[This story contains mild spoilers to episode five, “The Hurt Man” in Monsters.]

Whereas Netflix true crime drama Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story arrived to combined critiques and courted controversy over its portrayal of the of real-life convicted murderers, the restricted sequence concerning the Menendez brothers has acquired common popularity of its centerpiece bottle episode, which was approached with divergent strategies by the 2 stars who seem within the riveting two-hander. 

Monsters’ fifth episode stars Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez and Ari Graynor as protection legal professional Leslie Abramson, after the rich son of a high L.A. govt was arrested alongside together with his brother for the 1989 homicide of their dad and mom. “The Harm Man” — the episode, written by co-creator Ian Brennan, and named for Erik’s self-appointed nickname — is a single shot, 33-minute sluggish zoom into Koch’s face as he particulars the 12 years of sexual, bodily and psychological abuse he claims drove him to patricide. 

“I had a very long time with that script,” Koch advised The Hollywood Reporter of the scene in Brennan and Ryan Murphy‘s hit sequence, explaining how he had the script pages since June 2023. The episode was shot over two days in March. “I carried it with me in all places I went. I learn it daily, and generally earlier than going to mattress. And actually, my method to it was simply taking the entire tales that he tells and all of the reminiscences that he recounts, and actually attempting to think about what it might appear like from his perspective.”

Koch went granular to get into Erik Menendez’s mindset, he stated, zeroing concentrate on particulars from his acknowledged recollections of the abuse, like what younger Erik and his abuser had been sporting on the time; the climate on these days; and the decor of the room by which the alleged abuse occurred, he added. This methodology helped Koch to entry the feelings of an abused little one — a subject he stated he researched whereas engaged on his lauded efficiency. 

“That allowed me to be so current and open after we did go to shoot it,” he stated. “You simply form of need to belief that these reminiscences are created and that they’re there for you, after which while you talk about them, they’re truthful and actual, after which you’ll be able to entry the form of feelings that he was most likely feeling.” 

Every of the 2 days of “The Harm Man” shoot consisted of 4 run-throughs of the unbroken shot, by which Koch, as Menendez, reveals harrowing particulars of his father José Menendez’s (performed by Javier Bardem) alleged abuse. Koch stated it was as powerful to shoot as it may be to look at.

“It was positively exhausting,” he advised THR. “However you recognize, that form of jogs my memory of some recommendation that I acquired from one in all my fellow actors on the undertaking, Dallas Roberts [who portrays therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel], who advised me in one in all our rehearsals — the quote was: ‘You get too drained to lie.’ So if something, the extra exhausted you get, possibly the extra truthful you develop into.”

Graynor, as Abramson, speaks solely a handful of occasions as her character questions Koch’s Menedez within the episode. Her face shouldn’t be even seen over the 30-plus minutes. However that didn’t make it a breeze for the actor, who detailed to THR the bond that developed between her and Koch whereas taking pictures the episode, and the way she approached the tough materials.

“I prevented it for a number of months. I used to be intimidated by it,” Graynor advised THR. “I felt like I actually wanted to know Leslie, actually know who she was, and actually know her in my physique earlier than I absolutely began prepping that episode, as a result of there’s numerous interjections. It’s numerous listening. She’s being each his lawyer and therapist and human and mom, and there’s numerous completely different components in that, with not numerous language, and attempting to know how she would maintain all of that, after which actually desirous to be there to help Cooper.”

Graynor known as Koch’s work within the episode “fully unparalleled” and praised Brennan for delivering such a exceptional script that exhibits compassion for Erik Menendez and anybody who has suffered the kind of abuse central to “The Harm Man” and the sequence. 

“I feel we each felt not solely that it was a present creatively, however that this was, hopefully, a present, or one thing that’s a lot larger than us,” she added. “We kind of use ourselves to permit it to be one thing that additionally didn’t actually need to do with us — to carry that area and, for me, to mannequin that form of compassionate listening.”

Graynor stated that as they shot the scene, every day after, she and Koch would drive again to her house collectively, the place the 2 actors would cry and giggle, and have cigarettes and sushi. 

“We talked, and actually held it on this very sacred area collectively,” she stated. 

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.