Ryan Murphy believes the Menendez brothers were not incestuous, but rather abused

Ryan Murphy is well aware of your opinion. The mega-producer has made headlines with the second season of his controversial and hugely popular Netflix anthology series. Monster: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story, The film takes an unflinching look at the Beverly Hills brothers who were convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990s for the deaths of their parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. The brothers, who are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, allege that their parents, particularly their father, emotionally, psychologically and sexually abused them for years.

It was the delicate and complicated nature of the Menendez story that motivated Murphy to do this in the first place. “I only write things or work on things that interest me. I think what's shocking is that 100% of these things tend to be provocative,” Murphy says Vanity Fair. “So you can call me a provocateur. I'll take it.”

Murphy and Monster have received some criticism for their provocations, with the Menendez family calling the show “disgusting” and Erik Menendez releasing a statement disparaging the series and saying the Monsters is full of “blatant lies” about him and his brother. Some viewers have also criticized the way in which the series explores all aspects of the Menendez brothers' story – from depicting the grisly double murder to exploring more unsavory theories about what might have motivated the brothers played by them Nicholas Alexander Chavez And Cooper Cook, to kill their parents. A particularly salacious theory supposedly put forward by writer Dominick Dunne, who covered the trial Vanity Fair– suggested that the two brothers may have had an incestuous relationship. Monster briefly hints at this theory as Dunne (played by Nathan Lane) offers the possibility of putting together a table of guests around a dining table. (Dunne never published this theory in his reporting for Vanity Fair).

“There is a lot of controversy about incest,” Murphy said, directly addressing the criticism. “I personally don’t believe the Menendez brothers engaged in incest, but there are people who say they did. And Dominick Dunne and other journalists and people… this was presented in court as evidence, as a theory as to why these crimes might have happened.”

Murphy understands that people “may be a little confused about the type of storytelling we do.” Monsterwhich he calls “a Rashomon Approach,” which examines the case from multiple perspectives. “I wanted to tell a really big, complicated American film about this infamous case,” says Murphy. “And beyond that, I was really interested in shining a spotlight on the sexual abuse of men in our culture, which isn't often talked about much. That certainly wasn't the case when I was a kid. That really wasn't the case in the trial, which I find outrageous. I find it crazy that a lot of the evidence that the brothers occasionally claim to have wasn't allowed in. And I think the world is a very different place today than it was back then.”

Below, Murphy chats Vanity Fair about how he finds the perfect Lyle and Erik, how he deals with public criticism and what he personally thinks about the Menendez brothers' case.

Vanity Fair: Nicholas and Cooper are such incredible finds, and they seemingly came out of nowhere. How did you cast her?

Ryan Murphy: [Monsters cocreator] Ian [Brennan] and I had a lot of opinions on different things, but what we really cared about was [that] We had to find relatively unknown actors to play Erik and Lyle. We didn't want anyone bringing luggage. We spent six months on it and hundreds of people auditioned. As soon as I saw Cooper's audition and Nicholas's audition, I was like, “Okay, that's it.” I brought them both into my office. They didn't know I was there. They thought they were just doing one more audition. I went in and introduced myself. They met for the first time. I say, “I want you both to do it. I want you to just read on tape with me so I can really get Netflix on for you, and I know that will happen. In my opinion, you guys have done the role, so let's just have fun. And they went in and finished their audition. I sent it to Netflix and an hour later everyone there was like, “Wow, yeah.”

The thing I liked about them is that they weren't afraid to be unlikeable and were really brave in their emotional choices too. I just noticed that they could play it and keep it going for almost six months.