ILYSM chatted with Shaun J. Brown about his new collaboration with Ryan Murphy, leaning into self discovery during the pandemic, and his obsession with Succession.
We are so excited about the recent announcement about your casting in MONSTER: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story! Congratulations! What are you allowed to tell us?
Thank you! It's been a dream come true of sorts. I was sending out to the universe that I wanted my next role to be more in depth than what I've done in the past. I'm grateful that Ryan Murphy trusted me to help tell this story among the likes of Evan Peters, Richard Jenkins, and Neicy Nash. I'm not allowed to say much but I can say that this story focuses more on the victims and how the police failed the community of Black and brown people. Racism and privilege played a role in that failure. But not the overt images we are used to seeing of cross burning and racial slurs but in the nuance ways that let a white, normal looking, charming cisgender man get away with murder multiple times. He murdered approximately 17 men that were mostly Black and brown.
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How did your feature on season 2 of DAVE come about? Would love to hear the inspiration behind this character. We wanted more! Comedic timing cannot be taught!
I had auditioned for that part. I'm a big fan of the show and my friend Christine Ko is one of the series regulars on it. We worked together on the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors and became close as a result. I was already a fan of Lil Dicky's music so I had even more of a reason to tune in to the show. That show is incredibly funny. The humor is very awkward and cringey and I love that kind of humor. So when I got the audition I knew exactly what to do. I knew this role needed to be done very seriously as if I believed every single word and also believed that everyone understood every single word also. A mountain of butts for a rap video is nothing new but this guy truly believes he is breaking ground here. The role was actually a little bit bigger but the night before shooting I was told my lines would be split up for the musical guests to have more lines. Sometimes it is like that and you just roll with it.
