Erik Menendez calls Ryan Murphy’s "Monsters" a “Dishonest Portrayal”

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Erik Menendez calls Ryan Murphy’s "Monsters" a “Dishonest Portrayal”
by Glenn Garner
September 20, 2024


The reviews are in for Ryan Murphy‘s latest true crime outing, and one critic is certainly not pleased. After "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story" debuted Thursday on Netflix, Erik Menéndez called out the series’ “naive and inaccurate” depiction of his and brother Lyle’s 1989 murder of their parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez.

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes rampant in the show,” said Erik in a statement shared on Lyle’s Facebook page. “I can only believe they were done so 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.”




“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,” he continued. “So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”

Erik added in part, “Is the truth not enough?”

https://deadline.com/2024/09/erik-me...al-1236096124/

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Ryan Murphy Responds to Erik Menendez’s Criticism of "Monsters"
by Denise Petski
September 24, 2024


Ryan Murphy is defending his work on "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story", responding to Erik Menendez’s criticism of the series, which he called a “dishonest portrayal.”

“I think that’s interesting because I know he hasn’t watched the show. So I find that curious,” Murphy told E! News in a red carpet interview Monday for "Grotesquerie". “I hope he does watch it. I think if he did watch it he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch who plays him.”



“It’s a 35-, 30-year-old case, ” Murphy continues. “We show many, many, many perspectives. That’s what the show does in every episode. You are given a new theory based on people who were either involved or covered the case.

Some of the controversy seems to be people thinking for example, that the brothers are having an incestuous relationship. There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it did happen.”



“We know how it ended,” Murphy pointed out. “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.”



“60 to 65% [of the show] centers around Eric and Lyle Menendez talking about their abuse, talking about their victimization, talking about what it emotionally put them through, those two boys in our show get their moment in court.

In fact, we have a 30-minute episode that Cooper Koch [who plays Erik] does so brilliantly. Just Erik’s words about what happened to him and why he did what he did.”

https://deadline.com/2024/09/ryan-mu...ry-1236098037/

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"Monsters" Cast Reacts to Controversy over Homoerotic Brother Scenes
by William Earl, Jack Dunn, Marc Malkin
Sept. 25, 2024


The actors behind Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” have responded to backlash concerning the show’s suggestion of an incestuous relationship between brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez.

In one scene of the series, for instance, the two brothers are depicted showering together.




When asked about the “homoeroticism” between the brothers in the series, Lyle actor Nicholas Chavez wanted to let the project speak for itself.

He said, “It’s a really interesting question, and it was something that we discussed quite a bit as part of this project, but ultimately this is a question that’s honestly best reserved for Ryan and the creators of the show.”




Nathan Lane, who portrays Vanity Fair journalist Dominick Dunne, said that while he is not on social media and has not seen the discussion there, he’s “heard through the grapevine that it’s caused quite a stir.”

“There’s a dinner party scene at Chateau Marmont, and Dominick’s discussing various theories of what he thinks happened with the brothers,” he said. “At one point, that scene was originally 20 pages, and I talked about it a lot more. At one point, he says, ‘perhaps this is what happened’ and suggest that there was an incestuous relationship between the two brothers, but that it had nothing to do with [their father] José, and that’s what [their mother] Kitty knew about. But it’s just him theorizing. He’s not saying that’s what happened. He says this is another reason why they might have killed them.

But he’s just posing another theory. I guess we have to remind people that it’s a dramatization and not a documentary. As Ryan has said, they’ve shown all different points of view about this case, and certainly they cover Eric and Lyle discussing their sexual abuse at the hands of their father. So I think you get many, many different opinions and points of view about what happened. Ultimately they’re the only ones who know for sure exactly what happened. But I just think it the show is extremely well written and beautifully acted by everybody.”




Cooper Koch, who portrays Erik Menendez, isn’t surprised that there’s been push back on insinuations that the siblings had a sexual relationship.

“I knew that this was a very controversial story, and that people were going to be upset and affected by what they were seeing,” Koch said.

“I think though you do have to put it into context of the situation, and that we’re sort of painting a picture based on what somebody else’s perspective was. It’s not necessarily the truth of what happened. That’s just what Dominick Dunne thinks and there I think are other places in the story where it’s sort of planted to give people all of these different perspectives and you know.”

“I think the goal of the show is to put all those perspectives together and let the audience be the jury. And at the end of the show, you just make your decision on what you believe. And I think it’s a really interesting way of telling the story and just storytelling in general.”



Koch said he “absolutely does not” believe the brothers had an incestuous relationship.

“I do not think that’s true,” he said. “And I don’t think it was intended by the show to make or break that truth. I think that was just a theory that one person had and that got put into the show because that person was a character in the show…I stand with Eric and everything that he says in his testimony I believe to be his truth, and I believe him.”




Chloë Sevigny, who portrays the Menendez family matriarch Kitty in the series, has a key scene where she walks in on her sons together in the shower. When asked about the homoeroticism in the series, she highlighted on the actors’ commitment to acting out the writers’ vision.

“I think all of the creators and showrunners wanted, first and foremost, for Nicholas and Cooper to feel comfortable and to not do anything that they didn’t want to do,” she said.

“There were people there to protect them at all times on the sets. And I said, ‘So do you want me to do off-camera? Do you not want me to? Is it better for you if I’m there or not there?’ Everything was done to ensure that they felt safe and protected, with intimacy coaches and so on. They were allowed to cut and walk away if they ever wanted to, and those boys were so committed to the roles and the way that Ian and and Ryan wanted to tell the story that they were willing themselves to do almost anything. It was really amazing to watch them and how invested they were in the characters and the story. I just felt like I was there to support them.”

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/mon...es-1236154988/

[JamesG]

Ryan Murphy on "Monsters" Criticism from Menéndez Brothers’ Family
by Armando Tinoco
September 27, 2024


Ryan Murphy is firing back at criticism for his Netflix series "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story" from the Menéndez brothers’ family.

In a new interview, the series creator says he is “used to being controversial” and comments on the general culture.

“I feel like that’s faux outrage,” Murphy told People. “Because if you look at what we do, we give those boys so much airtime to talk about what they claim as their physical abuse. We live in a sort of culture of outrage that a lot of things are knee-jerk, and that’s fine. I’m used to being controversial. It’s not new to me.”




Earlier this week, Erik’s wife, Tammi Menéndez, shared a letter written by his aunt, Joan VanderMolen, criticizing the series.

“We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menéndez,” VanderMolen started in the letter posted on X. “We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know we support Erik and Lyle. We individually and collectively pray for their release after being imprisoned for 35 years. We know them, love them, and want them home with us.

Ryan Murphy’s Monsters is a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations. Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama. Murphy claims he spent years researching the case but in the end relied on debunked Dominick Dunne, the pro-prosecution hack, to justify his slander against us and never spoke to us.”

https://deadline.com/2024/09/ryan-mu...ly-1236101908/