Monsters' Nicholas Chavez discusses the dark backstory of Lyle's hair loss

When Nicholas Alexander Chavez began researching his role as Lyle Menéndez MonsterHe paid particular attention to the “mask” that Lyle's father, Jose, forced him to wear when he began losing his hair.

This “mask” is what Chavez refers to as Lyle’s infamous toupee, the former Vanity Fair Writer Dominick Dunne once described it as a “state-of-the-art hairpiece or toupee or wig or hair substitute, as his very expensive carpet was also called,” which later became “almost a constant prop in the trial” as important as the two missing Mossberg 12- Caliber shotguns that the brothers used to blow their parents away.”

“I really saw this wig as a kind of mask,” Chavez recalls to Deadline. “It’s not something he forces himself to do. It is imposed by his father and the perfectionist standard Lyle must live up to. It’s a mask that hides a deeply wounded inner child that emerges in episode four.”

Before embarking on the role of a lifetime, Chavez said he enjoyed reading books about the Menéndez family while doing a little publicity work of his own in Los Angeles.

“When you work on a project about the Menéndez brothers, especially if you live in Los Angeles, where they lived, you meet a lot of people who are a degree or two removed from others who had direct contact with them,” Chavez tells Deadline. “It was interesting because several people I met with told me that they could tell Lyle was wearing a piece. And when you wear a piece, a certain behavior comes with it. You tilt your head in a particular way, perhaps even unconsciously, to keep your distance from the person you are talking to.”

Titled “Kill or Be Killed”, Episode 4 of Monster tries to provide some answers to the question of what led to the (embarrassing) toupee. As Lyle reveals to the lawyers that he was abused by his father (Javier Bardem), the episode shows his character realizing in the shower that his hair is falling out. So Jose takes him to a specialist to get a hairpiece fitted.

“You look great in that,” Jose says to Lyle in the episode. “Do you want to be successful in business? Do you want to go into politics? Then you have to have good hair.”

“What if I don’t want to wear a wig?” says Lyle.

“We can discuss that at home,” Jose replies sternly. “You’re wearing a wig. That’s how it will be.”

Although it is never mentioned in the limited series, Chavez admits that the hair loss was likely due to the immense stress Lyle was under. “I can only imagine it must have been such a frightening experience. When aspects of the way you present yourself begin to fall apart… when you don't have those external verifiers of your identity to lean on… that really brings out evil realities that may be living within you. I perhaps subconsciously felt that as the mask of who he claimed to be began to slip, the child underneath began to come through more and more.”

While filming the limited series, Chavez admitted that he never actually wore a wig. “They used my real hair for most of the production, but backcombed it to look like a toupee. The only time it's not my real hair is when there's a gag. So when the wig comes off, like in the scene at the dinner table or the scene where it's taken away from me while I'm showering in prison, they put the bald head on.”

And yes, the moment when Kitty snatches the toupee is based on true events. Lyle Menéndez actually testified in court that “she grabbed my hairpiece and just ripped it off.” That's when his brother Erik learned the dark truth.

He “didn’t know I had a hairpiece. “I was completely embarrassed in front of my brother,” the statement said.

In Monster, Kitty rips Lyle's toupee off during a family argument at the dinner table. It causes the brothers to confess to each other how they were mistreated by their father, which led to their decision to shoot their parents.

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