Golden Globes 2023: Viewers say Evan Peters win for Jeffrey Dahmer role 'feels wrong' (original) (raw)

Viewers are upset that Evan Peters won a Golden Globe for portraying serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in a controversial Netflix true crime series.

Peters scooped the prize for Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film for his lead performance in Ryan Murphy's show Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, standing as one of the most notorious serial killers in American history.

The series received a mixed critical response, and also got backlash from the families of some of Dahmer's victims for what they perceived as an insensitive approach to the subject matter.

Evan Peters won a Golden Globe for his performance as Jeffrey Dahmer. (Getty)

Eric Perry, a relative of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, said the series was effectively "retraumatizing" the families and added: "I want people to understand this is not just a story or historical fact, these are real people’s lives."

Peters took to the stage at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday night to accept his award and offered his gratitude to the viewers who made the series one of Netflix's biggest recent hits.

He said: "Most importantly, I want to thank everyone out there who watched the show. It was a difficult one to make and a difficult one to watch, but I sincerely hope some good came out of it."

Viewers of the Golden Globes ceremony were not impressed though, particularly noting that Peters did not mention Dahmer's victims in his speech at all.

I’m kinda grossed out he won for that controversial ass show and the least he could have done was acknowledge the victims and their families for exploiting them for Dahmer. Nasty work #GoldenGlobes https://t.co/Q7TJUdtqCk

— nkemji, z stan acct🖤👩🏾‍⚕️🩺♊️ (@itsmetheHBIC) January 11, 2023

evan peters winning an award for playing jeffrey dahmer and not even taking a second to acknowledge the victims and their families rubs me the wrong way

— will 🐉 (@joegoldbergstan) January 11, 2023

This feels… just wrong. Idk man. Honoring the role of Dahmer feels weird. He needed to say something about the victims but he didn’t #GoldenGlobes

— BROADWAY!BLACK (@BroadwayBlack) January 11, 2023

The experience of playing Dahmer clearly had an effect on Peters, who told Variety in December that he plans to "take a little break from darker roles and explore the light" in the wake of the series.

He added: "It would be interesting to me to play something that is a little closer to home, a little more mundane and to explore the details of those kinds of experiences."

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he explained that the Will Ferrell and John C Reilly comedy movie Step Brothers helped him to de-stress after filming.

Following the success of the Dahmer series, Netflix renewed the "Monster" series as an anthology, with two further seasons based on "other monstrous figures".

Watch: Trailer for the Jeffrey Dahmer series on Netflix, starring Evan Peters