Ryan Murphy’s Feuds With Show Subjects Explained

Ryan Murphy has discovered success adapting true crime tales and high-profile occasions, which frequently leads to backlash from the topics of his exhibits.

Murphy’s sprawling TV universe began out with exhibits akin to Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story. Because the producer continued to seek out success, he expanded by taking on projects that highlighted actual tales — beginning with American Crime Story. The anthology present has chronicled the homicide trial of O.J. Simpson, the killing of designer Gianni Versace and the intercourse scandal involving former President Invoice Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

From there, Murphy created the American Sports activities Story spinoff, which centered on the rise and fall of former NFL participant Aaron Hernandez in its first season. Murphy’s most controversial spinoff has been the Monster anthology collection. In 2022, the restricted collection centered on Evan Peters‘ portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer, which obtained backlash from the families of the serial killer’s victims.

Peters, in the meantime, opened up about how his psychological well being was affected after taking over the difficult function. “I’m going to take slightly break from darker roles and discover the sunshine,” he instructed Selection in December 2022. “It could be fascinating to me to play one thing that could be a little nearer to dwelling, slightly extra mundane and to discover the small print of these sorts of experiences.”

Related: What Else to Watch About Erik, Lyle Menendez’s Murder Case After ‘Monsters’

Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters elicited a divided response about how Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez‘s homicide trial was portrayed within the Netflix collection — however it isn’t the one present that covers the controversial case. After their mother and father, José and Kitty Menéndez, had been murdered in 1989, Erik and Lyle turned the prime suspects. They had been arrested […]

Season 2 confronted related backlash after Erik Menendez slammed Murphy’s portrayal of him and brother Lyle Menendez. Murphy, nevertheless, stood by his work and even claimed that Monsters created renewed help within the Menendez case, which in the end led to them being resentenced to 50 years to life, which now makes them eligible for parole below California’s youthful offender legislation.

Hold scrolling for a breakdown of each time a present’s topic known as Murphy out — and the way he defended his work:

‘American Crime Story: The Individuals v. O.J. Simpson’

The Individuals v. O.J. Simpson reexamined the late athlete’s high-profile trial after he was arrested and subsequently charged in 1994 with the homicide of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In one of the vital talked-about verdicts of all time, O.J. was famously acquitted of the murders in 1995, however he was discovered chargeable for Ron and Nicole’s deaths in a civil trial three years later.

Brown and Goldman’s respective members of the family known as out American Crime Story for not consulting them. Former detective Mark Fuhrman, who was concerned within the case, additionally known as his portrayal untruthful.

‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

The Versace household broke their silence on the present in a January 2018 assertion, which learn, “The Versace household has neither approved nor had any involvement in anyway within the forthcoming TV collection concerning the dying of Mr. Gianni Versace. Since Versace didn’t authorize the guide on which it’s partly primarily based nor has it taken half within the writing of the screenplay, this TV collection ought to solely be thought of as a piece of fiction.”

Murphy stood up for his present by defending the journalist whose work impressed the challenge.

“The guide that we primarily based our showcase of, that we personal, Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, has been out for practically 20 years,” he stated in a press release that very same month. “And it’s a piece of nonfiction. It’s been scrutinized and vetted for near 20 years. And quite a lot of if not all of Maureen’s reporting in that guide was on the document, and it’s been sourced out, and we had our personal sources.”

‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’

The primary season of Netflix’s hit present debuted in 2022 and centered on Peters’ portrayal of Dahmer. Monster, which additionally starred Niecy Nash, got here below hearth after the households of Dahmer’s victims revealed they weren’t consulted for the present.

Eric Perry, a relative of sufferer Errol Lindsey, claimed in a September 2022 assertion that the present was “retraumatizing [the families] once more.”

“I need individuals to grasp this isn’t only a story or historic reality, these are actual individuals’s lives,” the assertion continued. “[Lindsey] was somebody’s son, somebody’s brother, somebody’s father, somebody’s buddy that was ripped from [our] lives.”

Murphy, for his half, beforehand stated he and his staff reached out to over 20 victims’ households and pals throughout their three and a half years of analysis and that “not a single particular person responded to us in that course of.” He elaborated in a November 2022 profile about how he took Dahmer’s story on to handle the racism and homophobia that outlined the case as a result of “it was the most important factor I’ve ever seen that actually type of examines how simple it’s to get away with issues with the white privilege points.”

“What are the principles now? Ought to we by no means do a film a couple of tyrant?” he added on the time.

‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’

When Monsters premiered in September 2024, episodes 4 and 5 obtained important and fan reward for the way they approached Erik and Lyle’s claims that they killed their mother and father in self-defense following years of alleged bodily, emotional and sexual abuse. Nonetheless, the present obtained backlash for different inaccuracies concerning the Menéndez brothers, together with the insinuation that they had been in an incestous relationship.

“I believed we had moved past the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, making a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant within the present,” learn a press release from Erik that was shared by way of Lyle’s Fb web page on the time. “I can solely imagine they had been achieved so on function. It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I say, I imagine Ryan Murphy can’t be this naive and inaccurate concerning the information of our lives in order to do that with out unhealthy intent.”

Murphy, in the meantime, questioned the backlash in opposition to the present when it performed a component within the Menendez case receiving renewed public help. “We gave them their second within the court docket of public opinion,” he instructed Selection one month later. “Principally, we did give them a platform.”

Murphy and the Menendez brothers intimately labored out their variations concerning the present amid the inmates’ profitable try and get resentenced.

‘American Love Story’

Earlier than American Love Story even premiered on FX, Murphy was criticized by the Kennedys for his plans to dramatize Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.‘s story after their deaths in a 1999 airplane crash. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg accused Murphy in June 2025 of “grotesque[ly]” profiting off his late uncle’s dying.

“Currently, my information feed has been crammed with photos of my uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., an excellent man,” Schlossberg wrote by way of Instagram in June. “For these questioning whether or not his household was ever consulted, or has something to do with the brand new exhibits being made about him, the reply is not any. And there’s actually not a lot we will do.”

Schlossberg continued: “For that matter, [JFK Jr. is] thought of a public determine, so there’s not a lot we will do. I hope these making these exhibits about him take severely what he stood for in his life, all that he achieved in it. And that they donate a few of the income [that] they’re making.”

In response, Murphy known as out the “inflammatory” criticism and the way it got here earlier than the present was launched.

“I assumed it was an odd option to be mad about your relative that you simply actually don’t keep in mind,” Murphy stated on Gavin Newsom’s “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast one month later. “The times of civil discourse are over, and it’s very onerous. And also you sort of both get into the muck otherwise you try to rise above it.”

‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’

Anthony Perkins‘ son Osgood Perkins had some alternative phrases for Murphy’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story after its onscreen depiction of his late father.

Osgood, instructed TMZ in October 2025 that he hadn’t seen season 3 himself and “wouldn’t watch it with a 10-foot pole.” The Longlegs director had issues concerning the artistic liberties the present was taking when it got here to together with Anthony (Joey Pollari) and his function in Psycho, which was impressed by Ed Gein‘s crimes.

Osgood addressed how the true crime style has been was “glamorous and significant content material” whereas being “reshaped in actual time by overlords.” He referred to scripted exhibits akin to Monster as “more and more devoid of context and that the Netflix-ization of actual ache is enjoying for the unsuitable staff.”