"In this exclusive interview, Nathan Lane and Ari Graynor, stars of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, dive into how the media shaped public perception of the Menendez brothers and their trial.
Nathan shares his thoughts on the media’s portrayal versus the harsh reality, while Ari reflects on Leslie Abramson’s passionate defense and how our understanding of trauma has evolved."
Nathan shares his thoughts on the media’s portrayal versus the harsh reality, while Ari reflects on Leslie Abramson’s passionate defense and how our understanding of trauma has evolved."
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00:00Hi, I'm Levi Chambers with Gaiety and Pride.
00:02Hello, Nathan.
00:03Hello, Ari. How are you?
00:04Hi, how are you?
00:06Doing great.
00:07I have very little time with you, so I'm going to jump right in.
00:10First questions for Nathan.
00:12Dominic, Dominic's coverage of the Menendez trial
00:16really shaped public perception in a profound way.
00:19Do you think that the media's...
00:22I mean, a lot, yeah.
00:25Four minutes.
00:27Hello, minutes.
00:27Really?
00:28Everybody keeps saying this, and I think, really?
00:30You could watch it on TV.
00:32I didn't need him to tell me, but okay, go ahead.
00:36Do you think the media's portrayal of the brothers
00:39influenced their fate, ultimately?
00:42And what does this case tell you about the broader relationship
00:45between press, media, and the judicial system?
00:50Well, you got an hour.
00:53I wish.
00:54I...
00:57Yeah, I...
01:01What was the first part of the question?
01:04Do you think the media's portrayal of the brothers influenced their fate?
01:07No.
01:07You know what I think affected it?
01:09When they bought shotguns and killed their parents.
01:13That affected it.
01:15That was the biggest effect.
01:17And then, you know, as time went on, we found out
01:21this was...
01:23Things were very disturbing in that household,
01:26and it was not the picture-perfect family they appeared to be.
01:32But, you know, at the time, you know,
01:36they looked at this kind of thing very differently than they would now.
01:40And, you know, now there's an entire group on TikTok
01:44clamoring for them to have another trial and to look at new evidence
01:48and a better understanding of abuse.
01:55You know, yeah, I don't...
01:58I don't think it affected the outcome of the trial, for sure.
02:03I think there was this initial reaction to it,
02:07which was they're two spoiled rich kids playing tennis and, you know,
02:14and had everything, and they murdered their parents for the money.
02:18And then it obviously was a much more complicated story.
02:23And we've come to understand that better over these 35 years.
02:28Leslie was a fierce advocate for the Menendez brothers,
02:32arguing that their actions were a direct result of just the years
02:36of abuse that Nathan was just talking about.
02:38When you were preparing for this role, in your research,
02:40did you find that her belief in their defense reflected a larger societal failure
02:46to understand the effects of trauma on children, on families,
02:50especially in high-profile wealthy families?
02:53I mean, yes to everything you said, except the high-profile wealthy family part.
02:58I mean, she was...
03:03She often talked about how psychology had not caught up,
03:06the law had not caught up with psychology or vice versa.
03:10Like, to understand 35 years ago, our sense of understanding abuse, trauma,
03:19the psychological effects of that,
03:23we didn't have a shared language about that back then,
03:26which we do now in a very different way.
03:28We're still building it.
03:29But just the response to the show now really speaks to that.
03:33On TikTok, there's a whole greater understanding about these things
03:37that back then were much harder, I think, for her to explain
03:45because people on the jury, people in culture,
03:49and so many of the men certainly in the jury on the first trial
03:52didn't believe and didn't know.
03:55And she was a fierce advocate for them.
03:58But she also came up from juvenile courts and being a public defender.
04:02She had an entire lifetime of work of seeing the effects of traumatic childhoods
04:11and how that results in actions taken later in life and circumstance,
04:19like nothing happens in a void.
04:22And I think she saw that throughout her career
04:24and always had an innate sense of fairness and justice and children,
04:31you know, like what happens with children that are not nurtured.
04:34And so when she met the boys,
04:39I think she developed a very true and deep relationship with Eric,
04:43but that was built upon her years of experience
04:46of seeing, in some ways, the hardest parts of humanity to hold.
04:52Thank you very much.
04:53I'm out of time, but I really loved your answer.
04:55So thank you so, so much.
04:57Thanks.