Evan Peters has been receiving a lot of praise for his menacing portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Netflix’s true crime show ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.’ The show has since become globally one of the most watched shows by the streamer.
What Did Evan Peters Do To Stay In Character For ‘Dahmer’ Series?
Ryan Murphy and Peters have been working for years; the two had collaborated on ‘American Horror Story.’ However, accepting ‘Dahmer‘ was particularly tough for Peters.
During a panel discussion on Saturday with Murphy and co-stars Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins, Peters said: “I really went back and forth on whether I should do it or not.”
He continued, “I knew it was going to be incredibly dark and an incredible challenge.” Peters watched Dahmer’s 1994 interview on ‘Dateline‘ to “dive into the psychology of that extreme side of human behavior.”
Evan took four months to prepare for the role; he wore lead weights around his arms and lifts in his shoes to get Dahmer’s physicality down and “basically stayed in this character, as difficult as it was, for months.”
Read More: Evan Peters Dating History: Who Has The ‘American Horror Story’ Actor Dated?
Peters Focused On The Character’s Physicality
“He has a very straight back. He doesn’t move his arms when he walks, so I put weights on my arms to see what that felt like. I wore the character shoes with lifts in them, his jeans, his glasses, I had a cigarette in my hand at all times,” Evans stated.
He continued, “I wanted all this stuff, these external things, to be second nature when we were shooting, so I watched a lot of footage and I also worked with a dialect coach to get down his voice. The way that he spoke, it was very distinct and he had a dialect.”
The actor created a 45-minute audio composite and was listening to that every day to learn his speech patterns. He explained that it was “an attempt to try to get into his mindset and understand that each day that we were shooting.”
“It was an exhaustive search, trying to find private moments, times where he didn’t seem self conscious, so you could get a glimpse into how he behaved prior to these interviews and being in prison,” he concluded.
Read More: “Trailer Gave Me PTSD”: ‘Dahmer’ Crew Member Lashes Out At Its Makers
