Evan Peters credits ‘Step Brothers’ to overcome darkness of Netflix’s ‘Dahmer’

Evan Peters admitted that the darkness of portraying Dahmer in Netflix's latest hit thriller, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, got overwhelming for him.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Ryan Murphy moderated two discussions for the series hosted by Netflix. During that conversation, Peters shared that the 2008 movie, Step Brothers, helped him step away from the role of the serial killer.

Peters had also admitted that he was terrified to take on the role of a serial killer who gruesomely murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991. He took a while contemplating whether he should take up the task or not.

“Doing the role, I wanted to give it 120 per cent the whole way through, so I brought in a lot of darkness and negativity,” Peters explained of his process.

“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 yeah, watch Step Brothers.'”

Niecy Nash, who played Dahmer's keen-eyed and suspicious neighbour in the series, joked about how deep Peters was in the role. "People will say, 'What is Evan like?' and I'm like, 'I don't know, I don't know that man,' " she said.

During the conversation, Peters shared that he was up for a light-hearted and normal role in a rom-com. “Evan Peters, you and me in a rom-com right after this,” Nash teased, as Peters replied, “Oh I’m down.”

Despite the backlash, the show still managed to land in the number-one spot during its debut week on Netflix, and has become one of the streaming service's most-viewed shows ever.