‘Monsters’ Cast on Response to Netflix Menendez Series: “People Are Talking About the Case”
As the controversy over Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story and its portrayal of the two young men who killed their parents in 1989 has become a back-and-forth between the show’s producer and the people and family whom the series portrays, several members of the cast weighed in to defend the hit Netflix show and explain the perspective shifts that caused Erik Menendez to call it “blatant lies” from behind bars.
At a press gathering in New York last week, Cooper Koch (Erik Menendez), Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Lyle Menendez), Nathan Lane (reporter Dominick Dunne) and Ari Graynor (attorney Leslie Abramson) spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and gave their perspectives on the back-and-forth that has emerged after Erik Menendez’s wife posted a missive from prison condemning how Erik, and particularly Lyle, are depicted in the true-crime drama. Both men are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the double murder of their parents; as dramatized in the series, their defense at their joint trial was the revelation that they were victims of years of sexual and emotional abuse from both father José and mother Kitty Menendez.
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Star producer Ryan Murphy’s show takes liberties with aspects of the brothers’ behavior and actions — Lyle is depicted hoovering cocaine, hard facts are altered and, most controversially, a suggestion is made that the two brothers were secretly lovers. The script telegraphs most of this to have been the far-flung theories of Dominick Dunne (portrayed by Nathan Lane) as he covered the trial for Vanity Fair. But this may not have quite landed with audiences; several viewers have complained online of an unfair and incorrect depiction of the incarcerated brothers, who are currently awaiting a habeas corpus petition hearing and possible reduction in their sentence after new evidence emerged in their case just last year.
“I wanted Erik’s point of view to be a throughline the entire time, even when I was in other people’s points of view,” Koch told THR. “I wanted Erik to always [be] sympathetic and always feel like a victim, even though he had done something horrific. And I never wanted to discredit what he had done, but I wanted people to understand that he was a victim in all of this.”
The “Rashomon approach” Murphy has said was applied to the Menendez story in his series — referring to the perspective-rotating Akira Kurosawa classic film — was a “really smart” decision, Koch said, as it reflects how so many viewed a case. As for the incest innuendo uproar, the series’ breakout star suggests an important read of one scene to clarify the script’s intent.
“I think people are taking it a little bit out of context, and I understand how they feel,” he said. “A lot of people care for these people, especially me. I’m a huge Menendez advocate, and so I think if people see it from his point of view and not necessarily take it as the truth of the situation. In the scene after Dominick Dunne explains all of these theories at the chateau — it cuts to this shot from behind him, where all of his friends that he was telling the stories to are gone and the lights are out. And the candles are still burning — which, to me, shows that the people that he’s telling this to are like, ‘Come on, Dominick, what are you saying?’ I hope people can understand that it’s trying to show that no one believes that it’s like that, this is an insane theory.”
On the topic of Menendez’s angry letter denouncing the series, veteran actor Lane, whose Dunne is so central to the many gripes fans and supporters of the brothers have voiced about the series, said, “He’s entitled to his opinion. I think if he had been a producer on it, he could have said, ‘Well, this didn’t happen, or this did happen, and this is my point of view.’ But I think you certainly get a lot of different points of view on this show and one must remind people that it’s a dramatization and not a documentary.”
Lane added that, for the brothers, the adage “no press is bad press” may be relevant at this moment.
“There have been TV movies about them. There have been many documentaries. There’s another documentary coming on Netflix next month. To be honest, I don’t think this is a bad thing for them. People are talking about the case in a way they haven’t been and I think it could very well lead to another trial. It’s understandable, the reaction. But I think it’s unfair, because I think the show is extremely well-written and beautifully acted.”
Chavez, whose portrayal of Lyle Menendez was a major point of contention in his brother’s letter, said he can empathize with the anger.
“I understand that it must be incredibly difficult to have the most traumatic moment of your life told in a format that the entire world can watch,” he said, but defended the show’s intention to show the crime and its aftermath from a variety of points of view.
“I think it’s really interesting that the show chose to tell this story from so many different perspectives … it’s a truthful way to tell the story, right? Because reality seems to be a combination of both fact and the lens that it’s looked through. So reality can change, depending on who you ask.”
Graynor, who said she heavily researched her role to embody the enigmatic and empathetic Abramson, showed the latter trait when discussing the topic.
“My heart is with them and how they must feel, how hard this must be, and I hope that brings awareness for them,” she said. ”Which I think it is. And there’s new evidence. It’s time for this to be relooked at.”
Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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