debbie justice for the people who love that book. And for Brett Easton Ellis. I just wanted to make everyone proud. Another way I prepared, was by doing a lot of research on the eighties. Debbie wanted to be cool and hip and so I thought of who was cool and hip that Debbie is going to try and emulate? A lot  were eighties rock stars that I look up to. so that was really fun. I do that in my music career. In getting on stage, I want to be like Debbie Harry.  I could do my walk. I could do my stage walk, on set. The hair and makeup really helped. We really tried to find different iterations of Debbie. We would do ten--hour fittings that were preppy-leaning, and that was very different from what [my character] ended up becoming. Searching for a version that made sense, that Ryan loved, was an interesting process for helping me find the character.

TR: How did you grow most as an actor working, on The Shards? 

HW:  I changed in like, every possible way. Number one, I really, really value my health. Physically, powered by adrenaline, how can I get the right amount of protein? Things I never thought I'd care about. And, what do you need to unwind? Getting out of character  wasn't easy on some days, days when I had to  cry all day on set. How do you get to that place in a healthy way? Sometimes like it's hard to access, and I'd be trying to reach iit in unhealthy ways.  I grew so much as an actor, being on my feet, in the present moment. There's prep work, but I was forced to get to a point where I Iouldn't prep. It was like, 'You're shooting this tomorrow, learn your lines'. I have become a much more grounded actor, learning to feed off my scene partner, I think that's the big one. That, and learning in terms of my physical health.

TR: Have you thought about navigating your acting career with specific types of projects right now, or are you open to it all?

HW: I'm very open to it all right now. Debbie is comedy, she's drama, she's psychological darkness. I'm open to a lot of different projects, but I do want to play someone who is multidimensional, with layers, and who maybe isn't the most loved. 

TR: Do you have a most thrilling moment over this last year, a most terrifying one?

HW: I've had different types of thrilling moments. One would be getting the role. It felt so impossible. Getting the role of Debbie was just so life-changing.  It was hard to conceptualize what had happened in that moment. I had to move out [to LA] so quickly. I was so desperate to get the role and had auditioned so many times. The moment I got it there was a crazy adrenaline.Mmy God, my life has changed, but how has it changed? Not knowing what living [in LA]  was going be like, not knowing what set was going be like...and you still have the fear. It took me the longest to get cast. I'm thinking, how am I gonig to keep the role? How do I not get fired? It was a lot of fear, excitement, overwhelm. It was a crazy two weeks to settle in.

TR: what is your creative process like, and how have you found that it differs, or is it the same, when you're creating music? 

HW: In music, everyone's always using the word authentic. It has to be the most honest and the most you. I go through periods when I'm really inspired personally and I can really dive in. Then I can go through periods where it's really hard and you're digging. For me, it's all about my life and what's going on in my life. I've had to really value my life experiences and work really hard, but also have a  life. It's similar with acting. Observing the people around me, watching other work, observing other characters. Living life in both songwriting and acting are really important. But in acting you get to dive into a whole other person. The pressure of  authenticity isn't there, which is really relieving. I understand it, I know what it is, but it's just that everyone wants you to be so you. Sometimes that's hard, searching for what you is. It's been really nice as an actor to be able to like let that go, and dive into someone else completely.

Watch Hayes Warner in Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards, streaming on Hulu.