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Nicholas Alexander Chavez, star of Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story, has said he understands why the real Erik Menendez is unhappy with the hit Netflix series.
Chavez told USA Today that he has “sympathy and empathy” for Menendez, who claimed that Ryan Murphy’s drama is “vile and appalling” in its portrayal of the Menendez’s murder of their parents in August 1989.
“I can only respond with sympathy and empathy in that I can only imagine how difficult it is to have the most traumatic moment of your life put up there on the screen for everyone to see,” said Chavez, who plays Lyle in the nine-part series.
Erik Menendez’s statement about Monsters, shared on social media by his wife Tammi Menendez, was particularly critical of the depiction of Lyle. He said it was “a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show.”
Speaking at the premiere of Grotesquerie, Chavez explained the work that went into his role, including reading books, watching documentaries, and reviewing court footage. “With the court TV footage, you’re getting a glimpse into what was happening in that time, but the show aims to fill out a lot more details than just the courtroom scenes,” he said.
Erik’s statement continued: “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 — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.
“Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”
Murphy also responded to Erik’s statement at the Grotesquerie premiere, questioning his comments on Monsters when he “hasn’t watched the show.”
Murphy added: “We know two people were brutally shot. Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts and have you do two things: make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster, and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story debuted on September 18 and topped Netflix’s viewing charts, putting up 12.3M views in its opening weekend. The series stars Cooper Koch as Erik, with Javier Bardem as José, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty, Nathan Lane as Dominick Dunne, and Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson.
