Evan Peters is no stranger to weird characters. Fans of American Horror Story will know some of his troubled characters, including a school shooter, a serial killer and a murderous cult leader.
But in an interview with Netflix, the streaming giant behind his latest success, Peters admits that Dahmer is the hardest role he’s ever had to play. The Emmy-award-winning actor admitted that he was actually scared of the things Dahmer did.
"I was very scared about all of the things that Dahmer did, and diving into that and trying to commit to [playing this character] was absolutely going to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life because I wanted it to be very authentic," he told Netflix.
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"But in order to do that, I was going to have to go to really dark places and stay there for an extended period of time."
He continued: "I have to say that the crew was instrumental in keeping me on the guard rails. I cannot thank them enough and I could not have done any of this role with them.
"It was a challenge to try to have this person who was seemingly so normal but underneath all of it, had this entire world that he was keeping secret from everybody."
"It was so jaw-dropping that it all really happened," Peters added. "It felt important to be respectful to the victims and to the victims' families to try to tell the story as authentically as we could."
Peters previously opened up about the toll that the dark characters he's played in the past have had on his mental health. Speaking about his work on American Horror Story, Peters told GQ: "I'm goofy, I'm silly, I like to have fun.
He said: “I don't like to yell and scream, I actually hate it, I think it's disgusting and really awful, and it's been a challenge for me. Horror Story sort of demanded that of me."
"It's been all a massive stretch for me and really difficult to do," he said of playing certain characters. "It's hurting my soul and Evan as a person."
"It's just exhausting. It's really mentally draining, and you don't want to go to those places ever in your life.
“And so you have to go there for the scenes, and it ends up integrating it somehow into your life. You're in traffic and you find yourself screaming and you're like, 'What the hell? This isn't who I am.'"
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