Ryan Murphy says he reached out to Jeffrey Dahmer’s friends, series family – The Hollywood Reporter

Dahmer – Monster: It Jeffrey Dahmer a story originator Ryan Murphy He said he and his team reached out to the families and friends of 20 victims during the three and a half years it took to research and prepare for the Netflix series about the serial killer.

“It’s something we’ve been looking for for a very long time,” Murphy said at a screening event at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday. “And over the course of three, three and a half years when we were really writing it and working on it, we came up with 20, about 20 of the victims’ families and their friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people and not a single person responding to us in the process. So we relied heavily on our amazing group of researchers. Who… I don’t even know how they found so many of these things. But it was just a day and night for us trying to uncover the truth about these people.”

Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer horribly murdered 17 men. According to the show description, “The Beast: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is a series that exposes these absurd crimes, and centers around disenfranchised victims and their communities affected by the systemic racism and institutional failure of the police that have allowed one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue a killing spree in full view of more than a decade. Despite its stated goal, the show has been criticized for focusing too much on Dahmer’s horrific behavior and framing victim stories.

In addition, the series received violent reactions from the families of the victims, some of whom accused the operator and the team of not communicating with them. Rita Ispel, sister of Errol Lindsey, who was murdered by Dahmer at age 19, criticized the broadcasting giant for profiting from the tragic story. Shirley Hughes, the mother of Tony Hughes who had an affair with Dahmer before his murder, said that Drama series, the story of her son. But Murphy and Paris Barclay, who delayed episodes six and ten, said the show was meant to make the victims more than just a statistic.

“The thing we talked about a lot in the making is that we weren’t very interested in Jeffrey Dahmer, the person, but what made him the monster he became,” Murphy explained. “We talked a lot about it…and talked about it all the time. It’s really about white privilege. It’s about systemic racism. It’s about homophobia.”

“We really want to be a celebration of these victims,” ​​Barclay added. “When Tony writes ‘I Won’t Disappear’ on the last card, that’s what this show is about. It’s about making sure these people don’t get erased by history and that they have a place and that they’re recognized and that they matter and they live a full life. And they came from all kinds of different places, But they were real people.”

He continued, “They weren’t just numbers. They weren’t just pictures on billboards and telephone poles. They were real people with loving families, breathing, living, hoping. That’s what we wanted.”

Rodney Burford plays Tony Hughes on the show, and through a translator he said, “You see Dahmer killing people left and right, with no feelings, no remorse. But then, Tony showed up. He’s deaf. He’s black, like all odds against him. But nevertheless , Jeff liked it compared to the others, and they created a connection. I had Evan [Peters]And everyone was supporting me, so seeing that reflected on Netflix was great.”

Niecy Nash, who plays Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of Dahmer who on several occasions tried to alert the police about the Dahmer murders but was always ignored, wondered why there was no memorial for the victims.

“Anything we can do to make that happen, you know, I’d be happy to pay for it myself,” Murphy said. “I think there has to be something. And we try to get people to talk about it. I think there is some resistance because they think the park is going to attract people who are interested in honoring the apocalypse… But I think something should be done.”

Peters and Murphy have worked together before american horror storyPeters has expressed his desire to play someone “normal” and possibly go to perform a rom-com,” Murphy explained. He said that after about 100 people tested for the Dahmer part, he went to Peters with the script. “He called me the next day and said, ‘It’s very difficult. It is very difficult for me to answer yes, even though I am terrified of it.”

Peters cries about his operation to bring in Dahmer, saying that he read all the books and articles about the killer as well as psychological reports, confessions, and timelines “to try to understand why he did what he did, and the struggle he had with her.”

He added, “Then her physicality, which I know is going to be very challenging. He has a lot of externalities from the way he walks, he doesn’t move his arms when he walks and talks. And so I did a lot of research on watching him and seeing how he moves and working with weights on my arms, wearing wardrobe, And all kinds of things that I was going to carry around with me all day to try and stay in. Second nature. And then I created a 45-minute audio synthesizer, which I listened to every day to try to get his accent and how he spoke and really tried to understand why he was doing what he did or what his way of thinking was” .

Peters was so deeply immersed in the process that Nash said she didn’t really recognize the actor on set.

“I didn’t recognize Evan, because Evan stayed his way,” Nash said. “So, you know, being his nosy neighbor, and a thorn in his body, we couldn’t really connect. I guess maybe we said good morning twice? Because I forced it on him…I realized, [I have to] Stay in my tracks because I didn’t want to spoil your operation and what you need to do to stay where you need to stay.”

Offer reached #1 on Netflix In its first week of release, Murphy said that sometime in the next few days, it’ll go through a billion streaming hours.

“I have no idea how this became a phenomenon,” Nash said. “But what I hope is that wherever her soul lives in the universe, Glenda Cleveland finally feels heard.”

Netflix premiered the sixth episode of the show before the Q&A. Writer David Macmillan was seated in the audience.