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| The Shards: Who Is Susan Reynolds and Who Plays Her? Kaia Gerber’s Character Explained |
Susan Reynolds is one of the most intriguing figures in The Shards, Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ autofiction novel, and Kaia Gerber is the actor bringing her to life. At first glance, Susan appears to have everything figured out: she is the star student at Buckley Prep, the head girl, hugely popular and seemingly on track to become prom queen. But beneath that polished school reputation is a far more complicated friendship with Bret, whose feelings for her make their supposedly straightforward bond rather less straightforward.
The series draws heavily from Ellis’ novel, blending recognisable elements of real life with fiction and placing its characters inside an increasingly unsettling Los Angeles story. That approach makes Susan particularly interesting because she is not simply there to be the perfect popular girl. She has her own relationships, ambitions and secrets, while Bret’s narration constantly encourages viewers to question whether they are seeing Susan as she really is or as he imagines her to be.
Susan has known Bret since childhood and considers him her closest friend. Their history stretches back through some of the most awkward stages of growing up, giving them an intimacy that is difficult for anyone outside their friendship to understand. Bret remembers being there through Susan’s previous relationships, watching them rise and fall, while she has remained a constant presence in his own life.
The complication is that Bret has feelings for Susan. He admits this to the audience through his narration rather than directly confronting her, creating one of the show's most persistent sources of tension.
Susan appears to understand more than she lets on, but she continues treating Bret as her best friend rather than encouraging anything more. It is the sort of arrangement that works perfectly until everyone starts thinking about it too much.
At present, Susan is involved with Thom, who appears to represent the stable relationship Bret cannot help but envy. She seems genuinely comfortable with him, yet her interactions with Bret occasionally suggest a different layer to their friendship.
During a pool party, for example, Susan appears to catch Bret's attention while teasing Thom, leaving viewers to wonder whether she is deliberately provoking him or whether Bret is simply reading too much into a perfectly ordinary moment.
That distinction matters because The Shards is largely experienced through Bret's perspective. His narration does not necessarily provide an objective account of what is happening around him, meaning Susan's intentions remain deliberately difficult to pin down.
A glance can become a confession, a joke can suddenly feel loaded and a completely innocent interaction can acquire an entirely different meaning once Bret starts narrating it.
The arrival of Robert, a mysterious student with whom Bret had an intense connection in the past, complicates the situation even further. Robert's return changes the emotional balance around Bret, while Susan develops an interest of her own.
Suddenly, the friendship between Susan and Bret is being tested from several directions, and the arrival of the mysterious killer only makes an already complicated group of teenagers considerably more uneasy.
Susan's role therefore extends beyond being Bret's childhood best friend or the most popular student at Buckley Prep. She represents a version of the life Bret both admires and struggles to understand.
She is confident, academically successful and socially secure in ways that he is not, making his fascination with her feel as much about what she represents as who she actually is.
That is also why Susan Reynolds can be surprisingly difficult to read. Some viewers may see her as knowingly playing with Bret's feelings, while others may interpret her behaviour as ordinary teenage friendship filtered through Bret's increasingly unreliable perspective.
The series gives audiences enough ambiguity to support both readings, which is rather convenient when nobody in the story seems particularly interested in explaining themselves.
The fan reaction to Susan has understandably varied. Some viewers are drawn to her because she feels more layered than the conventional popular-girl character, while others find her relationship with Bret frustrating precisely because neither side ever seems willing to say exactly what they mean.
There are also viewers who remain firmly on Bret's side of the equation, believing Susan knows how he feels and occasionally enjoys keeping him guessing. Others argue that this interpretation says more about Bret than it does about Susan.
Much of that debate comes down to Kaia Gerber's performance. The actor plays Susan with a confidence that suits someone accustomed to being the centre of attention, but she also leaves enough uncertainty around the character to prevent her from becoming predictable. Susan can appear warm in one scene and unreadable in the next, which fits neatly into a story where perception is constantly being questioned.
For Gerber, The Shards is another step in a transition from modelling into acting. The daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, she established herself in fashion before increasingly turning her attention towards film and television. Acting has allowed her to explore characters and personalities that are very different from the public image associated with her modelling career.
Her screen work began gaining wider attention with American Horror Stories, where she played Ruby McDaniel, before she joined the ensemble of Babylon as a starlet. She later appeared in projects including Bottoms, Saturday Night and Shell, while also taking television roles in Overcompensating and Hacks.
One of her more recognisable television roles came in Palm Royale, where she played Mitzi in the stylish period comedy-drama. That experience makes her appearance in The Shards feel particularly fitting. Both projects rely heavily on period atmosphere, carefully constructed visuals and characters whose polished appearances conceal rather messier personalities.
Gerber has also continued building her acting profile with roles in projects including Mother Mary and Bulls, demonstrating that her career is moving well beyond the modelling world that first made her famous.
Susan gives her another opportunity to play a character who appears effortlessly composed while leaving plenty of room for viewers to question what is actually happening beneath the surface.
Ultimately, Susan Reynolds is important to The Shards because she sits at the centre of several of its biggest emotional questions. She is Bret's oldest friend, Thom's partner, one of Buckley Prep's most admired students and increasingly connected to the shifting dynamics surrounding Robert.
Yet the most fascinating question may be how much of Susan's apparent mystery belongs to her and how much has been created by Bret's perspective. Kaia Gerber clearly understands that distinction, and fans will no doubt keep debating whether Susan is playing a complicated game or whether Bret is simply making everything much more complicated than it needs to be. What is your read on Susan so far: misunderstood best friend, quietly calculating popular girl or simply someone caught inside Bret's very complicated head?