Ryan Murphy Says Evan Peters Stayed In Character For Months As Jeffrey Dahmer To Prepare For Nextflix’s “Monster”

In Evan Peters’ history in almost all of the seasons of American Horror Story, he’s played a multitude of sinister and perverse roles like a sociopathic teenage school shooter; cult leaders David Koresh, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Marshall Applewhite; and a freak show “lobster boy” who used his deformed hands to claw-bang unsatisfied housewives as a side-hustle. But though pretty much all of Evan’s roles in the Ryan Murphy-verse have consisted of some super dark shit, it was the decision to play the titular role in Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story that finally gave him pause. As we all know, Evan eventually took the role and ended up being a very convincing Dahmer, and that could be because Evan stayed in character for months beforehand and the entire time he was on set of the show.

According to Variety, Evan was initially terrified to take on the role of one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, even if it was for Daddy Ryan.

“I really went back and forth on whether I should do it or not. I knew it was going to be incredibly dark and an incredible challenge,” Peters said during a panel Saturday with Murphy and co-stars Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins. When he was sent the scripts, he watched Dahmer’s 1994 interview on “Dateline” in order to “dive into the psychology of that extreme side of human behavior.”

And dive in, he did. Ryan says that Evan took his preparation for the role very seriously by going method to really nail Jeffrey’s entire persona.

During the four months of prep and six months of shooting, Murphy noted that Peters wore lead weights around his arms and lifts in his shoes to get Dahmer’s physicality down and “basically stayed in this character, as difficult as it was, for months.”

Evan then went into more specifics about what he did to replicate Dahmer’s mannerisms, posture, and way of speaking. He even wore the serial killer’s clothes.

“He has a very straight back. He doesn’t move his arms when he walks, so I put weights on my arms to see what that felt like. I wore the character shoes with lifts in them, his jeans, his glasses, I had a cigarette in my hand at all times,” Evans explained. “I wanted all this stuff, these external things, to be second nature when we were shooting, so I watched a lot of footage and I also worked with a dialect coach to get down his voice. The way that he spoke, it was very distinct and he had a dialect. So I also went off and created this 45-minute audio composite, which was very helpful. I listened to that every day, in hopes of learning his speech patterns, but really, in an attempt to try to get into his mindset and understand that each day that we were shooting. It was an exhaustive search, trying to find private moments, times where he didn’t seem self-conscious, so you could get a glimpse into how he behaved prior to these interviews and being in prison.”

Here’s Ryan and Evan discussing the preparation for the role:

ACTOR Evan Peters talks about how he prepared for the role of Jeffrey Dahmer #DahmerNetflix pic.twitter.com/GusHIwTb60

— evanlicious (@evanliciouss) October 30, 2022

And really *becoming* Dahmer also meant not having to play along with that whole “awww so nice to meet you, can’t wait to work together!” fake coworker bullshit that exists in all occupations. Niecy Nash said that Evan wasn’t really having any of her pleasantries on day one.

Nash added that she cheerfully approached Peters at the beginning of filming to say hello and realized he was “in his process.”

“I wanted to respect that and I wanted to keep him there,” she said, turning to Peters. “I prayed for you a lot, for real, because this is weighty. And when you stay in it, and you’re tethered to the material, like bone to marrow, your soul is troubled at some point. And I could see him getting tired. I just said, ‘Well, I’m just gonna make sure I keep him in my prayers, because this is a lot and he wants to do it justice.’”

Thankfully, Evan did have some cleansing techniques that would wash the Jeffrey stank off of him so he could get some respite every once in a while. via TMZ:

Luckily, though, the guy didn’t take Dahmer home with him…and had some techniques to shake the darkness he was living with on a daily while shooting the show. Some of that included watching comedies and lighthearted content, not to mention feel-good music.

He specifically cited “Step Brothers” as one flick he’d watch to drop the Dahmer effect when the cameras weren’t rolling…clearly, becoming Dahmer took its toll on the dude.

Here he is talking about how he’d decompress and attempt to dabble in normalcy:

evan peters talking about safeguards in his life to keep him afloat after playing dark roles at last night’s press conference for ‘dahmer’ 🎥 pic.twitter.com/sgO72V4WnE

— best of evan peters (@evansarchives) October 30, 2022

Whenever I think of going method, Jared Leto’s repulsive antics in the name of “ac-TING” come to mind, but it’s good to know that Evan’s process had way fewer used condoms, anal beads, and rodents. After all of the shit that Ryan Murphy has been getting for disrespecting the families of Dahmer’s victims by springing the show on them (though he says he did try to reach out to several but received no response) and spinning the narrative to be too sympathetic to a serial killer, the last thing he needs on his plate is reports of Evan walking the streets of Milwaukee gnawing on a pig heart and offering sandwiches to passersby. Hopefully, Evan has a palate-cleansing rom-com coming down the pike. 

Pic:  Vincenzo Landi/IPA/INSTARimages.com/JENNIFER GRAYLOCK/INSTARimages.com