Penelope Ann Miller on getting to work with Ryan Murphy on ‘Dahmer’: It was a ‘dream come true’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
Penelope Ann Miller has been an admirer of Ryan Murphy‘s work for a quite a while now. “Glee,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” and “Feud: Bette and Joan” are among the shows co-created and/or co-executive produced by Murphy of which the actor has been a fan in the past. But it wasn’t until Netflix’s “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” came along that she actually had the chance to collaborate with the renowned writer, producer and director.
“He does really cool shows, and I thought it would be amazing to get the opportunity to be in one of them. So when [‘Dahmer’] came along, it was definitely, yeah, a dream come true,” she tells Gold Derby in a recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). “And it worked out — supposedly I’m a part of the family, the Ryan Murphy family. So that’s good! But yeah, it was actually an amazing set. I mean, he hires so many talented people, all the way from the actors to the crew to the makeup and hair [department] to the wardrobe [to] the writers. It’s just a great set to be on because everybody’s at the top of their game. And so I had a great time, actually, even though it’s a very dark story.”
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“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is the first iteration of the “Monster” anthology series from co-creators Murphy and Ian Brennan and explores the dark and disturbing story of the titular serial killer and sex offender (played by Emmy winner Evan Peters). While the show dramatizes the life and heinous crimes of the infamous mass murderer — who killed 17 boys and young men between 1978 and 1991 — it also delves into the stories of some of his victims, as well as into the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the nefarious psychopath to go on a multiyear killing spree.
Miller plays Jeffrey’s mother, Joyce Dahmer (née Flint), who is depicted as much more than just the parent of a notorious serial killer on the 10-part series. The true crime drama takes time to explore the Wisconsin native’s turbulent marriage with and eventual divorce from her ex-husband Lionel Dahmer (played by Josh Braaten and Richard Jenkins), as well as her long-lasting battle with mental illness and how she grapples with the guilt she feels for the part she might’ve played in her son’s devolution into a murderer.
When it came to portraying her character’s mental health struggles, including postpartum depression, it was important to Miller that these weren’t painted in broad strokes. “I really didn’t want to play this crazy caricature of this woman… I mean, there are so many crazy things that are going on, and so I really was being very careful to play her as authentically as I possibly could, but… [also] bring out those nuances of those just little breaks in her, [in] the complexity of who she was as a woman who was trying to get on with her life, to even help other people,” she underlines. “I mean, later, she was helping — she started a center for HIV patients. I think she wanted to give back in some way. And then, she tried to commit suicide. She was so broken. I mean, she talks about this in her interviews, that she was so traumatized and tormented. It’s hard to live with that, [especially] with her already having depression. So I just really wanted to hopefully be somewhat subtle in the performance, but also just bring out the reality that people do crazy things and act crazy.”
In a letter that Joyce writes before she tries to kill herself in the eighth episode, “Lionel,” she acknowledges that she played a role in Jeffrey’s downward spiral. Yet, after she survives her suicide attempt, she is still seen chasing after explanations for her son’s monstruous behavior. So when the opportunity arises for Jeffrey’s brain to be examined for abnormalities by researchers, she is fully on board with the idea. Lionel, though, not so much. Convinced that retaining the brain would only prolong the victims’ families’ and their own pain, he insists that the brain be destroyed and suggests that he and his ex-wife start putting everything behind them.
When asked whether she believes that Joyce — who would go on to die of breast cancer at the age of 64 in 2000 — was ever able to move on like Lionel recommended she do on the show, Miller argues that she wasn’t. “I do think she carried a lot of guilt. She talks about it. I think it’s hard not to feel somewhat responsible — that’s what’s just so heartbreaking to me,” she says. “But I think that this is why she was trying to help people with HIV, with mental health, with issues like that, and with wanting to study the brain, because I think… she was tormented by finding out about what her son had done. And I don’t think she could put it to rest, I don’t think she could put it behind her.”
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