Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story recounts the events leading up to the 1989 murder of José and Kitty Menendez. Their sons, known as the Menendez brothers, were arrested for the crime; however, they have always claimed that they acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father. Anyone who’s watched the nine-episode biographical drama will know that the content is disturbing. So, it’s not surprising that Cooper Koch found the filming process daunting.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Koch, who skillfully portrayed Erik, itted that episode 5, titled “The Hurt Man,” was the most daunting since it focuses on his character finally talking about the mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse he experienced throughout his childhood. For context, the entire 33-minute installment needed to be filmed in one take. It only features one other actor, Ari Graynor, as Erik’s defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, who doesn’t have many lines. The camera starts over Graynor’s shoulder, with Koch in the shot, and slowly, over the 33 minutes, ends on a close-0up on Koch as tears stream down his cheeks.

When Koch received the script, he analyzed the material and made notes alongside his lines. “The script became the backbone of my prep because it was the backstory that I didn’t have to write for myself, for the character,” he explained. “[I was] very excited to be able to just exist as him for that long and to finally say these words that I had been reading and working on and making my own for such a long time. It was a beautiful experience — but also terrifying and exhilarating.”

Most of his nerves about the series came from the pressure Koch put on himself because he “wanted to be good.” When it came time to film “The Hurt Man,” director Michael Uppendahl shot eight takes over two days. But the actor wasn’t happy with his first two attempts at the episode. “Those first two were not my best. I was too aware of the camera and what was happening on the production side of things,” he recalled. “I felt like s**t. I went to my trailer. I was so upset. I was like, it’s not coming out.”

But after a pep talk from Graynor and Uppendahl on the second day of filming, Koch was able to nail it. “The third take, it all came out, and it was so visceral, and I felt so good about that one,” he said. “Every take that day was different and alive and interesting. And I felt more confident having done the first day.”  Koch also made sure that he looked at Graynor in a more introspective way in the final moments of the episode. The final take from the eight that were filmed was used for the episode.

Although the Netflix series ends with the Menendez brothers being sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, the siblings’ story is still ongoing. In Oct. 2024, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office filed a habeas corpus petition to resentence Erik, 53, and Lyle Menendez, 56, who he believes have “paid their debt to society.” The brothers’ resentencing was initially set for December 11, 2024, but has since been pushed back to January 30 and 31, 2025.

Monsters breakout star Cooper Koch could be starring in the screen adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s hard-hitting 2015 novel A Little Life. The explosive combination of the actor’s controversial filmography and the book’s equally polarizing reputation have readers worried this could go very wrong.

In October, Koch told Harper’s Bazaar that he had sent a letter to Yanagihara to discuss bringing A Little Life to the screen. The novel, which depicts the tragic life of a sexual and physical abuse victim and has been accused of reveling in the character’s misery, is “at the top of [the actor’s] list.” Koch seems determined to make it an adaptation happen. “I would really like to get that made… So I need to go to a good studio that’s gonna trust her and me and would be able to make it happen,” he explained. The actor also told Drew Barrymore on her talk show that he had heard a television series based on the book was in the early stages of development.

On Wednesday, the official Instagram page for the book shared a photo of the 28-year-old smiling brightly while holding a copy of the book. The caption simply read “alittlelifebook x #cooperkoch.” Hardly an official announcement, it is definitely… something. A promise of a future collaboration, perhaps?

“I genuinely think a screen adaptation of this would be unethical,” one person argued. “A Little Life is the most egregious form of trauma porn I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. It has no business being a book, let alone a film. Don’t ever let that come to ,” another pleaded.

Though A Little Life has been met with fierce backlash for the sheer abundance of tragedy and pain found within its pages, those who love, love it. Yanagihara has a talent for poignant prose that is matched by few, and fans of the book have praised it for its unabashed, thorough representation of trauma and the healing power of the unconditional love that Jude finds later in life in a group of college friends.

It’s easy to understand, then, why Koch would be nervous about finding the right hands and minds to take over this project. It should be handled with the sensitivity it warrants, and its subject is as hard to commercialize as they come — a goldmine in book form, to be sure, but it’s hard to picture any major Hollywood studio heads going anywhere near it. Except for one person.

People are fearing Koch might bring along Monsters showrunner and mastermind, Ryan Murphy, who has made a career out of racy, boundary-pushing media. His most recent work, the Netflix true crime anthology series that began with a season about Jeffrey Dahmer, has turned public opinion against him for sensationalizing real people’s trauma. Themes of sex, abuse, and homosexuality — three tenets of A Little Life — feature heavily in Murphy’s filmography, though his approach to all three has been met with much of the same criticism as Yanagihara.

Koch is no stranger to controversy or complicated stories involving sexual abuse. He’s gotten plenty of practice dealing with both after starring as Erik Menendez in Monsters‘ second season, based on the murders of José and Kitty Menendez at the hands of their two sons, Erik and Lyle, who claimed they had been sexually abused by their father for years. Though the show empathizes with their plight, it’s also been criticized for framing them as “monsters” in its title and sexualizing them by implying they had an incestuous relationship.

Koch was at the receiving end of some of the heat after callously boasting about his member while promoting a series that deals with such heavy, life-altering events. While discussing Mark Wahlberg’s nude scenes in Boogie Nights on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the actor bragged that he had not used prosthetics for his Monsters nudity, remaking that he was “well hung.”

For all these reasons, Koch, Yanagihara, and possibly even Murphy seem like a match made in heaven to take on A Little Life – even if for all the worst reasons.

Netflix is one of the streaming platforms with an ear tapped into social discussions, taking the time to focus on the true crime genre as it grows in popularity with podcasts, films, and TV series dedicated to the true evils of the world. Monster, one of Netflix’s latest anthology series, focused on Jeffrey Dahmer for its first season, and with a second season on the horizon, we’ve learned who is slated to star as the focus of the story.

Earlier this year, the Hollywood Reporter shared that season two would focus on the tragedy that occurred within the Menendez family when brothers Lyle and Erik killed their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Today, Deadline shared the news that two up-and-coming actors would be playing the roles of the brothers. Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez will play Erik and Lyle, respectively.

Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story didn’t get by without criticism from some, even within the true crime community, for things like “humanizing Dahmer” and painting the victims in a less-than-flattering light. While many already know the story behind the depraved acts of the Milwaukee-born serial killer, audiences saw this telling of his story as something unlike anything we’d seen before.

The season will once again have a controversial aspect to it, as the Menendez brothers draw in mixed feelings all on their own. Some see them as victims of abuse who don’t deserve to be sitting in jail, while others think they are selfish and spoiled, angry and taking it out on their parents.

The Menendez brothers have been in jail since 1996, but it was reported in May. by CNN that new evidence has been found by their attorneys that highlight the depravity of Jose Menendez:

“In short the new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that – in fact – he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988. Just as the defense had argued all along.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is set to premiere on Netflix in 2024.