Monsters' Nicholas Alexander Chavez Says 'I Sympathize' with Menéndez Brothers as He Talks Response to Series (Exclusive)

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story star Nicholas Alexander Chavez says he sympathizes with the Menéndez brothers after the release of the Netflix series.

While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the New York City premiere of another one of his recent Ryan Murphy projects — the series Grotesquerie — on Monday, Sept. 23, Chavez, 25, discussed taking on the role of Lyle Menéndez in Monsters and whether he was nervous for the series to come out.

"I really sympathize with the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their life, and then having that put on television for the world to see. I would imagine that would be incredibly heavy," Chavez told PEOPLE of the series' release.

Lyle and Erik Menéndez (played by Cooper Koch in the show) are both incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California after killing their parents, José and Kitty, on Aug. 20, 1989. The brothers have maintained that they murdered them due to ongoing mental, physical and sexual abuse.

Erik recently criticized the show's portrayal of himself and Lyle in a Facebook post, calling "the facts" of their lives "inaccurate."

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show," Erik said in the post.

When asked if he'd spoken to Lyle himself during the process of filming the show, Chavez insisted he hadn't and that he'd just been told about Erik's response.

"No, I did not," he told PEOPLE on Monday of whether he'd been in communication with Lyle.

He said he realizes the responses to such a show have probably been "varied, as they should be."

"It's sensitive subject matter and I imagine that everyone is forming their own interpretations of what happened as we imagined and intended that they would," Chavez told PEOPLE of the reaction.

The Menéndez murders have made national headlines through the years and have spawned several documentaries. The killings, according to the brothers, came after years of alleged sexual abuse by their Hollywood executive father. They claim the abuse was ignored by their mother.

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Authorities have claimed the brothers' motive was greed, citing the lavish spending spree — which involved expensive watches, cars, and tennis lessons — the two went on after the slayings.  

“There was a media spectacle from the beginning,” Lyle said in a clip shared by PEOPLE from the upcoming The Menéndez Brothers documentary, which premieres on Netflix on Oct. 7.

“So, we were not the ones who told the story about our lives,” Erik said. "Two kids don’t commit this crime for money.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story is out now on Netflix. Grotesquerie premieres its first two episodes on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.