Ryan Murphy and the cast and crew of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story talk about portraying real people.
When Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second installment of the Emmy-winning Monster anthology, debuted this fall, the series became a global phenomenon, much like its record-breaking predecessor about the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. For Monsters co-creator Ryan Murphy, the staggering response was not entirely unexpected. “I can’t say I was unsurprised because when we finished shooting it and I saw the episodes, I thought they were incredibly powerful from several different points of view,” he says. “That was always the purpose of the show — to show different complicated points of view.”
The series chronicles the years leading up to and following the trial of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, played by breakthrough performers Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, who shattered the picture-perfect image of their wealthy Beverly Hills family when they killed their parents Jose and Kitty (Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and Golden Globe winner Chloë Sevigny). Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story probes the abusive and volatile environment that surrounded the Menendez family and the ways the landmark case impacted everyone in its orbit — from defense attorney Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor) to journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane).
“When you make something, whether people love it or hate it is beside the point; [the question is] does it launch a conversation about something? And I think the show definitely did that in a way that [co-creator] Ian [Brennan] and I were very proud of,” Murphy says. “The interesting thing about the Monster show is that it asks the question, Who is the monster? How are monsters made? Are they born? And in this season, particularly, there are many different types of monsters. That’s the fascinating thing: to write about cultural monstrosities.”
At a recent roundtable discussion, Murphy and the Monsters ensemble, along with some of the craftspeople who brought the series to life, share their experiences working on the anthology series, how they approached playing real-life characters, and more.
An edited version of the conversation follows.
Behind the scenes with Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Erik and Lyle Menendez
FINDING LYLE AND ERIK
Ryan Murphy: Tiffany [Little Canfield, casting director] worked particularly hard for, I believe, six months, just constantly auditioning people. We called it the Scarlett O’Hara search, just on and on and on. And it’s that thing when you fall in love, you’re like, No, no, no, and then suddenly, you hit their audition video. I just instantly felt, Yes, those are our guys. They are the ones.
Tiffany Little Canfield, casting director: We reached out to conservatories and the theater scene as well as of course, agents, managers, and an open call. So we really tried to cover the gamut, and it doesn’t surprise me we ended up with two brilliant trained professional actors who came in and took these parts, claimed them.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez: I wasn’t familiar with the story until I got the audition. And then once I caught that, you’re trying to do an expedited research process, right? You’re trying to learn as much as you can as fast as possible so that you don’t make a fool of yourself in the room once you audition for Ryan Murphy. It was an ongoing journey in terms of what we were able to learn and then marrying that with the scripts that were written for us.
Cooper Koch: I grew up in Woodland Hills in Calabasas, which is where the family first moved to when they moved to California. So I had known a lot about it, and I’d watched some of the trial footage and testimony. I was always just fascinated by it and moved by their stories and their testimony.
Behind the scenes with Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menendez
WHEN RYAN MURPHY CALLS
Javier Bardem: [Ryan] called me and I said, “Yeah, sure.” And then I read [the scripts] and I said, “Fuck.” But I always felt protected, safe in his hands. One thing that I know for sure is that he’s an amazing artist, and he always does thorough, thorough research on everything he does, and he surrounds himself with the very best that you can find in this industry.
Chloë Sevigny: It was an immediate yes. He called and he talked to me a bit about what he wanted to say with the series. Knowing that I was going to have to play different versions of this woman was very exciting to me, and very challenging as an actor because normally you’re searching for and playing this one truth of this character. Here, I’m playing different interpretations of her. I’ve never had the opportunity to do that before. I think also to show a mother that is struggling in the way that this woman did, I think you rarely see that onscreen.
Nathan Lane: I knew a little about Dominick. I knew that he wrote for Vanity Fair, and then just started doing research, as you do. I talked to his son, Griffin, who was extremely helpful and gracious. I remember saying, “Griffin, how would you like to see your father portrayed?” And he said, “I just want people to know how the trial of John Sweeney, who murdered his daughter, changed his life forever, personally and professionally, which is why he became such a passionate advocate for victims.”
Ari Graynor: The first things I ever read were two scenes: It was the scene when you first meet [Leslie] at the adoption agency, and the first time she meets Erik. To see that this is how they were introducing her, talking about adopting a child, and what happens when kids don’t get the love that they need, it was this total other insight into her. I just really wanted to honor that, the love that she had, and the passion and fairness for the system. I knew that Ryan was just giving me such an extraordinary gift with Leslie. And I just wanted to try to get her as much as I could.
Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor) and Erik Menendez (Cooper Koch)
SHOOTING EPISODE 5, “THE HURT MAN”
Murphy: When we were writing [this episode,] it was first written much more traditionally. And when I read it, I said to Ian, “I think we should do something that is terrifying here.” I knew that Cooper and Ari were very talented, so I said, “Let’s do it all in one shot.” We knew that very early on, so we built a special set that could have a camera that could literally be moving for 30 minutes.
Koch: We only did one rehearsal.
Graynor: As the person off camera, I was like, “If I miss a line, I will literally end it all right now.” This is crazy. But what [Cooper] did was just the most extraordinary thing ever.
Murphy: It was also very rewarding. I don’t want to speak for Cooper or Ari, but I think you guys felt that you figured it out by that last take. And that’s the one we used.
