Actor Richard Jenkins On His Emmy Nomination For Playing Jeffrey Dahmer’s Dad: ‘An Interesting, Fascinating Human Story’
deadline.comDouble Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins is celebrating the latest laurel in his distinguished career: an Emmy nomination for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
He plays the bewildered father of the titular real life serial killer in the Netflix series produced by Ryan Murphy. “It’s always a surprise, a pleasant one when it happens,” Jenkins told Deadline of the nomination. “I loved working on the project and it’s nice to see it get some recognition.
There’s some wonderful performances and the crew was great; the directors were terrific. Ryan Murphy — who I’m crazy about — he’s been thinking about this and working on this case for years, and I’m happy for him.” To play the role of Lionel Dahmer, Jenkins had to imagine the unfathomable – a man realizing that the son he raised has become a monster, guilty of murdering 17 men and cannibalizing some of his victims. “I’m a father and I read Lionel’s book, A Father’s Story,” Jenkins said. “When Ryan called me, asked me to do [the role], and I read it, the first thing I thought was, if Jeffrey Dahmer is your son, do you stop loving him?
And the answer is no, you don’t. That’s a predicament that most parents, you’re grateful you’re not in. But he’s still your son.
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