Adore it or hate it — and responses run the gamut — “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” was one of many greatest, buzziest TV reveals of 2024.
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s second installment of the “Monster” anthology (following the primary season about Jeffrey Dahmer) dives deep into the story of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez (performed by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch), who shot and killed their mother and father in 1989 and instructed the jury that they had been defending themselves after years of abuse.
Following a November 10 screening of Episode 1 “Blame it on the Rain,” in New York Metropolis, solid members Chavez, Koch, Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Nathan Lane, and Ari Graynor sat down for a dialogue about their roles and about bringing this advanced story to life.
“I went into it with the what I consider was the reality of the state of affairs, and that’s that they killed their mother and father out of worry,” Koch stated “They needed to be prepared to guard themselves in case their mother and father had been going to do the identical factor to them, which I don’t assume was ever gonna occur, however of their minds they believed that was gonna occur.”
For Bardem, a long time of expertise in movie ready him to not over-rehearse.
“If you put together a film, you’re by your self,” he stated. “You’re at residence. You’re imagining issues by your self. You might be on their own… and it could possibly get very can get very nasty, as a result of then you definately go to the set together with your entire factor executed, and the set is one thing else. Everyone’s bringing their very own homework, and it’s a must to go, like, ‘Maintain on, maintain on, however I assumed it was going to be this manner,’ — it’s alive. It’s one thing that it’s a must to be ready to go together with.”
Koch stated that he discovered from that spontaneity, that it gave him extra freedom to flow on set and see what every day’s work would convey. Bardem praised each Koch and Chavez for “their dedication, their preparation, their vulnerability, their will to go as deep because it was wanted… what’s coming to them goes to be wonderful, as a result of they deserve it. They’re nice actors, however most of all, they’re nice human beings, and that’s why they’re [such] good actors. And I’m very proud to be one of many your first steps on this.”
Chavez stated that he seen Lyle Menendez as “a masked character,” nearly like a toddler pretending to be an grownup.
“He begins the collection by needing to emulate almost all of his father’s conduct,” he defined. “It’s actually arduous when developmentally you’re feeling like a 10-year-old boy, and then you definately really feel it essential to current as an enormous, profitable document label government, regardless of not having the precise nurturing that will associate with that. It’s attention-grabbing to observe the masks slip over the course of Episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4, after which finally you type of see the kid beneath.”
A main visible image of that was the toupee that Lyle is revealed to be carrying from as early as Episode 1, ripped violently from his head by mom Kitty (Sevigny). Afterward, a flashback reveals father José (Bardem) taking Lyle to get it fitted, insisting that his son put on the hairpiece though he has doubts.
“I all the time considered that as being type of just like the final little little bit of his genuine individuality that went to die that day,” Chavez stated. “After which what do you do after that? What do you make of your self?”
Bardem and Sevigny’s analysis appeared totally different from the others, since their characters had been lengthy gone earlier than the well-known Menendez brothers trial, sentencing, and all of the drama that unfolded across the brothers.
“There was not a lot to search for on the market, to study from José Menendez,” Bardem stated, referring to how his costars had been in a position to pore over hours of trial footage. “There was no audio, there’s no movies, there’s nothing. So I actually depend on on the fabric… I’ve to play José in a method that’s ambivalent. We all know for sure that he did sure issues, and we don’t learn about others. That’s a great enjoyable place to be as an actor, to not be capable of go one aspect or the opposite, however to be within the center.”
Bardem described José Menendez as “machista”; raised with an image of masculinity that many now acknowledge as poisonous and dangerous, and with which Bardem is acquainted. “I’ve been raised into that and it’s one thing that I combat towards on daily basis in my life,” he stated. “My father was a product of that training. And I don’t learn about right here, however in Spain, there are murders each month of males killing their wives as a result of they’re tremendous macho males, and that’s what they do, and it’s fucking disgusting. We’re nonetheless prisoners of that training, and we’ve got a lot to study.”
Graynor, who performs Erik’s legal professional Leslie Abramson, joined the challenge with out studying the scripts — solely her two audition scenes.
“That was if you first meet Leslie on the adoption company, and when she meets Erik for the primary time,” she recalled, noting the thread of compassion in each. “The present is asking a nature/nurture query that I believe as an actor, you’re additionally all the time asking your self and making an attempt to construct out your individual sense of historical past from that individual.”
Graynor and Koch are the one two to seem in Episode 5, “The Harm Man,” a 33-minute single take that has been inflicting Emmys buzz for the reason that day it aired. The episode positioned immense strain on Koch because the digital camera slowly pushes in nearer and nearer on his face, however the actor delivers — although he struggled at first.
“We did one rehearsal, and it simply couldn’t have gone higher,” Koch stated. “Okay, we’re gonna go into this, and we’re gonna do it, and it’s gonna be nice, and I’m gonna get on the primary take, after which we’re gonna cease, after which we’re not gonna must do it anymore. And the primary two takes had been simply… oh, I felt horrible about them. I’m certain they weren’t that dangerous, however I simply didn’t really feel like I had gotten it.”
Koch took director Michael Uppendahl apart through the lunch break, who instructed him to cease “chasing the dragon” — recreating the magic of that rehearsal and the sensation it gave him. Uppendahl inspired Koch to be open, defend the mother and father, and discover gentle in a script with no dearth of darkness.
“Then that third take was actually explosive and wonderful,” Koch stated. “They didn’t select that one.”
Graynor’s face is rarely seen as she sits reverse from Koch at a desk, however Leslie repeatedly asks questions, interjects, and affords sort phrases and validation for her consumer. Graynor stated her theater background helped floor her efficiency whilst she slips out the body.
“I discover probably the most offensive factor a director can say to an actor to be ‘Reserve it for the shut up,’” she stated. “Drives me so loopy as a result of it suggests that you simply’re simply doing one thing just for your self and just for the digital camera, which to me takes away the magic of what we get to do, which is be with one another and create one thing and be there for one another.”
In the end, she stated, she was grateful to witness Koch performing “probably the most troublesome piece of labor I’d ever been part of or seen.”
“There was a lot belief and a lot love and a lot prep, after which to see what he did each time we did it — and we by no means stopped, we by no means broke,” Graynor added. “It was a rare expertise, and probably the most pure inventive experiences I’ve had in a method — possibly as a result of there wasn’t a digital camera, so it was nearly inhabiting the area collectively.”
As Koch stated: “I used to be your digital camera.”
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is now streaming on Netflix.