Koch: I think the second day, all four of the takes felt new and different and interesting and held different moments, and we found new stuff. I was happy with any of the takes from the second day, whichever one they chose. I didn’t know which one it was after I watched it for the first time and then you called me and told me it was the last one.
Murphy: I was so excited because from what I witnessed, everybody who made that — the whole show but [especially] that episode — was so thrilled with the theatricality of it. The goal when you’re doing something like that is everybody has to be communicating with you on the same page. And it’s like being in an athletic event where you win. You’re like, “We did it. We did it.”
Koch: There’s absolutely no way I could have done it without [Ari]. She held such beautiful space for me and she became Leslie, which I think allowed me to be Erik.
Behind the scenes with Chloë Sevigny and Javier Bardem as Kitty and Jose Menendez
CRAFTING THE MENENDEZ’S WORLD
Murphy: Whenever I do anything, I always have a general first concept meeting with all of the department heads pretty much on every episode. What I like to do is talk about, “This is the reason why I want to make this, this is what it’s about, and then this is the tone of it, and this is the feeling of it and the light of it. Here are reference photos and movies I’m interested in.” So people have a lot of visual clues. But then the fun of it for me is working with these world-class artists and saying, “Now you interpret it the way you want to.” So, everybody has a lot of agency to come and try things and style things. It was very interesting when we were coming up with the visual language of this because I had a color in mind and sometimes I like to do things like, “Okay, this season the color is X.”
Matthew Flood Ferguson, production designer: Dahmer was a dingy yellow, and so [when we met with] Ryan on this season, he talked about it exactly and said, “This color is going to be blue.” It’s a great starting point for us to build off of as kind of a base. It’s kind of a game, how to incorporate it and carry it through the entire show.
Paula Bradley, costume designer: Ryan always from the get-go [wanted] blue skies L.A, all the colors and the color blocking, and then desaturated. That for me told me the story. I was a fashion student in the 80s, and the 80s were a very complex decade. It was a birth of a lot of design. I didn’t experience the 80s in L.A., so I [did] a lot of research [in] books and things. I stole some [ideas] from Matthew.
Karen Bartek, hair department head: I remember their trial because I grew up in the 80s in L.A. We had a wig made for [Lyle], we had a side piece and a top piece. But the wig didn’t really work because with Ryan’s keen eye, he didn’t want it to look over-the-top and be too 80s because it could get so bad really fast. The 80s was not great [for] hair. But we ended up using the toupee and the side piece for his bald reveal.
Lyle Menendez (Nicholas Alexander Chavez)
Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor)
Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane)
Kitty (Chloë Sevigny) and Jose Menendez (Javier Bardem)
Erik (Cooper Koch) and Lyle Menendez (Nicholas Alexander Chavez)
Murphy: Lyle’s wig was always a character. It was so about his vulnerability, the father’s point of view. We spent a lot of time working, getting that right, and working with Nicholas, too, so that he felt comfortable.
Miho Suzuki, makeup department head: Coming to this project, I was so excited to work for Ryan because there aren’t very many occasions that you get to work [on a project where] they really care about hair and makeup. A lot of times, it’s not the most important thing. To bring in a little bit of a highlight so the light catches and makes them look like Hollywood stars contrasted [with] when they were in prison, it was a really great creative challenge.
Lane: I had this scene, a lunch scene at Spago, and they re-created the entire restaurant at the original location down to the plates and the napkins and the chairs. It was astonishing.
Koch: Knowing the way that the house looked from research and pictures, [it] was really exciting to walk in there for the first time and see the den and even the foyer. I was so impressed every day.
Ferguson: For Erik’s room, my mother-in-law’s house was for sale in Louisiana. And there were these curtains from the 80s that she had, and I loved them — they looked like a Nagel print. So I had [them] shipped, and they were in [Erik’s] room. Those curtains actually started the design of that whole room.
Erik (Cooper Koch) and Lyle Menendez (Nicholas Alexander Chavez)
SAFETY IN DARKNESS
Bardem: The whole team, we were talking before [we began filming about how] the show is very dramatic and speaks about many very heavy issues, but that the way it was made was with lots of love, attention, care, a lot of work. I think everybody was taking very good care of each other, and that’s what makes this experience very special and unique. We went deep into a lot of heavy stuff, but we came back safe because we were surrounded by beautiful people doing things with lots of love. And if there’s something that the show shows it's that the lack of love can really perpetuate pain for generations.
Koch: In the beginning, the first couple of episodes, you’re working nearly every day. It’s 14-hour days. So not only [are you dealing with] emotional exhaustion or an emotional hangover, but you’re just exhausted from working all day. So I think it took figuring out the nimble way to be able to step in and step out. And sometimes yes, it was very emotional, and you would go home and it would feel dark. But by the end, I got a handle on how to go home, turn the lights on, take a shower, and let it go.
Chavez: Your central nervous system doesn’t really know the difference, so you’ve got to have a way to shake it off at the end of the day. But I’m very fortunate that I have a really lovely family. I was just able to give them a call if I had a particularly hard day.
Sevigny: Ryan was so present and available for all of us all of the time. And I really respect that, just because he’s such a busy man. All the writers and the directors would call us, give us their numbers. It was so much open dialogue, and everybody felt very safe and very heard. I found that very refreshing because I’ve done a lot of television, but I hadn’t had that kind of access before, that stream of communication. I thought that was really an incredible thing.
