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“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” actor Cooper Koch says the first time he spoke to the real Erik Menendez was not the day he visited the real brothers in prison alongside Kim Kardashian. The actor, who plays Erik in the series, tells Variety that he and the real Erik talked on the phone the night before “Monsters” premiered on Netflix.

“I got to have a really good conversation with him and tell him that I believe him and I did everything I could as an actor to advocate for him and portray him as authentically as possible, and that I think the show does a really good job of representing him,” Koch told Variety. “We had a really nice conversation. We talked about other things like I went to Calabasas High School, which is where he went when he first moved to California. My father graduated Beverly Hills High School the year before Erik got there. We have all of these weird parallels.”

A few days after the phone call, Erik slammed the series in a statement his wife posted on X. Koch said the two discussed his criticisms during his prison visit with Kardashian. “I told him that it makes sense that you would feel this way,” Koch said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to have the worst part of your life, such a traumatic and tragic thing, be televised for millions of people to see in a dramatized Hollywood TV way. I just said, ‘I understand, I get it, and I stand with you.’”

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As for how Koch ended up joining Kardashian for the prison visit, the actor said the two were introduced to each other through his stylist, Jamie Mizrahi.

“They were having lunch together and I got a text from Jamie. It was a video of Kim being like, ‘I love you in the show. You’re so amazing,’” Koch recalled. “I was like this is so crazy but then they texted that they wanted to call me. Kim gets on the phone and starts asking me all these questions about Erik and about the brothers. Then she told me that she was going down there and asked me if I wanted to go with them. It all happened very quickly.”

They visited the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, Calif. on Sept. 21 to discuss prison reform with inmates. They were also accompanied by Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, and sister, Khloé Kardashian. Koch said Erik was the first person he saw when they walked into the prison gymnasium.

“We just looked at each other, and immediately embraced. He was so kind. Lyle, too, I got to hug both of them and just be in their presence,” Koch said. “They’re such upstanding individuals. They’ve done so much work in their prison. Erik teaches meditation and speech classes, and they’re doing this Greenspace project to improve the prison grounds. It was just amazing.”

The Menendez brothers are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of their parents in 1989. Koch told Variety he believes Erik and Lyle deserve a retrial.

“They committed the crime when they were 18 and 21 years old, and at the time, it was really hard for people to believe that male-on-male sexual abuse could occur, especially with father and son,” Koch said. “It was really hard for people to understand that the story that they were telling was true, and this theory that they killed their parents for money is just bonkers. But it was easier for people at the time to sort of swallow that story. But now, after 35 years, we have so much more evidence of child sexual abuse and male-on-male sexual abuse that I think they do deserve to be retried. And everything that happened in that second trial too, they weren’t allowed to use their sexual abuse claims.”

He added, “I really do hope that they are able to get paroled and have an amazing rest of their lives.”

Koch mentioned that he and Erik connected over spirituality. “I always knew I wanted to meet them,” he said. “I always knew I wanted to tell them that I believe them and that I want to be an advocate for them. So then when it happened, it felt weirdly normal, like I already did know them because I’ve watched them for so long, and I’ve seen and heard them talk for hours and hours and hours.”

But then Koch paused and smiled. “I know it makes no sense,” he said. “It’s pretty wild. Sitting here and talking to you about it, it does sound so insane.”

Koch’s inclusion at the San Diego meeting comes as Kardashian continues to routinely visit prisons to gather and share information on rehabilitation programs and prison reform, which she has highlighted on Kardashian TV shows and discussed at Variety’s Justice Reform Summit.

In April, Kardashian sat down with Chloë Sevigny, who in “Monsters” portrays Lyle and Erik’s mother, Kitty Menendez, for Variety’s Actors on Actors, where they discussed their initial impressions of the case. Sevigny shared her struggles portraying a victim of such a brutal murder, while Kardashian reflected on growing up near the Menendez family. “I grew up right down the street from the house where it all happened, and everyone went to the same schools,” Kardashian said. “I remember hearing about the case, but my dad drove me by the house and told me the story.”

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