STARRING IN CONTROVERSIAL NEW TRUE-LIFE MURDER TALE JAVIER BARDEM ON TOXIC MASCULINITY AND TRYING TO FIND THE HUMAN FACE BEHIND A MONSTER

Javier Bardem is no stranger to edgy roles and now the Academy Award-winning actor is starring in one of this year’s most controversial TV series – as José Menendez, who, alongside his wife Kitty (played by Chloë Sevigny), was murdered by the couple’s two sons at their home in Beverly Hills.

- GILL PRINGLE

The dark story made headlines in the US from 1989 to 1996, when, following lengthy and lurid courtroom revelations, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were imprisoned for life.

Although the prosecution argued that they were merely seeking to inherit their parents’ wealth, the siblings claimed that their actions stemmed from fear following a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at their parents’ hands.

In Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan dive into a case that gripped the world, paving the way for audiences’ growing appetite for true crime.

“What I tried to portray in José was a commanding man who really thinks he’s right all the time and who has to be obeyed,” says Javier, 55. “That’s very common behaviour from men back in the day. We’re talking about the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and, unfortunately, even today.

“That brings a toxic masculinity into the education of kids and into families, and it has consequences.