Here’s what Nathan Lane & Chloë Sevigny had to say about the ‘Monsters’ homoerotic incest controversy

Ryan Murphy’s latest true crime-inspired series Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez story is coming under fire for portraying its two main characters as possibly being in an incestuous relationship. Now, many of the show’s stars are speaking out.

Monsters follows Lyle and Erik Menéndez, two affluent brothers who killed their parents in 1989 and were later arrested and charged with their murders.

The brothers have argued since they were first arrested that the killings were done in self defense after lifetimes of mental, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of their father.

However, after their first trials resulted in deadlocked juries, a judge ruled that they couldn’t use sexual abuse as a defense in their second trial, and both brothers were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Monsters shows the abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father and the way their mother enabled it, but it also has several scenes that hint that the brothers themselves had an incestuous sexual relationship.

Murphy had said that one of the reasons he included the incestuous themes was because a famous journalist working the case at the time had a theory that the brothers’ relationship was more than just familial.

Nathan Lane, who plays that journalist, Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair, has now spoken out on the controversy to Variety.

“There’s a dinner party scene at Chateau Marmont, and Dominick’s discussing various theories of what he thinks happened with the brothers,” Lane said. “At one point, that scene was originally 20 pages, and I talked about it a lot more. At one point, he says, ‘perhaps this is what happened’ and suggests that there was an incestuous relationship between the two brothers, but that it had nothing to do with [their father] José, and that’s what [their mother] Kitty knew about. But it’s just him theorizing. He’s not saying that’s what happened. He says this is another reason why they might have killed them. But he’s just posing another theory. I guess we have to remind people that it’s a dramatization and not a documentary.”

“As Ryan has said, they’ve shown all different points of view about this case, and certainly they cover Eric and Lyle discussing their sexual abuse at the hands of their father,” he continued. “So I think you get many, many different opinions and points of view about what happened. Ultimately they’re the only ones who know for sure exactly what happened. But I just think the show is extremely well written and beautifully acted by everybody.”

Chloë Sevigny, who portrays the Menéndez matriarch Kitty in the series, also commented to Variety, saying she supports the other actors.

“I think all of the creators and showrunners wanted, first and foremost, for Nicholas and Cooper to feel comfortable and to not do anything that they didn’t want to do,” she said. “There were people there to protect them at all times on the sets. And I said, ‘So do you want me to do off-camera? Do you not want me to? Is it better for you if I’m there or not there?’ Everything was done to ensure that they felt safe and protected, with intimacy coaches and so on.”

“They were allowed to cut and walk away if they ever wanted to, and those boys were so committed to the roles and the way that Ian and Ryan wanted to tell the story that they were willing themselves to do almost anything,” she continued. “It was really amazing to watch them and how invested they were in the characters and the story. I just felt like I was there to support them.”

Out actor Cooper Koch, who plays Erik, also commented, saying he “absolutely does not” believe the brothers had a sexual relationship. “I do not think that’s true,” he said. And I don’t think it was intended by the show to make or break that truth. Ithink that was just a theory that one person had and that got put into the show because that person was a character in the show… I stand with Erik and everything that he says in his testimony I believe to be his truth, and I believe him.”

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