Ryan Murphy says he reached out to Jeffrey Dahmer's victims' relatives but no one responded

28 October 2022, 17:17

Evan Peters opens up about playing Jeffrey Dahmer

By Sam Prance

Friends and family of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims have slammed Netflix's Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

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Ryan Murphy has said that he reached out to "around 20 of the victims’ families and friends" while making Netflix's Dahmer.

Ever since Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story debuted on Netflix in September, the miniseries has divided viewers and sparked controversy. While some people think that it shines light on Dahmer's horrific crimes, others have slammed the drama for being "exploitative" and failing to consider how it would affect the relatives of the boys who Dahmer murdered.

In fact, multiple people related to Dahmer's victims have already criticised the show. Errol Lindsey's sister, Rita Isbell, said she was never contacted about it and accused Netflix of being "money-hungry" and "careless". Meanwhile, Tony Hughes mother, Shirley Hughes, slammed Netflix for inspiring a new trend of people dressing up as Dahmer for Halloween.

Now, Ryan Murphy has opened up about the show and claimed that Dahmer's victims' relatives wouldn't respond to him.

Ryan Murphy says he reached out to Jeffrey Dahmer's victims' relatives but no one responded. Picture: Netflix

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan opened up about the filming process of Dahmer at an event at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday (Oct 27).

Ryan stated: It’s something that we researched for a very long time. Over the course of the three and a half years when we were really writing it, working on it, we reached out to 20, around 20 of the victims’ families and friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people and not a single person responded to us in that process."

He then added: "So we relied very, very heavily on our incredible group of researchers who…I don’t even know how they found a lot of this stuff. But it was just like a night and day effort to us trying to uncover the truth of these people."

While many of the scenes in the show are based on real life, there are also storylines that are completely made up. For example, Glenda Cleveland wasn't Dahmer's actual neighbour and reporters have called the show out for being "inaccurate".

Ryan Murphy is the co-creator of Netflix's Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Picture: Getty

Discussing his intent behind the show, Ryan said: "Something that we talked a lot in the making of it is we weren’t so much interested in Jeffrey Dahmer, the person, but what made him the monster that he became. We talked a lot about that…and we talked about it all the time. It’s really about white privilege. It’s about systemic racism. It’s about homophobia."

Paris Barclay, who directed episodes 6 and 10 of the show, also said: "We really want it to be about celebrating these victims... It’s about making sure these people are not erased by history and that they have a place and that they’re recognized and that they were important and that they lived full lives."

Ryan and Netflix are yet to directly address the backlash to the show. We shall update you if they do.