Ryan Murphy and Show Actors Respond To Criticisms Against ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’

Hollywood TV Series

2024-09-30
09:54

‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ showrunner Ryan Murphy and several actors in the cast are speaking up about the criticisms against the Netflix series.

‘Monsters’ follows the tragic real-life story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez, two affluent brothers who were put on trial for murdering their parents in 1989 after getting physically, mentally, and sexually abused by their father for years.

The true crime-inspired series received backlash from netizens and the Menéndez family for insinuating that the brothers had an incestuous relationship.

In a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Murphy claimed that one of the reasons he wrote the incestuous themes was due to the theory of Dominick Dunne, a famous journalist working on the case at the time.

Murphy added that after extensive research, they applied a “Rashomon” approach to the series, a filming device used when several eyewitnesses describe a single event differently.

“What the show is doing, is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case,” he said.

Nicholas Chavez, who played Lyle Menéndez, said that he empathizes with the fact that it’s difficult to see your most painful moments recreated on TV but when asked by ET if he knows where the incest storyline came from, the actor responded: “It’s an interesting question. I don’t know.”

Nathan Lane, who plays Dunne, has also spoken to Variety, saying Dunne just posed another theory about the brothers having incestuous relations as the reason for their killing and that ultimately, people need to be reminded that “it’s a dramatization and not a documentary.”

Cooper Koch, who plays Erik, claimed he “absolutely does not” believe the brothers had a sexual relationship nor was it intended by the show to present that as the truth.

“I think that was just a theory that one person had and that got put into the show because that person was a character in the show… I stand with Erik and everything that he says in his testimony I believe to be his truth, and I believe him.”

Sources: (1) (2)

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