Evan Peters on the 'Real Struggle' of Taking on Dahmer — Including Yo-Yo-ing 35 Lbs. to Play Killer

Netflix

Evan Peters went to great mental and physical lengths for his latest project.

The first-time Golden Globe nominee, 35, opened up about the internal struggle he had with taking on the role of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Ryan Murphy's Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as the duo spoke to Variety.

"It was a real struggle. I was really thinking about it and trying to process it. I went back and forth a lot," Peters explained, noting that his trust in Murphy, 57, was ultimately what convinced him to take on the heavy topic.

"I knew that you're an incredible support system and I trust you and there's an honesty there," Peters told Murphy. "I knew that, with the goal in mind of finishing this thing as strong as I started it, that you would create a great safety net. If I fell down, I could get back up and we could finish this thing. I was up for the challenge."

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Peters first worked with Murphy on the first season of American Horror Story, which premiered on FX in 2011. He also appeared in season 1 of Murphy's Pose, which debuted in 2018.

In addition to the mental toll that Peters faced while playing Dahmer, he also made an extreme physical transformation for the role, starting with a no-carb, no-sugar diet to drop 15 pounds.

"I didn't really have an appetite during the early stages of shooting," he explained. "Then I was working out for episode 3 when Dahmer gets into working out and gained about 20 pounds for the end in prison to show how he looked then."

Courtesy Of Netflix Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer

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And although his performance recently earned Peters his first Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a limited series, anthology series or television motion picture, the actor said he's looking forward to some more lighthearted roles in the future.

"I'm going to take a little break from darker roles and explore the light. It would be interesting to me to play something that is a little closer to home, a little more mundane and to explore the details of those kinds of experiences," Peters said.

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Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now streaming on Netflix.