After playing Erik Menendez in Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters — and advocating for Erik and Lyle Menendez‘s prison release — Cooper Koch revealed why he wouldn’t be present at their upcoming parole hearing.
Koch, 29, appeared on the Monday, August 4, episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers where he confirmed Erik, 54, and Lyle’s hearing is set for August 21 and 22. The actor, however, won’t be there after booking a role alongside Yura Borisov and Andrew Garfield in Artificial, which is Luca Guadagnino’s new AI-themed film.
“I would be if I could but I will be in Italy doing the movie,” he noted. “I will be getting live updates.”
Koch has publicly supported Erik and Lyle, 57, since playing the younger brother in Monsters, which premiered in September 2024. The Netflix series chronicled the lives of Lyle (Nicholas Chavez) and Erik, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989. The show introduced different perspectives of what led the siblings to kill their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloë Sevigny), including their claims that it was in self-defense following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Guide to Every Criminal in Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monster’: Menendez Bros, Ed Gein
Erik released a statement slamming the Netflix series — one day after it debuted on the platform.
“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.”
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?”
Erik (and Lyle) have since changed their tune about how the series highlighted their case and paved the way for their resentencing. During a hearing in May, the brothers were resentenced to 50 years to life, which now makes them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law since they committed their crime under the age of 26. The state parole board must still decide whether to release them from prison.
Timeline of Erik, Lyle Menendez’s Murder Case: From Arrest to Resentencing
“I’m so grateful that that happened,” Koch told Variety in May. “And so is Erik [Menendez], I spoke to him yesterday and he is so excited.”
Koch said “the most inspiring” thing he heard from Erik concerned his plans after potentially getting released following a decision from the parole board
“He is going to be an advocate for other people who have L.W.O.P, which is life without parole,” Koch explained about Erik’s plans to make “a lot of change” in the prison system. “His life is going to surround making change in the prison system, and I just think that is so beautiful.”
According to Koch, Erik has hope that if he and Lyle are released, in “10 years, people look back and they say, ‘We really made the right decision. Thank God we let them out.’”
