Monsters star Leslie Grossman defends series against Menendez brothers’ ‘ruinous’ claims

Monsters star Leslie Grossman who plays Judalon Smyth, the Menendez brothers’ therapist’s mistress, has defended the series against backlash. Since Erik Menendez released a bombshell statement claiming the show was filled with “blatant lies” about the real case, many have critiqued show creator Ryan Murphy’s portrayal of the brothers and how he handled the more sensitive themes of the show. Leslie Grossman was quick to step in and defend Ryan’s portrayal of the real story.

“The show is really about shining a spotlight on sexual abuse and particularly, the sexual abuse of boys and men and its lingering effects,” she explained to People.

via Netflix

She made it very clear that she sided with the creators’ visions: “As the creators have said about the show, they’re making a painting, not a documentary. So, it isn’t a documentary retelling of this story. It’s sort of a Rashomon mix of all these different people’s perspectives.”

Despite some pretty scathing opinions about Ryan Murphy’s approach to the series, she pressed that he and the creative team took “such painstaking care” during production. “Ryan had been working on this for a while. There was a lot of research involved for years before it was even written.”

Leslie Grossman defended the approach Ryan Murphy took with the Menendez story in Monsters: “Look, the truth is there’s only four people in the whole world that know exactly what happened, right? Two of them are not here anymore. And I think the series just tries to show all the points of view, you know what I mean? And then it’s ultimately for the audience to decide what they think about this.”

Grossman actually reflected on seeing the cases play out “very clearly” in real time in the 90s. She even remembers the real Judalon Smyth testifying “because I watched it on Court TV.” She described being “very aware of her” and noticing her “unique and specific” nature which helped her play the dramatised version of Judalon.

Leslie had faith in Ryan Murphy’s research, and added: “There was just so much that I didn’t know, even though I actually followed it when it happened. The reality of it was so much more intense than I think anyone even really knew. There was just stuff that the average person isn’t gonna know in this great of detail.”

In regards to her own performance, she said that she always tried to “stay in the absolute truth of what her experience was,” which was seeing herself as “a complete victim of Dr. Oziel.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• A body language expert analyses who is lying in the real life Menendez brothers’ trial

• Wait, did the Menendez brothers really play Milli Vanilli at their parents’ memorial?

• Netflix confirms who Monsters season three is about and it’s the most gruesome killer yet