In the same interview, star Evan Peters opens up about the struggles that he had to go through while taking on the role of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer on the hit Netflix show.
- Dec 13, 2022
AceShowbiz - Ryan Murphy addresses the criticism over the LGBTQ tag on Netflix series "DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story". On Monday, December 12, the creator of the Golden Globe Award-nominated show explains the matter while noting that the outrage is understandable.
"It's about homophobia," Ryan said in an interview with Variety. "I have a saying, 'My job as an artist is to hold up a mirror about what happened.' It's ugly. It's not pretty. Do you want to look at it? If you do, watch it. If you don't, look away, and sometimes, some of this outrage is directed at the frame of the mirror instead of the reflection."
The TV producer continued, "I try and say, 'I really understand why you're upset about the inclusion of that. I understand it, but I also disagree with it personally.' "
According to Ryan, his participation in the project was a major catalyst for the show's labeling. "I think that it got the tag, one, because of my involvement," he explained. "I'm a gay man, so most of my stories deal with some sort of LGBTQ thing and I do that selfishly; when I was growing up, I had nothing [to look to]. My mission statement has been to talk about those stories and those characters and unearth buried history."
Following the release of "DAHMER", which starred Evan Peters as the notorious serial killer, viewers and members of LGBTQ community denounced the labeling. In response to the backlash, Netflix eventually removed the tag just two after the series was released on September 21.
In the same interview, Evan opened up about the struggles that he had to go through while taking on the role of the serial killer. "It was a real struggle. I was really thinking about it and trying to process it. I went back and forth a lot," the first-time Golden Globe nominee shared.
"I knew that you're an incredible support system and I trust you and there's an honesty there," the actor told Ryan. "I knew that, with the goal in mind of finishing this thing as strong as I started it, that you would create a great safety net. If I fell down, I could get back up and we could finish this thing. I was up for the challenge."
Additionally, Evan made an extreme physical transformation for the role, starting with a no-carb, no-sugar diet to drop 15 pounds.
"I didn't really have an appetite during the early stages of shooting," he explained. "Then I was working out for episode 3 when Dahmer gets into working out and gained about 20 pounds for the end in prison to show how he looked then."
