Cooper Koch on Portraying Erik Menéndez
Cooper Koch is sharing his personal story on taking on the role of one half of the Menéndez brothers, including Erik Menéndez, in Menéndez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed — a reenactment of the notorious 1989 trial surrounding Lyle and Erik’s conviction for brutally murdering their parents.
Koch, in an interview, thought back on the fact that being Erik was “life transforming” for him and how he can “sympathize with” Erik’s criticism to be depicted as a “beast” inside media along with well-known lifestyle.
The trial of the Menéndez brothers was a media sensation, and Erik and Lyle were typically cast as sociopathic murderers who had committed an unimaginable crime.
Yet, as the years have gone on, we’ve learned more about the violent and abusive background suffered by the brothers at the hands of their father.
Their actions were undoubtedly tragic, although their subsequent case has come to be seen by many as more nuanced than was initially suggested.
This perspective has led to conversations about how the media’s sensationalism can skew people’s perception of those involved in criminal cases.
And Koch — was he had to see the world through Erik Menéndez’ eyes, and ultimately experienced a kind of sympathy for what emotion trauma Erik had gone though.
Koch revealed that his performance as Erik involved more than just retreating occurrences yet catching mankind an individual usually commented on for a rogue.
Though he recognized the severity of Erik and Lyle’s crime, Koch argued their “monstrous” label all too often overshadowed the psychological and emotional specifics regarding their case.
“Something definitely stuck with me from playing Erik,” Koch said in the interview.
Instead, he reflected on the image of “a monster” that he was depicting, as a person who had faced serious emotional and physical trauma in his life.
“Empathy for the assailant and anger at the crime aren’t mutually exclusive, they go together,” Koch said.
Erik Menéndez himself has voiced this criticism of being labeled a “monster” throughout the years. For his part, Erik has given many interviews from prison in which he talks about how the public perceives him — as a socio/psychopath, one of two brothers who murdered their parents (and led authorities on for years with phony tears); but what people don’t know is that the young Menendez boys were also abused by these dead parents they later admitted to slaughtering.
The media tends to reduce us into the categories of “good” or “bad”, as he has said, ignoring the factors leading people to doing what they do.
More importantly is the fact that in well-publicized cases, like the Menéndez trial, the lurid headline of a crime story often completely obscures any hint sot human interest behind it.
This recognition of Erik’s humanity was central to how Koch chose to play the role. The actor also stressed how essential it was to portray Erik as not only a crime story object.
This goes beyond a mere thought exercise and speaks to bigger, more societal questions as to how the media and public discourse very often treat crime and punishment narratives.
Is anyone who commits a violent act turned into a cartoon of badness and are their life stories (a landscape that could obviously consist of abuse or trauma) ever really considered?
With his portrayal of Erik Menéndez, Koch forces us to examine our own views on people deemed “monsters.” Though the things they did can be unspeakably awful, that their lives were part of a larger tapestry of existence paints perhaps a bleaker and more humanistic picture for how we conduct ourselves.
Koch’s sympathy towards Erik Menéndez is reflective of a broader shift in how we understand crime narratives, whether they play out in the public eye or on screen.
