Evan Peters is receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the focus of acclaimed new Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. While the series certainly has challenging moments for viewers to sit through, one can only imagine what it would have been like for Peters to enter the mind of the notorious killer for extended periods at a time.
“Honestly, I was very scared about all the things he did and diving into that,” Peters says in a new featurette (watch it below) that Netflix has released, highlighting Peters’ performance and allowing the actor to share his thoughts on the role and the overall series. “Trying to commit to that was absolutely going to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
Peters says that the challenge of playing Dahmer was made a bit easier thanks to the crew. In particular: “Sarah, our focus puller, who was such a breath of fresh air and light when we were filming some of these horrific scenes. And Jason [McCormick], our DP [cinematographer, aka Director of Photography].”
While it’s a story about Dahmer, Peters points out the one rule co-creator Ryan Murphy had when crafting the series: “That it would never be told from Dahmer’s point of view.”
“It’s not just him and his backstory,” says Peters, “It’s the repercussions. It’s society. It’s how society and our system failed to stop him multiple times, because of racism, homophobia.”
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now streaming on Netflix.
