Ryan Murphy insists that he and his “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” co-creator Ian Brennan never imagined the Netflix series would be a major catalyst for renewed interest in the case and calls for the real Erik and Lyle Menendez to be released from prison.
“Ian and I are in absolute amazement and shock that this has happened, to be quite honest,” Murphy told me Thursday afternoon. “When we were writing the ‘Menendez Story’ — we’ve been working on this for two years — nobody was talking about the Menendez brothers. We never thought anybody ever would again.”
The siblings were conviced and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996 for the first-degree murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989.
But as fans of the show and followers of the brothers’ cases know, a court hearing has been set for November as Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón considers new evidence that they were allegedly molested by their father.
On Wednesday, several of Erik and Lyle’s family members held a press conference with their attorney, Mark Geragos, outside the Los Angeles courthouse where the siblings were convicted and sentenced to call for the brothers’ release.
Murphy is currently directing “All’s Fair,” his upcoming legal drama for Hulu about an all-female law firm. He watched the press conference with one of the new show’s stars Kim Kardashian, who has become an outspoken advocate for the brothers’ release after visiting them in prison. “It was very moving,” Murphy says of watching the family members speak up for Erik and Lyle. “Like Kim, I don’t think anyone should be thrown away forever. But I know not everyone thinks that. It’s complicated.”
Geragos has continually criticized “Monsters.” During the press conference he said, “I think that the caricature that was ‘Monsters’ so inflamed the people who were supportive that that backlash is what was helpful.”
Murphy now says, “I think he’s incorrect. He’s always incorrect about a lot of things. I think he’s specifically talking about Lyle. He’s 100 percent incorrect. I’ve talked to other people who talked to him, and I talked to other people in the DA’s office and on the governor’s level and on and on and on. It was specifically episodes four and five that dealt with the sexual abuse that those two claim they went through, and our dramatization of that that I think really moved the needle with an outpouring of outrage.”
He continues, “As [Geragos] himself admitted, that case was nowhere. It was floundering. There was no interest. There was no momentum.”
As Murphy previously told me, he does think if the brothers are released he may want to shoot a couple of bonus episodes for the series. “It’s been discussed, I’ll tell you that much. Everyone has been interested in that,” he now says. “I think everyone wants to see how this story ends because this story is not over.”
“Monsters” stars Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Erik and Lyle, respectively, with Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as their parents. Ari Graynor co-stars as the brothers’ attorney, Leslie Abramson, with Nathan Lane portraying Vanity Fair reporter Dominic Dunne.
Murphy also tells me that he is in the process of making a donation to support Greenspace, Erik and Lyle’s project to improve prison grounds. “I wish them well,” he says. “I really do.”
“Monsters” is one of eight Murphy shows that has landed at the top of viewing charts in recent months. Each of his shows this year have become their respective streamer’s No. 1 most-streamed series on the nights of their premieres. They include “Monsters” on Netflix along with “American Horror Story: Delicate,” “Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans,” “American Horror Stories,” “911,” “Doctor Odyssey,” “Grotesquerie” and “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.”
Murphy marked the occasion by posting an image on social media featuring television sets for each show with a ninth TV that reads, “Eight Number 1 Shoes in One Year,” across its screen. “When I was going into this year, I just hoped that they would do well,” he says. “But there’s the law of averages – I was like, ‘Some things will work but others may not. To have all of them hit Number 1, and to have audiences embrace them all, it’s very rewarding. I’m very proud of all the people who made them. It took a lot of work and a lot of planning, like a two-year thing and more than that in some cases.”
He compares the experience to a parent having all their children get into Ivy League schools. I ask Murphy if he had a “favorite child” of the bunch. “Of course, I do, but I can never say it out loud,” he says. “But my favorites are things I worked harder on, that were riskier and then have paid off. But then that changes by the day. But it’s always the hard ones that are the most rewarding.”
