How Evan Peters Really Prepared For the “Darkness” of Jeffrey Dahmer

Evan Peters wanted to make a killer transformation.

According to the Peters’ DAHMER costars, the Emmy winner prepared for his role as Jeffrey Dahmer so well that even his fellow actors couldn’t distinguish him from the real-life serial killer on-set.

“People will say, ‘What is Evan like?'” Niecy Nash joked at an Oct. 29 panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know that man.'”

Peters revealed the lengths he went to to prepare. In addition to extensive research and dialect training, the actor put weights on his arms to emulate Dahmer’s walking style, and even wore his character’s costume shoes, jeans and glasses for months to get into the role.

But all this research took a toll on Peters, who is known for playing equally dark roles in other Ryan Murphy shows like American Horror Story. 

“Doing the role, I wanted to give it 120 percent the whole way through, so I brought in a lot of darkness and negativity,” he explained. “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 watch Step Brothers.'”