Monsters star Cooper Koch was told he wasn’t getting roles because of his ‘gay voice’
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story star Cooper Koch was once told his voice is too ‘gay’. (Getty)
Monsters star Cooper Koch was once told he wasn’t getting acting parts because his voice was too “gay”.
The American actor, 28, might now be starring in arguably the biggest TV series of the month – Ryan Murphy’s controversial Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – but in 2022, Koch said he wasn’t “being offered any roles” at all.
Speaking to Edge Media Network, he revealed that he was once asked by an unnamed acting teacher why he thought he wasn’t booking any new shows or films, despite ardently auditioning. When he admitted that he wasn’t sure, and that’s why he was taking the class, she allegedly replied: “Well, you have a gay voice.”
Koch went on to suggest that there was a similar reason he was even let go while making a pilot for a new TV show.
“I have a thick skin and at this point in my life, I’ve been through bullying when I was a kid, I’ve been fired from a pilot because of it,” he said. “But I also don’t tolerate it any more. I will just walk away.
“If you’re gonna have that kind of opinion, or you’re not gonna want to work with me because my voice sounds a certain way or because I walk or talk or move my hands in a certain way, then I don’t want to work with you either, babe.”
In true-crime adaptation Monsters, which is currently topping the most-watched list on Netflix, Koch plays Erik Menendez, the younger of two brothers. Nicholas Chavez plays his sibling Lyle.
After two trials, the pair were found guilty of murder in the first degree, and conspiracy to murder, for shooting their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty”, at their Beverley Hills mansion in 1989.
The brothers’ defence team tried in vain to have the charges reduced to manslaughter, owing to an alleged lifetime of sexual abuse at the hands of their father (played by Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men and Skyfall star Javier Bardem). The brothers were jailed for life, without the possibility for parole, in 1996.
Erik has since accused Monsters of featuring “horrible and blatant lies”.
In a post on X/Twitter, on his wife Tammi’s account, he said: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward… Murphy has shaped his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and me.”
The show has also been accused of sexualising the relationship between the brothers, in scenes that show them kissing and being nude around each other.
Prior to his role, out gay star Koch was best-known for appearing in LGBTQ+ horror films They/Them and Swallowed, although he’s keen to play straight roles too.
“There [are] a lot of roles I go out for that don’t identify as gay, and I don’t only wanna play queer roles,” he said.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix now.
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