Erik Menéndez called actor Cooper Koch one day before the release of Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters series, a dramatized retelling of his and brother Lyle Menéndez’s murder case.
“We had a really nice conversation,” Koch, 28, revealed on Thursday, September 26, during a Today show appearance with costars Nicholas Chavez and Javier Bardem. “I got to basically just tell him that I believe him and I did everything that I could in my power as an actor to portray him as accurately and as authentically as possible.”
Koch and Erik, 53, bonded over similarities as well. “We talked about other things like I went to Calabasas High School, which is where he went when he first moved to California,” the actor noted. “My father graduated Beverly Hills High School the year before Erik got there. We have all of these weird parallels.”
He continued: “We just looked at each other, and immediately embraced. He was so kind. Lyle, too, I got to hug both of them and just be in their presence. They’re such upstanding individuals. They’ve done so much work in their prison. Erik teaches meditation and speech classes, and they’re doing this Greenspace project to improve the prison grounds. It was just amazing.”
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Koch, who played Erik was asked about the controversy surrounding Monsters after Erik released a statement slamming the Netflix series — one day after it was released.
“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,” read a statement from Erik that was 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.”
Koch said: “To his statement, I understand how he feels and I get that it is so difficult to have your life — and not just your life — but the worst part of your life be televised in a dramatized, Hollywood version. I just get how difficult that would be and I stand with him. I understand it must be really hard.”
Season 2 of Monsters, which was released on September 19, chronicled the lives of Lyle (Chavez) and Erik (Koch), who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989. The show introduced different perspectives of what led the siblings to kill their parents, José (Bardem) and Kitty (Chloë Sevigny), including their claims that it was in self-defense following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
In his reaction, Erik specifically called out inaccuracies in the show, saying, “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.”
He continued: “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. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander. Is the truth not enough?”
Murphy, 58, and several cast members acknowledged Erik’s displeasure with their interpretation of the high-profile case.
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“There were four people involved [in the case],” Murphy told Entertainment Tonight on Monday, September 23. “Two of them are dead. What about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did.”
Koch, for his part, publicly addressed concerns — including backlash at the onscreen insinuation that Erik and Lyle had a sexual relationship. (Variety reported one day after Monsters was released that Koch joined Kim Kardashian at Richard J. Donovan Correctional on Saturday, September 21, to give a talk about prison reform to inmates, including Lyle, 56, and Erik.)
“I knew that this was a very controversial story, and that people were going to be upset and affected by what they were seeing. 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,” Koch told Variety on Wednesday, September 25. “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.”
Koch clarified that he “absolutely does not” believe the fictional incest speculation.
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“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,” he continued. “I do not think that’s true. 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 Erik and everything that he says in his testimony I believe to be his truth, and I believe him.”
According to Koch, Erik’s response “definitely affected” him.
“[t made me feel things. I sympathize with him, I empathize with him. I get it. I understand how difficult it would be to have the worst part of your life be televised for millions of people to see. It’s so exposing,” the actor concluded. “I understand how he feels and I stand by him. In terms of approaching him and approaching the part, I just really wanted to do as much research and dig really deep into myself to really portray him with integrity and just be as authentic as possible to support him and also to support his family and all the people who stand with him.”
Monsters is currently streaming on Netflix.
