Javier Bardem has weighed in on the ongoing controversy surrounding his new show Monsters.
The Oscar winner plays José Menéndez in the latest season of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology series, which recently returned to the number one spot on Netflix’s most-watched list after briefly being knocked off by Heartstopper.
In the last month, Monsters has been at the centre of debate, with the Menéndez family branding it “repulsive” and Erik Menéndez in particular accusing the drama of perpetuating “horrible and blatant lies” about himself and his brother, who are currently serving a life sentence for the murder of their parents in 1989.
Asked by Sky News what he thought of Erik Menéndez’s statement, Javier insisted that he “supports” the brothers’ right to express whatever they feel about the show.
“It’s [Ryan Murphy and his team’s] reading of what happened so, of course, [Erik Menéndez has a right to like or dislike and I support his expression,” he said.
The Spanish actor continued: “The ethical line that you have to do in portraying someone in a show as delicately as this one is to leave out your judgment, and really focus on the accuracy of the material – which I know was very, very, very strong, based on years of research – and just do the job.”
Javier went on to claim that the show makes “no statement” and is instead “more about different visions, different views from different people in the show”, leaving everything everything “open for interpretation”.
“So, as an actor, you have to be also open [to] that,” he added.
In particular, Monster has faced backlash due to scenes suggesting that, at some point, the Menéndez brothers could have been involved in a sexual relationship with one another.
Producer Ryan Murphy previously defended these scenes, stating: “If you watch the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case.
“Dominick Dunne [a journalist covering the case] wrote several articles talking about that theory, and how he thought that theory had validity. What we do in the show is, he talks about that, we are presenting his point of view just as we present [defence attorney] Leslie Abramson’s point of view. The show presents over 10 points of view of different events.
“So when people watch that and they say that, that is somebody in our show having a narrative statement about, ‘this is what I believe really happened’. And we had an obligation to show all of that, and we did.”
Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez – who play the Menéndez brothers in Monsters – also weighed in on the controversy shortly after the show’s release.