The 'Monsters' cast is weighing in on the controversy surrounding the Netflix series about the Menendez brothers case. Cooper Koch, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Nathan Lane and Ari Graynor weighed in to defend the show after Erik Menendez and the extended family condemned the new hit series, which became No. 1 on the streamer.
00:00The Menendez cast is weighing in on the controversy surrounding the Netflix series about the Menendez brothers case.
00:06Cooper Koch, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Nathan Lane and Ari Grainer weighed in to defend the show after Eric Menendez and the extended family condemned the new hit series.
00:16Monsters, the Eric and Lyle Menendez story is a portrayal of the two young men who killed their parents in 1989.
00:22But since its release, it turned into a back and forth between the show's creatives, including creator Ryan Murphy, defending the series.
00:28And the Menendez extended family not happy with the depiction.
00:32Viewers have also called out the series for an unfair depiction specifically and most controversially an implication that the two brothers were secretly lovers.
00:40A suggestion made at the time of the trial by Dominic Dunn, played by Lane in the series, who covered the trial for Vanity Fair.
00:46Koch told THR,
00:47I wanted Eric's point of view to be a through line the entire time, even when I was in other people's point of view.
00:53I wanted Eric to always be sympathetic and always feel like a victim, even though he had done something horrific.
00:58And I never wanted to discredit what he had done, but I wanted people to understand that he was a victim in all of this.
01:04As for the incest innuendo uproar, the series breakout star suggests an important read of one scene to clarify the script's intent.
01:12In the scene after Dominic Dunn explains all of these theories at the chateau, it cuts to the shot from behind him,
01:17where all of his friends, where he was telling the stories to, are gone and the lights are out.
01:21And the candles are still burning, which to me shows that the people that he's telling this to are like,
01:25Come on, Dominic, what are you saying? I hope people can understand that it's trying to show that no one believed that it's like that.
01:30This is an insane theory.
01:32On the topic of Menendez's angry letter denouncing the series, veteran actor Lane said he's entitled to his opinion.
01:38I think if he had been a producer on it, he could have said, well, this didn't happen or this did happen.
01:43And this is my point of view. But I think you certainly get a lot of different points of view on this show.
01:47And one must remind people that it's a dramatization and not a documentary.
01:52Chavez, who portrays Lyle Menendez, added,
01:54I think it's really interesting that the show chose to tell the story from so many different perspectives.
01:59It's a truthful way to tell the story, right?
02:01Both men are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the double murder of their parents.
02:06As dramatized in the series, their defense at their joint trial was a revelation that they were victims of years of sexual and emotional abuse
02:13from both father Jose and mother Kitty Menendez.
02:16For more on the cast thoughts, head to the article on THR.com.
02:21And for the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
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