The best episode of 'Monsters' includes a 30-minute sequence shot: "You can't stop watching"

After four episodes compiling in detail the most important moments of the lives of Lyle and Erik Menéndez in Monsters, the anthology series that became a phenomenon thanks to Dahmer on Netflix has adopted an important change in tone in its fifth episode.

Titled Wounds from the past, the episode that marks the midpoint of this second season has a total duration of 33 minutes and promises a very different viewing experience. This is because it is composed of a single shot in which we witness a harsh confession by one of the protagonists.

In a single scene where Erik (Cooper Koch) appears with his lawyer (Ari Graynor), who is seen from behind, the protagonist recounts in detail the terrifying abuse he suffered during his childhood. A speech that takes place just after his brother and he were arrested for the murder of their parents José and Kitty Menéndez (Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny).

About the filming of this sequence, Graynor herself said that it was "filmed up to eight times, four times a day for two days". “We had planned to rehearse a lot. Cooper and I had done it several times on our own, just to say it out loud, and then we rehearsed it. I think we had both spent so much time preparing and worrying about this that when we got together in the room and shot it once, Michael Uppendahl, our incredible director, said, 'Let's not rehearse it, let's just do it'.”

Koch also recalled how the rehearsal went: “It was very beautiful. It turned out better than I could have imagined”. However, it wasn't the same feeling when they shot the first two takes. “I approached Michael and said, ‘I need help. I need to figure out why I'm not unlocking it or what I'm not understanding,’” Koch said in statements collected by Variety.

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"And he replied: ‘You're chasing the dragon, you're chasing the dragon from that first rehearsal. So go to the next one and just stay open to Ari. Be attentive to what she's going to say. Find the light in everything you can and try to stand up for your parents’. That fixed it. I felt incredible after the third take”.

Finally, it was the eighth and last take that made the cut. "Seeing [Cooper] do that was extraordinary. There was no need to stop, there were no mistakes,” Graynor said. "It was totally different each time. I think we both knew the incredible gift we had as actors, and also that that episode was much bigger than us. We wanted to maintain the space in Erik's story and for me, as Leslie, model that kind of listening and love that I think she transmits to him".

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Koch got emotional talking about his work with Graynor. “The fact that you don't see her face, that you only hear her voice... And that she guides him through the whole process and gives him space... Ari is very generous with her performances,” said the actor, wiping tears from his face.

For his part, Murphy said that both he and the series' co-creator Ian Brennan were committed to letting Erik tell his own version of the story. “Everything he says there is based on things he had said, written, spoken, transcribed, etc., so it was very true to his point of view,” Murphy explained. “When we were writing it, I thought the most powerful way to do it would be to do it in one take so you couldn't look away. You simply can't look away".

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence