Nicholas Chavez revealed he didn’t know his Monsters costars Cooper Koch was visiting Erik and Lyle Menéndez with Kim Kardashian until it happened.
Chavez, 25, and Koch, 28, were asked about the trip to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, during an interview with Vanity Fair, which was published earlier this month. Koch referred to the September trip as a spur-of-the-moment decision after his stylist, Jamie Mizrahi, put him in contact with Kardashian.
“I’m on FaceTime with Kim, and she’s asking me all these questions,” Koch recalled about how Kardashian offered for him to join her and criminal-justice-reform activist Scott Budnick on a trip to Erik, 53, and Lyle’s prison. “I was like, yes.”
Chavez, however, wasn’t aware about the excursion to the correction facility, adding, “I was not made aware that there was a trip to see the brothers.”
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According to Chavez, he wouldn’t have gone even if the offer was extended to him.
“A big part of being an artist, at least in my view, is having the grace to go into a character or go into a role and then also release it when you’re done with it,” he continued. “I think a big part of the next phase of my artistry is recognizing when it’s time to release the role, and my decision to not want to make those visits is part of that.”
Chavez and Koch skyrocketed to stardom after playing the Menéndez brothers in Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters series. Season 2 of the hit Netflix series debuted in September and chronicled Lyle (Chavez) and Erik’s (Koch) 1989 arrest for the murder of their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloë Sevigny). Taking inspiration from footage of the trial and subsequent interviews, Monsters mirrored key moments from Lyle, 56, and Erik’s lives before and after they were sentenced to life without parole for shooting their mother and father.
Episodes 4 and 5 received critical and fan praise for introducing Erik and Lyle’s claims that they killed their parents in self-defense following years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse. However, the show received backlash for several inaccuracies about the Menéndez brothers, including the insinuation that they were in a sexual relationship.
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“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies 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.”
Erik made it clear he wasn’t thrilled to hear how he and Lyle were characterized.
“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,” Erik’s statement 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?”
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Koch confirmed that he bonded with Erik and Lyle when they met in prison. He has since been an outspoken supporter despite potential backlash.
“I feel really calm. And I know where I stand. I know what my point of view is, and that point of view aligns with all of the people on TikTok who support them,” he told Vanity Fair. “I know that I did everything that I could to support them and advocate for them in my performance, and portray them as authentically as possible. And if people are criticizing it, I know that I did everything I could.”
While Koch made it clear that he believes Erik and Lyle, Chavez was more hesitant about publicly choose a side, saying, “I came to a really unique conclusion, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that I don’t really want to share what that is with anyone, and that I really want to keep that part of my artistry and my interpretation to myself.”
Monsters is currently streaming on Netflix
