Ryan Murphy’s success with the true crime and serial killer genre continues with the monstrous hit Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

With the journalist-turned-showrunner/creator/producer/director/writer’s drama on Milwaukee Monster Dahmer reaching No. 1 in the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart in the first week of its release, Netflix has renewed the series, based on the real-life story of American serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, for two seasons.

Also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer’s gruesome crimes involved necrophilia and cannibalism.

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which is told from the perspective of the victims, shows the police incompetence that reportedly allowed the Wisconsin murderer to go on a multiyear killing spree.

Created by Murphy and Ian Brennan, the true crime anthology series stars Evan Peters (Jeffrey Dahmer), Richard Jenkins (Lionel Dahmer), Molly Ringwald (Shari Dahmer), Niecy Nash (Glenda Cleveland), and Michael Beach (Detective Murphy).

Murphy, the prolific writer/creator from Indianapolis, recently held an all-media press conference with actors Peters, Jenkins and Nash. They answered questions about the 10-episode limited series at the Netflix Icon Building in Los Angeles.

 

The 57-year-old showrunner admitted, “This was a show that was really daunting and difficult. The subject matter was incredibly difficult. To be honest, we were casting this show for six months and we saw a lot of people, and there was just something missing. I remember saying to my casting director, ‘I’m going to call Evan.’ I did, and Evan was very quiet. I said, ‘Just read them [the scripts].’”

Asked by Murphy to share why he considered taking the part and how he prepared for the role, Peters replied, “The writing was brilliant, and I was terrified. I really went back and forth on whether I should do it or not. I knew it was going to be incredibly dark, an incredible challenge, but you [turning to Murphy] recommended that I watch the Dateline Stone Phillips interview.

 

“And in that, you really see how Dahmer speaks about what he did. I was fascinated by that, and I wanted to dive into the psychology of that extreme side of human behavior. I read as many books as I could, psychology reports, confessions, timelines, all in an attempt to try to understand why he did what he did. Then, of course, there was the physical stuff.”

Murphy chimed in, “Talk about the physicality because at one point, you wore lead weights around your arms, and you wore lifts in your shoes. You practiced that walk and you basically stayed in this character, as difficult as it was, for months.”

Peters agreed and explained, “We did four months of prep, six months of shooting. Dahmer has a very straight back. He doesn’t move his arms when he walks so I put weights on my arms to see what that felt like. I wore the character’s shoes with lifts in them, his jeans, his glasses. I had a cigarette in my hand at all times. I wanted all this stuff, these external things to be second nature when we were shooting. I watched a lot of footage and I also worked with a dialect coach to get down his voice. The way that he spoke, it was very distinct, and he had a dialect. I also went off and created this 45-minute audio composite, which was very helpful.”

The 35-year-old actor from Missouri, who is also known for his performances in Mare of Easttown, Pose, X-Men and WandaVision, continued, “I listened to that every day in hopes of learning his speech patterns, but really an attempt to try to get into his mindset and understand that each day that we were shooting. It was an exhaustive search, trying to find private moments. Things where he didn’t seem self-conscious so you could get a glimpse into how he behaved prior to these interviews and being in prison.”

Murphy recalled, “One of the things I remember when we finished it, you called me up and you said, ‘Well, I gave it my all. I gave it 120%,’ which I’m here to say you did. Interestingly enough, this is one of the first times we’ve all gotten together. The other night, Niecy went up to Evan and said, ‘Evan Peters, nice to meet you.’ Even though they had worked together for months but Niecy said Evan was so deep in character.”

Nash, who portrays Glenda Cleveland, the neighbor who lived in the building next to Dahmer’s apartment, disclosed that Peters was so concentrated in his character that when people ask her, “What is Evan like?” she would reply, “I don’t know. I don’t know the man. Because in his process, I respected his need to keep the distance and the tension so that it played out on screen.”

Nash shared that she prayed a lot for Peters. “No, for real. No, no, no, because this is weighty. When you stay in it and you are tethered to the material like bone to marrow, your soul is troubled at some point. You know what I mean? I could see him getting tired and I just thought, well, I’m just going to make sure I keep him in my prayers because this is a lot, and he wants to do it justice.”

Murphy said, “Everybody always thinks of Evan as dark and brooding, and I’m like, ‘Absolutely not. Evan is hilarious.’ He’s spent Thanksgivings at my house. My children have sat on his knee. He’s such a lovely guy.”

The real Dahmer was diagnosed with borderline personality, schizotypal personality and psychotic disorders. Although found legally sane at his trial, he was sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment. He was beaten to death by his fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver, at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin on November 28, 1994.

As for Jenkins, who portrays Dahmer’s father, he said he immediately liked the first three episodes after reading them.

“It is an incredibly complex human that they’ve written, this guy. The humanity is just…it’s one of the most complete people I’ve ever played. It’s just really amazing,” said the 75-year-old actor who worked with Murphy on Eat Pray Love (2010). “But I kept thinking to myself if Jeffrey Dahmer is your son, do you stop loving him? And you don’t. How do you deal with the fact that Jeffrey Dahmer is your child? Is it your fault? Did you not see something?

“Lionel Dahmer wrote a book called “A Father’s Story” that’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a beautifully written book and it’s a cautionary tale to say I missed this stuff, but if you have kids, don’t let this stuff go by. Listen to your children when they’re trying to tell you something. The last thing I thought about a Jeffrey Dahmer movie, was that it would be so human. What you [addressing Murphy] wrote was beautiful.”

Murphy added that they weren’t really interested in Jeffrey Dahmer the monster. “We were interested in what made the monster. Who is complicit in the making of the monster? There were many different things involved in that, and it was always going to be a very complicated, human story. But one of the things that we always wanted, we tried in the making of it was we tackled systemic racism, we tackled homophobia. We were always thinking of the victims.”

Nash, who made her professional acting debut in the 1995 film, Boys on the Side, added, “I felt responsible to get it right. I felt that for me, you got to experience this movie through this woman’s eyes because she laid eyes on it all. She was the town crier. I’m pulling these air quotes from heaven when I say nosy neighbor but she was the one, that portal to say, ‘Are y’all seeing what I’m seeing? Nobody is going to do the thing.’

“My hardest day really, was probably in the scene when the police came and walked the baby back into the apartment. Because I just kept saying, ‘This really happened.’ You saw this child but because of a Black woman doing the complaining, which is the racism of it all. Because there was a homosexual relationship, which is the homophobia of it all, this baby was walked back into this house, and met his demise and he didn’t have to. There were many days I left set with tears in my eyes because of the weight of all of these things happening and knowing that all of it didn’t have to.”

In closing, Murphy said, “Sometime in the next week, our show will have been viewed by one billion hours streamed, which makes it the biggest hit of my career in the 25th year of my career. Something that none of us understood or saw coming.

“Does anybody have any understanding? I have two theories. I feel like the world is such a dark place and people are looking for somewhere to put their anxiety in. That’s one thing. The other thing is, I think since COVID, people have been really interested in the idea of mental health. In the show, every character has a moment talking about that. I think people are very interested in that idea.”