Although he’s been a frequent collaborator of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, director Paris Barclay says his gut instinct, when asked to helm episodes of Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, was to give it a pass. “I was alive when this was all happening in real time. I was a gay, Black man of that age. I wasn’t in Milwaukee, but nevertheless, it was scarring. He was one of those serial killers that really affected me,” Barclay tells THR. “I didn’t want to do anything that would glorify or add more ignominy to Jeffrey Dahmer. I didn’t think there was anything there for me.”
As Murphy explained to Barclay that their intent was to shift the focus away from the killer himself and onto the lives of the victims, the director reconsidered his position. “Ryan told me the story of Tony Hughes, who was this gay, deaf Black man,” says Barclay. “Lifting up him as a victim would shift the focus away from Jeffrey to the things that society could and couldn’t do, what the police could and didn’t do, and that would become what the series was all about.”
As a result of his contribution, Barclay makes history as the first Black director to be Emmy-nominated for directing in the limited series category, having already been nominated for comedy (Glee) and drama (The West Wing). In this case, the accolade serves to highlight the difficulty of his work. “I didn’t expect it would challenge me this much,” admits Barclay, who spoke to THR about making a show dramatizing a series of horrific events while trying not to glorify a monster.
You have worked with Ryan and Ian before on The Watcher, Glee and American Horror Story. What is unique about your working relationship?
I can count on them giving me projects and scripts that are going to take me in directions that I’m not always comfortable going, while, at the same time, doing it for a purpose. If they’re going to take the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, they’re going to tell it in a way that matters. I think they made the story about something bigger and something relevant to today, which is: What are the police doing? Why don’t they believe a Black woman when she is calling, over and over again? What status does she have in this society? Those are big questions that reverberate today. That’s what they’re keenly interested in, and that’s what I’m interested in, too.
You mentioned it challenged you in ways you weren’t expecting. In what way?
For one, I wasn’t expecting that the part of Tony Hughes would be played by someone who had never done professional acting before, who was also deaf. That’s a challenge. When I met Rodney Burford, I realized why he was right [for this], because he does have a really kind, open spirit. He’s immediately likable. My whole experience, through the making of the “Silenced” episode, was trying to quell his instincts to act and to convince him just to be Rodney and do this as Rodney would, saying these particular lines, in this particular time and these particular clothes, without trying to do anything other than what Rodney would do.
That episode is the first time we get to know a victim. What is the opportunity there beyond just detailing a murder?
I am not interested in the murder. I’m really, really not interested in the psychology of Jeffrey Dahmer and why he is as warped as he is. But I am interested in telling a story of a family’s loss. I am interested in telling a story of the love that was there, that was destroyed. Now, after working on this episode, I look at crime differently. I look at a murder of a young man by the police, I look at a school shooting and I wonder what that child was like as a baby and what their family is like. Tony’s family reverberates with me and makes it specific and more painful. Doing that is a major service, because it not only humanizes it, but it says, “Let’s shift our focus to the people we’ve lost, and not to the people who killed them.”
On the other hand, this episode does humanize Jeffrey Dahmer more than any up to this point. How did you feel about the ethical challenges of that?
I see this as a pocket of time. This was a time when some of his impulses were under control. He wasn’t able to actually smash the pills and put them in the drinks a couple of times with Tony. But that’s a part of his warped psychology that just happened to have a window, and the window happened to be when he met Tony Hughes. I don’t really think of him as human; I think of him as available in this moment to be less psychotic until he can’t anymore. Deep down in his soul and in his mind, he’s a sociopath, a psychopath, who was unable to really have empathy for other human beings.
For you to be able to wrap your head around it, does it have to be within those “less psychotic” parameters?
I think for Evan [Peters] also. He knew that this was not the essential Jeffrey Dahmer in episode six. He knew that this was an aberration in his behavior, and he knew that he would eventually relapse and become the psychotic person that he was before. So we weren’t pretending that suddenly he’s better, because he’s not right. And that’s why you see those moments throughout the episode where he continues to push back and deal with the impulses that are driving him to kill Tony. He manages to get past them, and you might say that’s the power of love, but the power of love wasn’t enough in the end.
You also directed the series finale. How was that different from episode six?
This was the comeuppance of Jeffrey Dahmer, and I was glad to do it, actually, because I found a certain joy in the dispatching of this villain. But I also thought that it dealt with very, very complicated issues of faith, vengeance and forgiveness. Niecy Nash-Betts’ character has that incredibly moving scene where she’s trying to find a way to forgive and she just can’t. [That] is really the heart of the story for me. I would not be able to forgive Jeffrey Dahmer, especially not after everything that she had lived through.
How challenging was the death scene of Jeffrey Dahmer?
We were in that gym for a few days, doing all the setup, and then, finally, doing the killing of Jeffrey Dahmer. Frankly, it was quite choreographed. We had different prostheses that [Evan] had to go through, where his face would be more damaged. For some of the beating, we couldn’t have [Evan] there at all. We did shoot it a lot more graphically than it appears in the final cut. It was pulled back considerably, and probably for good reason.
In episode six, we don’t see Tony’s murder, and then, in 10, Dahmer’s murder is very graphic. When do you think onscreen violence serves a purpose, and when is it better to just imply it?
With Tony, someone that you really love and care about, I think it’s too painful to actually see it happen. This episode is painful enough. In the case of Jeffrey Dahmer dying, I don’t think he really deserved a dignified conclusion. I think he deserved a brutal conclusion, and I know I should care more, but, honestly, I do not. I believe in the God of vengeance in this particular case and felt that it was quite appropriate.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywood
