The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Monster Franchise, titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menedez Storyis now streaming on Netflix and has been making waves on social media. Nicholas Alexander Chavez (a fan favorite on General Hospital) and They / themCooper Koch plays the siblings, and the show dramatizes the events of the night they kill their parents all the way through their lives without parole sentencing.
The talent of the young stars dominated the conversation on various platforms, but there was also a rumor about the style and the tone of the show. There was a similarly significant conversation around the Jeffrey Dahmer season of MonsterAlthough the fact that Lila and Eric were also victims of their parents before the murder makes season 2 very different. Murphy and his creative partner Ian Brennan incorporated the allegations of sexual abuse into the story, but the Menendez family spoke out against the way some of the details in Monsters are delivered.
Related
Screen Rant Interviewed Koch and Chavez about their approach to Erik and Lyle Menendez in Monsters Season 2, whose suffering they felt deep sympathy for. The actors shared the tightrope they walked between the scandalous headlines surrounding the story and their own sensitive portrayals of real people’s pain.
Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez sought to portray the inner wounds of the Menendez brothers.
“I just went in with an open mind and a really empathetic heart.”
Screen Rating: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is absolutely captivating from start to finish, and you both disappear into the roles. Cooper, you mentioned feeling empathy for Eric Menendez. Can you talk about balancing your personal feelings with the need to portray his character authentically?
Cooper Koch: Yeah, I don’t think there was much weight. I think I really just approached him with as much empathy as possible. I wanted him to feel sympathetic in every scene, and I didn’t have to do much balancing. I just went in with an open mind and a really empathetic heart.
Screen Rant: Nicholas, are there any specific nuances or traits that you focused on bringing to Lyle’s character that most people might not be familiar with?
Nicolas Alexander Chavez: Lille in the story is presented as the less sympathetic of the two brothers, but what I tried to do was to do a significant amount of work to create a really wounded inner child that exists within him, which I think comes out in episode 4 and 7.
It gives people a chance to see that, at times, he can behave erratically and maybe even irrationally and impulsively – but his reasoning for this is that he is a deeply, deeply wounded person inside. I feel like episodes 4 and 7 do a really effective job of painting the picture of hurting people hurting people.
Screen Rant: Playing brothers in such a deep story requires a very strong dynamic. How did you build your chemistry with each other to effectively portray the bond between Erik and Lyle Menendez?
Cooper Koch: There was an instant chemistry when we did our screen tests over a year ago now. I think from working together every day and being on set together every day and doing the really intense scenes, you organically form a bond and a closeness just through the work that you do. It was really organic and natural.
Monsters actors respond to the criticism of the Menendez family of the Ryan Murphy show
“I hope they get a re-sentencing and hopefully get some parole.”
Screen Rant: How has the Menendez family’s response to the series made you reevaluate the material, if at all? What do you hope audiences consider about the real brothers after watching the series?
Cooper Koch: I think I stand with them. I understand how they feel. It is incredibly difficult for them, because this is their family, and it is so difficult to see this happening in a televised, theatrical, dramatized version. So, I get it.
I stand with them, and I hope that people leave the show with sympathy for the brothers. I hope they get a re-sentencing and catch a parole.
Screen Rant: What did you both want to bring to your roles that go beyond the page?
Nicholas Alexander Chavez: I think he is presented in a certain way. Lyle’s behavior during that time period in moments can be described as contradictory, but I think what I wanted to bring to it was that he had deep, deep, deep wounds because of the way he was raised. I also wanted to portray him as a leader and someone who loved his younger brother very much and saw himself as a kind of leader; Who wanted to save his young brother from a pain that only he could connect with a brother.
I tried to infuse the performance with a deep amount of love and care between Lyle and Erik, even if the words come out may seem brutal or intimidating or strong.
Cooper Koch: Yeah, I just really wanted to bring humanity to Erik. I wanted people to believe him; I wanted people to sympathize with him. I think that was my main goal.
About Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Following the massive success of Dahmer, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series returns with Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, chronicling the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 of the murders of their parents , José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Mendez.
While the prosecution argued that they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers argued — and remain steadfast to this day as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole — that their actions stemmed from fear of a lifetime of physical harm. , emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern fascination with true crime, and in turn asks the audience: Who are the real monsters?
Check out our others Monsters Interview with:
Source: Screen Rant Plus