Evan Peters remarked that he thanks the comedy picture “Walk Brothers” (2008) for helping him step away from the “darkness” of “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
At a panel discussion on Saturday led by showrunner Ryan Murphy, Peters opened up about his time playing the legendary serial killer, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
During the event, Peters shared that he turned to the lighthearted movie, directed by Adam McKay and starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, when he was finally “able to breathe” and leave the part behind him.
The picture also stars Richard Jenkins, one of Peters’ “Dahmer” costars. In both “Dahmer” and “Step Brothers,” the Oscar-nominated actor portrays the protagonist’s father.
Evan Peters speaks onstage about Netflix’s “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Jerod Harris/Getty Images
“Doing the part, I wanted to give it 120 percent the whole way through, so I brought in a lot of darkness and negativity,” Peters said of his transition into the so-called Milwaukee Cannibal for the 10-episode miniseries which took six months to film.
“It was just having that end goal in sight, knowing when we were going to wrap and finally being able to breathe and let it go and say, OK, now it’s time to bring in the joy and the lightness and watch comedies and romances and go back to St. Louis and see my family and friends and yeah, watch ‘Step Brothers.’”
Niecy Nash, who was also in attendance and plays Dahmer’s neighbor Glenda Cleveland in the series, then joked that the pair should get up next for something similarly relaxed.
“Evan Peters, you and me in a rom-com straight after this,” Nash remarked. Peters replied: “Oh, I’m down.”
Evan Peters and Richard Jenkins as Jeffrey and Lionel Dahmer in the Netflix series.
Netflix
Elsewhere in the debate, Peters revealed he wore lead weights on his arms “for months,” both before and during the filming, in order to replicate Dahmer’s body.
“He has a really straight back. He doesn’t move his arms when he walks, so I put weights on my arms to see what that felt like,” Peters explained. “I donned the character shoes with lifts in them, his jeans, his glasses, I had a cigarette in my hand at all times.”
Peters also worked with a dialect coach to grasp Dahmer’s mannerisms and speech patterns as if it were “second nature.”
Meanwhile, during a separate panel appearance on Thursday, series creator Murphy addressed the criticism surrounding the show. Many people have spoken out against the series, including multiple family members of Errol Lindsey, one of the killer’s victims.
Lindsey’s sister, Rita Isbell, recently penned a heartbreaking essay for Insider on how it felt having to watch the show reproduce the emotional victim impact statement she gave in court, and also noted that Netflix didn’t contact her about the show.
Other family members accused Murphy of exploiting their trauma and retraumatizing them with the show and said Murphy never contacted them before the series aired – a claim he has rejected.