- Ryan Murphy and Evan Peters talked about their work on Netflix’s “Dahmer” during a panel on Saturday.
- Peters wore lead weights and shoes to impersonate Jeffrey Dahmer in preparation for the role, per Variety.
- Peters said he did it to mimic Dahmer’s physique until it became “second nature.”
Evan Peters wore lead weights on his arms for nearly a year in preparation for Netflix”Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
Showrunner Ryan Murphy, Peters and other cast members spoke about the popular series during a panel Saturday, per Variety. There, Murphy reflected on the lengths Peters, who plays Jeffrey Dahmer on the show, went to portray the serial killer.
Even Peters stars as Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix series.
netflix
According to Murphy, Peters remained in character as Dahmer “for months”, including four months of prep and six months of filming. Peters did this, in part, by carrying lead weights around his arms and lifts in his shoes to mimic Dahmer’s physique.
“He has a very straight back. He doesn’t move his arms when he walks, so I put weights on my arms to see how it felt,” Peters, 35, said, according to the outlet. “I wore the character’s shoes with lifts, his jeans, his glasses, I had a cigarette in my hand at all times.”
Variety reported that Peters said he worked with a dialect coach to understand Dahmer’s mannerisms and speech pattern as if it were “second nature.”
“I wanted all of those things, those outside things, to be second nature when we were shooting, so I watched a lot of footage and also worked with a dialect coach to lower his voice,” Peters continued, according to the point of sale. “The way he spoke was very distinct and he had a dialect. So I also went and created this 45-minute audio composite, which was very helpful to me.”
Evan Peters worked with a dialect coach to imitate Dahmer’s voice.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Peters also said he listens to the audio composite daily to get into Dahmer’s mindset.
“It was an exhaustive search, trying to find private moments, moments when he didn’t seem embarrassed, so you could get a glimpse of how he was behaving before those interviews and being in jail,” said continued Peters.
“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is a 10-episode miniseries that premiered on Netflix in September. The series chronicles the Dahmer murders from the perspective of the victims and analyzes how law enforcement initially failed to investigate Dahmer after neighbors reported suspicious activity.
The cast includes Peters, Molly Ringwald, Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins.
Ryan Murphy has addressed the controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Dahmer series.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
In a separate appearance Thursday, Murphy addressed the controversy surrounding the show sparked by the families of the victims. Some families said Murphy never contacted them before the series aired, which he later denied.
Other family members accused Murphy of tap into their trauma and re-traumatize them with the content.
In response, Murphy said he would be “happy to pay” for a memorial honoring the victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the murders took place. An attorney who previously represented eight of the victims’ families called Murphy, saying he should share the profits from his Netflix series with families instead.
