Oct 21
From Menendez Brother to 'American Psycho?' Cooper Koch is Ready for the Role
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
It seems that hot rising actor Cooper Koch has gained a taste for cinematic blood. With word out that prolific filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is looking to remake "American Psycho," Koch – currently starring in Ryan Murphy's "Monsters" – says he'd be up for the role.
"Luca's doing 'American Psycho,' so I think I can do Patrick Bateman," he recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
The entertainment news outlet recalled that the Bret Easton Ellis book, published in 1991, was adapted to the screen by director Mary Harron. That version starred a pre-"Batman" Christian Bale as Bateman, five years before he starred as the caped crusader in the first of a trilogy of films for Christopher Nolan.
After having starred in queer thrillers like "They/Them" and "Swallowed," Koch won the role of Erik Menendez in the Ryan Murphy-produced Netflix series "Monsters," which is based on the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers who shot their parents to death in 1989 and claimed during their trial that they had been sexually and emotionally abused for years. The brothers are still serving life sentences, but new evidence has raised the possibility that they might win release from prison.
The Netflix series explores the brothers' courtroom claims, with Koch turning in an exceptionally powerful performance in an episode that focuses on Erik Menendez describing horrific abuse in graphic detail. That episode unspools in one continuous take.
Another episode includes a prison shower scene in which Koch goes full-frontal while cruising another inmate. Koch has said that the scene did not include the use of a prosthetic.
Now the 28-year-old actor is ready for even bolder roles. "I haven't played a serial killer yet," Koch told THR, "so I think I could do it."
Even before the success of "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," he was seen as a rising star. Now he's fielding more offers than ever.
"Things are coming in, things are moving, things are happening, taking meetings, and the needle is threading so we'll see, nothing is locked in or happening yet," Koch told THR.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
