Ryan Murphy defends his Netflix series Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez after one of its main managers, Erik Menendez, criticized the project.
“I find it interesting that he made a statement without having seen the show,” said the co-creator of the Monster Anthology tells Entertainment tonight on Monday. Murphy spoke on a red carpet in New York for the premiere of another show he is launching this month. grotesque at FX. “It’s really, really hard when it’s your life, to see your life on the screen.”
Since its release last week Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez has taken the news by storm. Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true crime drama tells the case of real-life brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of the murders of their parents José and Kitty Menendez in 1996. It is currently the No. 1 show on Netflix in the US
The Menendez brothers are incarcerated at the Donovan Correctional Facility in California and do not have Netflix access in prison. But a day after the show’s release, Erik shared his thoughts in a social media message posted by his wife, Tammi Menendez. Netflix and Murphy had no comment at the time, but The Hollywood Reporter spoke to journalist and Menendez trial expert Robert Rand, who said Erik probably got a description from his wife of how he and Lyle are portrayed in the series.
In his statement, Erik expressed his disappointment with both Murphy and Netflix because Murphy “shaped his horrific story through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slander.”
“It saddens me to know that Netflix, with its dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime, has pushed painful truths back several steps – back to an era when the prosecution built its narrative on the belief system that men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik said. He added, “It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.”
In his speech on Tuesday, Murphy directly addressed Erik’s criticism.
“I think it’s interesting that (Erik) doesn’t mention in his quote that if you look at the show, 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form is about the abuse and what allegedly happened to them,” the prolific showrunner said. “And we’re very careful about it, giving them their day in court and them speaking openly about it. In this time when people can really talk about sexual abuse, it can be controversial to talk about it and write about it and write about all points of view.”
Monster — which stars Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik, respectively — was also criticized by viewers for some scenes depicting an incestuous relationship between the adult brothers (some of the sexualized interactions include the brothers kissing). At his 1995 retrial, Lyle testified that he abused Erik when they were children. In the series, the brothers discuss this as adults with their attorney, Leslie Abramson, played by Ari Graynor, as they recount the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father.
Erik did not directly address the show’s insinuation that the brothers were lovers. But Rand said THR this week that the show’s portrayal of the brothers’ relationship is false and more about what others involved in the trial thought at the time. “I don’t think Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers. I think that’s a fantasy that Dominick Dunne (the reporter portrayed by Nathan Lane in the series) had in his head,” Rand said. “During the trial, rumors circulated that maybe there was some kind of strange relationship between Erik and Lyle himself. But I think the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, which is that when Lyle was 8, he took Erik out into the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which (their father) José had done with him. And so I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any kind. It’s a reaction to trauma.”
Murphy reiterated this to Entertainment tonightand says: Monster takes a “Rashomon-like approach” to telling the story over the course of the nine episodes.
“Four people were involved in the film – two of them are dead,” Murphy said of José and Kitty Menendez, who are played in the series by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny. “What about the parents? As storytellers, we had an obligation to include their perspective as well, based on our research, which we did.”
When asked directly whether the show implied that the brothers had a sexual relationship, Murphy said, “If you watch the show, it presents the viewpoints and theories of so many people who were involved in the case. Dominick Dunne has written several articles where he talks about this theory. We present his viewpoint, just like we present Leslie Abramson’s viewpoint. And we were obligated to show all of that, and that’s what we did.”
After Monster Netflix announced that Erik and Lyle Menendez will participate in a documentary, The Menendez Brotherswhere they will tell their story in audio interviews from prison. Streaming on October 7, The Menendez Brothers will see the brothers “for the first time in 30 years, and in their own words (relive) the trial that shocked the nation. In extensive audio interviews with Lyle and Erik, the lawyers involved in the trial, the journalists who covered it, the jury, the family and other informed observers, acclaimed Argentine director Alejandro Hartmann offers new insights and a fresh perspective on a case people only think they know.”
Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez streams all episodes on Netflix.
