“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” actor Cooper Koch says the first time he spoke to the real Erik Menendez wasn’t the day he visited the real brothers in prison alongside Kim Kardashian. The actor, who plays Erik in the series, explains Variety that he and the real Erik spoke on the phone the night before “Monsters” premiered on Netflix.
“I had to have a really good conversation with him and tell him that I believe him and that I did everything I could as an actor to advocate for him and portray him as authentically as possible, and that I think the show does very well. to represent him,” Koch said Variety. “We had a very nice conversation. We talked about other things, like me going to Calabasas High School, which is where he went when he first moved to California. My father graduated from Beverly Hills High School the year before Erik got there. We all have strange parallels.”
A few days after the phone call, Erik denounced the series in a statement that his wife posted on X. Koch said the two discussed his criticism during his prison visit with Kardashian. “I told him it makes sense that you feel that way,” Koch said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to see the worst part of your life, something so traumatic and tragic, on television for millions of people to see on a dramatized Hollywood TV. I just said, ‘I understand, I understand and I support you.’”
As for how Koch joined Kardashian for the prison visit, the actor said the two were introduced through his stylist Jamie Mizrahi.
“They were having lunch together and I got a text from Jamie. It was a video of Kim saying, “I love you on the show. You are so amazing,” Koch recalled. “I thought this was so crazy, but then they texted saying they wanted to call me. Kim calls and starts asking me all these questions about Eric and about the brothers. Then she told me she was going there and asked if I wanted to go with them. It all happened very quickly.”
They visited the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, California, on September 21 to discuss prison reform with inmates. They were also joined by Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, and sister, Khloé Kardashian. Koch said Erik was the first person he saw when they walked into the prison gym.
“We just looked at each other and immediately hugged. He was so nice. Lyle too, I got to hug them both and just be in their presence,” Koch said. ‘They are such genuine individuals. They have done so much work in their prison. Erik gives meditation and speech lessons, and they do this Greenspace project to improve the prison grounds. It was just amazing.”
The Menendez brothers are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 1989 first-degree murder of their parents. Koch said Variety he believes Erik and Lyle deserve a new trial.
“They committed the crime when they were 18 and 21 years old, and at that time it was very difficult for people to believe that sexual abuse could happen between men, especially when it involved father and son,” Koch said. “It was very difficult for people to understand that the story they were telling was true, and this theory that they killed their parents for money is just crazy. But it was easier for people at that time to swallow that story. But now, after 35 years, we have so much more evidence of child sexual abuse and sexual abuse between men that I think they deserve to be tried again. And also in everything that happened in that second trial, they were not allowed to use their claims of sexual abuse.”
He added, “I really hope they can get paroled and have a great rest of their lives.”
Koch said he and Erik connected through spirituality. “I always knew I wanted to meet them,” he said. “I always knew I wanted to tell them that I believe them and that I want to be an advocate for them. So when it happened, it felt strangely normal, like I already knew them, because I’d been watching them for so long and I’d seen them and heard them talk for hours and hours and hours.
But then Koch paused and smiled. “I know there’s no point,” he said. “It’s pretty wild. When I sit here talking to you, it sounds so crazy.”
Koch’s participation in the San Diego meeting comes as Kardashian continues to routinely visit prisons to gather and share information about rehabilitation programs and prison reforms, which she has highlighted on Kardashian TV shows and discussed on Variety Summit on judicial reform.
In July, Kardashian spoke with Chloë Sevigny, who plays Lyle and Erik’s mother, Kitty Menendez, on “Monsters,” for Variety Actors on Actors, where they discussed their first impressions of the case. Sevigny shared her struggles portraying a victim of such a brutal murder, while Kardashian reflected on growing up around the Menendez family. “I grew up down the street from the house where it all happened, and everyone went to the same schools,” Kardashian said. “I remember hearing about the case, but my dad drove me past the house and told me the story.”