Evan Peters has played many characters on American Horror Story. From a ghost in a murder house to a murderous spirit in a hotel to a frat boy zombie, he has had his fair share of scary and disturbing characters. But his latest project ,Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, may provide his scariest role yet. Peters will be playing the notorious serial killer and has recently spoken about the difficulties of taking on the part as well as the rule Ryan Murphy, the creator of the show, set to make sure the production was respectful.
Taking on a role like this requires a lot of care because, as Evan Peters says, it’s important to respect the victims and not sympathize with the killer. He has spent a lot of time figuring out how to play Jeffrey Dahmer and said it was incredibly difficult. In an interview with Ryan Murphy Productions he elaborated on why such care needed to be taken saying:
We had one rule going into this from Ryan that it would never be told from Dahmer’s point of view. As an audience, you’re not really sympathizing with him. You’re not really getting into his plight. You’re more sort of watching it, you know, from the outside.
The actor was very transparent in the interview, and the rationale that he lays out is understandable. He also said that he was super grateful to the crew for keeping him grounded and supporting him through the shoot. Additionally, he noted that a reason the work was challenging was because he wanted to keep his performance as authentic as he could. This desire for authenticity was also major for the overall production as well. He said:
It felt important to be respectful to the victims, to the victims' families; to try to tell the story as authentically as we could. You need to have certain plot points because he did do these things, but you don’t need to embellish them. We get it, we don’t need to see it over and over again.
Both Ryan Murphy and Evan Peters have made their fair share of crime shows. Murphy is an executive producer on American Crime Story, which follows various high-profile true-crime cases like the People vs. O.J. Simpson trial and the assassination of Gianni Versace. Along with AHS, Peters was notably part of the Mare of Easttown cast. His performance in the crime drama, in which he played the role of Detective Colin Zabel, made him one of the 2021 Emmy winners.
With Evan Peters and Ryan Murphy’s long-standing relationship, it’s no surprise that the actor was tapped for this role. Fans were also quick to react to the Jeffrey Dahmer casting because Peters has played so many serial killers on Murphy’s shows. While haunting and creepy, I’m sure this performance will be spectacular, especially given the two men’s track records. And based on their comments here, the material will surely be respectful as well.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story will join the plethora of Netflix shows on September 21. With that, be sure you have a Netflix subscription by that time so that you can check it out.
