Evan Peters wanted to make a killer transformation.
According to the Peters' DAHMER costars, the Emmy winner prepared for his role as Jeffrey Dahmer so well that even his fellow actors couldn't distinguish him from the real-life serial killer on-set.
"People will say, 'What is Evan like?'" Niecy Nash joked at an Oct. 29 panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "And I'm like, 'I don't know. I don't know that man.'"
Peters revealed the lengths he went to to prepare. In addition to extensive research and dialect training, the actor put weights on his arms to emulate Dahmer's walking style, and even wore his character's costume shoes, jeans and glasses for months to get into the role.
But all this research took a toll on Peters, who is known for playing equally dark roles in other Ryan Murphy shows like American Horror Story.
"Doing the role, I wanted to give it 120 percent the whole way through, so I brought in a lot of darkness and negativity," he explained. "It was just having that end goal in sight, knowing when we were going to wrap and finally being able to breathe and let it go and say, 'OK, now it's time to bring in the joy and the lightness and watch comedies and romances and go back to St. Louis and see my family and friends and watch Step Brothers.'"
DAHMER, which is Netflix's ninth most-streamed series of all time, was hit with controversy after multiple family members of victims accused Murphy and the production team of failing to reach out to them for input. However, Murphy hit back at the claims, saying he "reached out to around 20 of the victims' families and friends" and "not a single person responded."
Nash echoed Murphy's sentiments, saying the cast tried their hardest to make the series true to life.
"I felt responsible to get it right," she said. "There were many days I left set with tears in my eyes because the weight of all of these things happening and knowing that all of it didn't have to."
DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now streaming on Netflix.