It has been joked for quite some time that Evan Peters deserves a few lighter romances and comedies in his filmography. The American Horror Story regular has made a career out of playing some of the most twisted minds of pop culture history this side of the millennium.
He wants to explore the “light”, as he mentioned at The Hollywood Reporters Drama Actors Roundtable. He attended the talk along with Jeff Bridges (The Old Man), Kieran Culkin (Succession), Damson Idris (Snowfall & Swarm), Michael Imperioli (The White Lotus), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us & The Mandalorian).
Peters shared his process to get into the skin of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer for his Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix hit Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. He said, “I definitely didn’t wanna play any more bad guys. I was like, not doing that anymore. And, of course, then I read the script.”
He also mentioned how systemic failures of the police department, racism, and homophobia—everything that ensured Dahmer stayed active for as long as he did—were some of his primary motivations for wanting to tell the story. The series received mixed reviews. While some praised its storytelling flair, most critics found the series glamourised Dahmer and capitalised on a tragedy that claimed the lives of minorities not too long ago.
Dan Fienberg of THR praised episode six (“Silenced”) as “easily the best episode of the series, an uncomfortably sweet and sad hour of TV that probably should have been the template for the entire show [and]…in placing a Black, deaf, gay character at the centre of the narrative, the series is giving voice to somebody whose voice has too frequently been excluded from gawking serial killer portraits.”
Despite these reservations, Monster became a big hit for Netflix in 2022. And it took a toll on Evan Peters, who had to live through, and as, this character throughout the four months of preparation and six months of shooting.
Perhaps the funnest role Peters has portrayed in the last few years of his career is as Quicksilver in the X-Men series. Even that takes a slightly darker turn in MCUs WandaVision. He has featured in a brief role in one of the biggest comedies of our times, The Office, as Michael Scott’s nephew.
So, we know he will be refreshing in a fun role again. Netflix should just put him in an annoyingly cheery Christmas film next!
