People love Evan Peters and his work. That love exists on a spectrum of crushing on him to appreciating his overall skill as an actor. Due to this intense love from Peters’ fanbase, the reactions on social media to Netflix’s newest series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story have been pretty wild.
Peters plays the title role of the infamous serial killer. Since the day it was announced he would be in the role, Twitter has had strong reactions to him playing Dahmer. Some romanticize him, others posing the question of why he keeps playing scary people and others are trying to stop the romanticization of his evil characters, specifically Dahmer.
There are many users on Twitter romanticizing the performance, @anthologyrm tweeted:
me watching Evan Peters in literally every role he’s done pic.twitter.com/Ibpb5kiPj7September 22, 2022
While others just want Peters to play a role that isn’t a killer so they can adore him without feeling guilty, like @aidanthereup:
need Evan Peters to play a character that isn’t a serial killer so bad so I can find him hot in peace pic.twitter.com/2cxBwnUtdTSeptember 21, 2022
Peters has played his fair share of serial killers between quite a few of his characters on American Horror Story and this new limited series. He also has a fairly large repertoire of non-scary characters. He was one of the 2021 Emmy winners for his role as Detective Colin Zabel in Mare of Easttown. He also starred as the fast and funny Quicksilver in a few of the X-Men movies, and if you liked him in that you can check out some of his other performances that aren’t as scary as his current role.
Despite him playing non-scary characters, many people romanticize his more evil roles. As @NOASVERSE put it:
so many people are gonna be romanticizing jeffrey dahmer cause he’s played by evan peters… pic.twitter.com/i2AJYuxrbfSeptember 16, 2022
Lots of people on Twitter are starting to call out those who are romanticizing Peters’ performance as Dahmer, and they are trying to get people to not post thirst tweets about an actual real-life serial killer. Like @sicssorluv who tweeted:
It’s okay to praise Evan Peters for his performance, he is a brilliant actor. BUT DO NOT ROMANTICIZE HIM IN THE ROLE AS JEFFREY DAHMER. #DahmerNetflixSeptember 21, 2022
On the flip side, there are lots of users praising Peters’ performance without romanticizing it. Some, like @PATvandenEnden are saying it’s so good he should win an Emmy.
This was quite possibly the most frightening and disturbing show I have ever watched. Evan Peters BETTER receive an Emmy for his performance as Dahmer. The acting, cinematography, soundtrack made this show extremely intense, but incredible. Watch it if you enjoy true crime. pic.twitter.com/psYjW92y2TSeptember 22, 2022
@285Slim may have gotten the general consensus of the fans down when he mentioned in a Twitter thread about the show:
Evan Peters might be going to hell for being too good at what he does.
He’s right, the Dahmer actor is good at what he does and takes it seriously, especially on this project. Peters and the creatives behind the show have been careful with how they portray the serial killer. Peters has spoken about how he handled the role, saying it was challenging taking on the character and trying to portray him in an authentic way. He also explained that the show’s creator Ryan Murphy had one rule while making the show, which was to never tell this story from Dahmer’s point of view. Elaborating on this point Peters’ noted they did this because it was important to respect the victims and their families. They also set this rule so they didn’t “embellish” everything that happens because there is no need to see these horrific events over and over again.
Now that show is in the world it’s up to the viewer how they interpret the story being told. Social media has made it clear that while Peters is amazing, his performance should not be romanticized.
