The “Monsters” actor met Erik Menendez and understands criticism

Actor Cooper Koch shared on September 26 how, thanks to an invitation from Kim Kardashian, he was able to meet Erik Menendez, the convicted murderer he portrayed in Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, and his older brother Lyle Menendez.

Koch told TODAY he met Erik and Lyle Menendez after the show's Sept. 19 premiere when he went to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility outside San Diego, where the brothers are serving life sentences for killing their parents in 1989 .

Kardashian and film producer Scott Budnick arranged the meeting, Koch said.

“They wanted to attend this meeting to hear about this green space project that Lyle and Erik are pushing that is essentially designed to help make prisons more of a college campus environment,” Koch explained. “That’s actually what they do in Norway, and it just helps establish more rehabilitation.”

“Kim called me and then invited me to come along and of course I said yes,” he continued. “Basically we went into this gym and sat with about 30 detainees and they basically all told their stories. It was very emotional and they were all so vulnerable and so kind. And I met Erik and Lyle.”

Koch said he was also able to speak with Erik Menendez on the phone the night before the show's premiere and that they had a “really nice conversation.”

“Basically, I just had to tell him that I believed him, and I did everything I could to portray him as accurately and authentically as possible as an actor,” Koch said.

Koch spoke about the moment he first saw Erik Menendez in the prison gym in an interview with Variety published on September 26th.

“We just looked at each other and immediately hugged. He was so nice. I also got to hug Lyle both of them and just be in their presence,” he said. “They are such upstanding people. They have done so much work in their prison. Erik teaches meditation and language courses and they are doing this green space project to improve the prison grounds. It was just incredible.”

The actor explained why he hopes the Menendez brothers can one day be released.

“They committed the crime when they were 18 and 21 years old, and at that time it was really hard for people to believe that male-to-male sexual abuse could occur, especially between father and son,” Koch said. “It was really hard for people to understand that the story they were telling was true, and this theory that they killed their parents for money is just crazy.” But back then it was easier for people to accept this to digest history. But now, after 35 years, we have so much more evidence of child sexual abuse and male-on-male sexual abuse that I think they deserve to be tried again. And all that happened in that second trial, too, was that they were not allowed to press their sexual abuse claims.”

He added: “I really hope they get paroled and have a great rest of their lives.”

Koch said he connected with Erik Menendez on spirituality.

“I always knew I wanted to meet her,” he said. I always knew I wanted to tell them that I believed them and that I wanted to be an advocate for them. When it happened it felt strangely normal, just like I already knew her from watching her for so long and seeing and hearing her talk for hours.

Kardashian's mother Kris Jenner and her sister Khloé Kardashian also attended the meeting, Koch told Variety.

Following the show's premiere, controversy arose among viewers, particularly over content that suggested the brothers were lovers. Erik Menendez also criticized the show. He said the show was “based on terrible, obvious lies” and called the show a “dishonest portrayal” in a statement released on X by his wife Tammi Menendez.

“It is with a heavy heart that I say that Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without ill intent,” Menendez said, referring to the series creator.

Erik and Lyle Menendez shot and killed their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in August 1989 in Beverly Hills, California. The brothers were charged with the murder of their parents about seven months after the murders.

During their first trial, the brothers' defense team argued they were sexually abused by their parents. The trial ended with two jurors deciding, and in the second trial a judge ruled that evidence of her parents' alleged sexual abuse was inadmissible.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996 for the murder of their parents.

“It is sad for me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has set the painful truths back several steps – back to a time when the prosecution built a narrative on the belief that men are not sexual were abused. and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik Menendez said in the statement released by Tammi Menendez.

“How demoralizing it is to know that a man with power can undermine decades of progress in understanding childhood trauma,” the statement continued. “Violence is never an answer, never a solution and always tragic. “So I hope that one never forgets that violence against a child creates a hundred terrible and silent crime scenes, hidden darkly behind the glitz and glamour, and rarely revealed until the tragedy permeates everyone involved.”

Representatives for Murphy and Netflix did not respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com, but Murphy responded in an interview with E! to the criticism from Erik Menendez! News on September 23 said he found it “strange” because he knew Erik Menendez hadn't seen the show.

“We show many, many, many, many perspectives. That's what the show does. “Every episode you get a new theory based on people who were either involved or reported on the case,” Murphy said. “Some of the controversy seems to stem from people thinking, for example, that the brothers have an incestuous relationship. There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it happened.”

“We know how it ended,” he added. “We know that two people were brutally shot. Our point of view and what we wanted to do was to present you with all the facts and get you to do two things: make your own judgment about who is innocent, who is guilty and who is the monster, and also have a conversation about “To lead something that has never been spoken about. Our culture, which depicts sexual abuse of men, is something we do responsibly.”

Koch spoke to TODAY about Erik Menendez's statement on the show.

“I understand how he feels, and I understand that it's so difficult to televise his life, and not just his life, but the worst part of his life, in some sort of dramatized Hollywood TV version of it.” said Koch said. “I just understand how difficult that would be. And you know, I stand by him and understand that it must be really hard.”

Koch appeared on TODAY alongside two of his castmates, Javier Bardem, who portrayed Jose Menendez on the series, and Nicholas Chavez, who played Lyle Menendez.

When asked if he had any plans to get in touch with Lyle Menendez one day, Chavez said, “You take these jobs as an actor, and then I think a big part of that job, at least for me, is him then let go with grace.” On to the next thing.

Chavez, who like Koch was born after the Menendez brothers were convicted, described the process of the brothers researching their roles.

“Your performance is at the center of many things. First and foremost, it's the research you do – and it should be extensive – you feel compelled to play a real character, but then you also assimilate that.” “It's a complicated and multi-layered process,” Chavez explained .

Bardem, also an executive producer on the series, said he hadn't heard much about the Menendez brothers' case while in Spain but was excited about the idea of ​​working with Murphy again after he starred in the 2010 film “Eat.” Pray, Love,” which Murphy co-wrote and directed.

“I knew what a great person and loving guy (Murphy) was, and then I didn't know about the story because it wasn't that popular in Spain,” Bardem said. “And once I got deeper into it, I thought, 'Wow, this is a very heavy topic, but it's very important to talk about.'”

“I think the idea of ​​opening up a discussion about childhood abuse is an important issue to address,” Bardem added.