Monsters star Nicholas Chavez has spoken about why Lyle Menendez was forced to wear a wig to cover hair loss by his imposing father.
Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is a fictionalised retelling of the famous true-crime case which captured headlines in the 90s. Chavez plays Lyle, while out gay star Cooper Koch is younger brother Erik.
Chavez has now spoken about his focus on what he calls Lyle’s “mask”, forced upon him when he began losing his hair.
“I saw this wig as a mask of sorts,” Chavez told Deadline.
“It’s not one that he imposes on himself. It’s imposed by his father and the perfectionist standard that Lyle has to live up to. It’s a mask that hides a deeply, deeply wounded inner child who surfaces in episodes four.”
Chavez said he did lots of research on the Menéndez family and, given that he lived in Los Angeles – the parents owned a mansion in Beverly Hills – he was able to get information from “others who directly interfaced with them”.
He went on to say: “It was interesting because several of the people who I met told me they could tell that Lyle was wearing a piece. And when you wear a piece, there is certain behaviour that goes along with that. You sort of angle your head in a very specific way, maybe even subconsciously, to try to keep distance between it and the person you’re talking to.”
Why did Lyle Menendez lose his hair?
In episode four, “Kill or Be Killed”, the audience discover that Lyle Menendez was allegedly molested by his father. While in the shower, Lyle Menendez is shown to be losing his hair, prompting his dad to take him to get a wig fitted.
The older man tells Lyle you have to “have a good head of hair” to succeed in business and go into politics. When the son asks: “What if I don’t want to wear a wig?”, the patriarch replies: “We can discuss this at home. You’re wearing a wig, that’s the way it’s going to be.”
Chavez believed that the hair loss was probably caused by the stress Lyle was under, despite this not being articulated in the series. The actor’s real hair was styled to look like a toupée.
In one scene, Lyle’s wig is ripped off by his mother, which is how Erik learns about it.
Viewer of the series, which dropped earlier this month, have accused Murphy of glorifying true crime as well as sexualising the brothers’ relationship with each other.
Erik has spoken about the “inaccurate” depiction of him, but Murphy has said he has “no interest” in speaking to the brother who are serving life sentences for the murder of their parents in 1989.
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