Nicholas Alexander Chavez, star of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezhas said he understands why the real Erik Menendez is unhappy with the Netflix hit series.

Chavez told USA Today he has “sympathy and empathy” for Menendez, who claimed Ryan Murphy’s drama is “despicable and horrific” in its depiction of Menendez’s murder of their parents in August 1989.

“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,” said Chavez, who plays Lyle in the nine-part series.

Erik Menendez’s statement about Monstersshared on social media by his wife Tammi Menendez, was particularly critical of the portrayal of Lyle, saying it was “a caricature of Lyle, rooted in horrible and blatant lies that are rampant on the show.”

Speaking at the premiere of GrotesqueChavez explained the work his role entailed, which included reading books, watching documentaries and watching courtroom footage. “With the courtroom TV footage, you get a glimpse of what was happening at the time, but the show aims to give much more detail than just the courtroom scenes,” he said.

Erik’s statement continued: “It is sad to know that Netflix’s unfair portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has taken the painful truth several steps back – back in time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women.

“Those terrible lies have been debunked and exposed over the past two decades by countless brave victims who have pushed past their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy is fleshing out his terrible story through disgusting and horrific character portrayals of Lyle and me, and dispiriting smears.”

Murphy also responded to Erik’s statement at the Grotesque premiere, where he made his comments about Monsters if he “didn’t watch the show.”

Murphy added: “We know that two people were brutally shot. Our position and what we wanted to do was to present you with all the facts and let you do two things: make up your own mind about who is innocent, who is guilty and who is the monster, and also have a conversation about something that is never talked about in our culture, which is the sexual abuse of men, which we do in a responsible way.”

Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez debuted on September 18 and topped Netflix’s ratings charts with 12.3 million 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.