close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • ‘Monsters’ Star Nicholas Chavez Responds to Erik Menendez Smear Show
    news

    ‘Monsters’ Star Nicholas Chavez Responds to Erik Menendez Smear Show

    Vaseline Posted on

    play

    Erik Menéndez isn’t happy about a new Netflix series about him and his brother, and one of the show’s stars is speaking out.

    Nicholas Alexander Chavez, who plays Lyle Menendez on the Ryan Murphy Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” spoke to USA TODAY on Monday after Erik Menendez wrote a statement slamming the show. At the premiere of Murphy’s latest series, “Grotesquerie,” the 25-year-old actor responded by offering condolences.

    “I can only respond with sympathy and empathy because I can only imagine how difficult it is to see the most traumatic moment of your life on screen for everyone to see,” he told USA TODAY.

    In 1996, Lyle and Erik Menéndez were convicted of murdering their parents and sentenced to life in prison. The brothers alleged that their father, José Menéndez, had physically, sexually and emotionally abused them for years before the murders.

    Netflix’s “Monsters” dramatizes their story over nine episodes and stars Cooper Koch as Erik Menéndez, and Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as Lyle and Erik’s parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez. The series is a sequel to “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which starred Evan Peters.

    Erik Menendez criticizes Ryan Murphy and Netflix for ‘unfair portrayal’ of his parents’ murders

    Chavez also told USA TODAY that he did “extensive” research for “Monsters,” including watching documentaries and books about the Menendez brothers and watching television footage of the court from that time.

    “With the courtroom TV footage, you get a glimpse of what was happening at the time, but the show is much more focused on detail than just the courtroom scenes,” he said. “That’s what makes it interesting.”

    Shortly after the premiere of “Monsters,” Erik Menéndez criticized the series for its “horrible and blatant lies” in a statement released by his wife.

    Has Lyle Menendez Wearing a Hairpiece? Why It Came Up in a Pivotal Scene of Netflix’s New ‘Monsters’ Series

    “I can only believe that they did this on purpose,” he said. “It is with a heavy heart that I say that I believe that Ryan Murphy could not be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.”

    Some viewers have taken issue with the series for seeming to propagate the idea that the Menéndez brothers may have been in an incestuous relationship. The two brothers kiss on the lips in one scene, while another moment shows their mother catching them showering together. The latter scene is framed as a theory about the case presented by journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) rather than objective reality.

    In his statement, Menéndez criticized Murphy for his “disgusting and appalling characterizations of Lyle and me and his disheartening smears,” and asked, “Isn’t the truth enough?”

    Contributions: Jay Stahl

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like