Ryan Murphy hits back at Erik Menendez’s criticism of Netflix’s Monsters
Ryan Murphy has issued a response to those criticising his latest series Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – including one of the brothers who are the subject of the show.
The series, currently topping Netflix’s most-watched chart, is a fictionalised retelling of the famous true-crime case which captured headlines in the 90s. Nicholas Chavez plays Lyle, while out gay star Cooper Koch portrays Erik.
The brothers shot dead their parents at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, and managed to evade suspicion for several months before being arrested. Both were charged with murder.
The defence teams tried in vain to have the charge reduced to manslaughter because of the alleged sexual abuse the brothers to have faced at the hands of their father. Lyle and Erik were found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder, after two trials, and, in 1996, jailed for life without the possibility of parole.
Murphy’s dramatisation has faced criticism since it dropped last week, with some people branding it inaccurate and others claiming the show sexualises the relationship between the brothers.
Even Erik himself, writing from prison through his wife Tammie’s X/Twitter account, has had his say, accusing Murphy of “bad intent” in creating the series.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” the younger brother said.
“I can only believe they were done on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
Now, speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the launch of his next project, Grotesquerie, Murphy has addressed the criticism and responded to Erik directly.
“I have many things to say about that… I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. I know he hasn’t seen the show in prison. I hope he does see the show.
“I think it’s really hard if it’s your life, to see your life up on screen. The thing that I find interesting, that he doesn’t mention, and that nobody from that side of the isle was talking about, is if you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 per cent, in the scripts and in the film form, centres around the abuse and what they claim happened to them.
“We do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and talk openly about it. We present the facts from their point of view.”
Chavez shared Murphy’s sentiment, saying: “I empathise with the fact that it must be incredibly difficult to see some of the most painful moments of your life being portrayed on television.”
But, when pushed about why Lyle and Erik’s relationship appears sexualised, the actor was less sure, responding: “It’s an interesting question, I don’t know.”
Murphy had more to say to those who feel uneasy about the strangely intimate scenes between the brothers – in which they kiss, and appear nude around each other.
“The interesting thing about Monsters is there were four people involved, two of them are dead. Two of them are alive, but what about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try [to] put in their perspective, based on our research.
“I think people are confused about [the sexualisation of the brothers’ relationship] too. If you watch the show, what the show is doing, it’s presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case,” he said.
“The show presents over 10 points of view, of different events… so, when people watch that and see that, that is somebody in our show having a narrative statement about, ‘This is what I believe really happened’. We had an obligation to show all that, and we did.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix now.
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