This cover story appears in the pages of VMAN 54: now available for purchase!

“The Hurt Man,” the fifth episode of Ryan Murphy’s latest tour de force, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has been widely received as one of the most striking in recent television history. In it, Erik Menendez, played by Cooper Koch, tells his lawyer Leslie Abramson [Ari Graynor] the harrowing, heartbreaking, and disturbingly riveting story of the extreme sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.

Cooper wears baby blue cotton poplin double-breasted jacket and formal short pants GUCCI, ring talent’s own

The episode was shot in one take, and the camera is on Koch for all 35 minutes; we never see Graynor’s face. The actors involved have called it—appropriately—a mini-play, the kind of thing you dream about tackling at some point in a long and varied career.

For 28-year-old Koch, who was teaching yoga and scooping ice cream in his native Los Angeles when he was cast in Monsters, carrying this episode—and stepping into this co-leading role in a massive flagship series—was a huge moment, but it was also one he was ready for. VMAN sat down with Koch over a video call and—as he had his hair and makeup done—discussed how he’s handling his success, his plans for the future, and how his homebody tendencies are helping him build the kind of career that really lasts.

Satin double breasted blazer, cashmere knit tank top, boxer shorts SAINT LAURENT by Anthony Vaccarello

LIZZY GOODMAN: Almost exactly a year ago you started shooting Monsters. Quite a lot has changed since then.

COOPER KOCH: Yeah, my whole life has changed. I was living in a small apartment in Silverlake. I was teaching yoga, scooping ice cream, doing e-commerce modeling jobs, and auditioning.

LG: I’m assuming you’ve stopped scooping ice cream?

CK: I have! But I did love working at Salt & Straw—it filled me with such joy. I feel like that job, in a way, is what attracted Monsters because it made me so happy and busy and productive. It made my vibration so high that the job that I actually wanted came.

Long-sleeved jumpsuit with shirt collar and cuffs EMPORIO ARMANI // On skin ARMANI BEAUTY Crema Nera Supreme Reviving Cream

LG: What is your daily life like these days? Most people who hit it big with a new show are like, “I’m going to buy a house,” but that wasn’t your move.

CK: At first I was thinking I would move into another apartment with more space, somewhere that actually has a dishwasher and a washing machine and where I didn’t have to walk up two flights of stairs. Or I was going to buy a place, maybe. But for a while my parents had been like, “Why don’t you just move home and save your money?” They just built this pool house in our backyard. I was like, “No, no, no, I’m not doing that. I’m an adult.”

(cont…) But then I thought about how I’m going to be traveling and moving around a bunch. I’m going to be all over the place. It’s a big life change. I’ve met a bunch of really amazing people in the past few months, but it’s a lot of energy. Being at home helps to balance that energy out. I can be normal, and that feels nice. I’m not that person that needs to go to the premieres of the movies that are coming out to, like, be seen. I’d rather be at home with my partner watching Legend of Korra.

Silk shorts MIU MIU

LG: What do your parents do?

CK: My dad co-founded a company that buys and sells racehorses. And my mom used to be a celebrity fitness trainer. She wrote books, and she did workout videos.

LG: You guys are a very fit family, I’m guessing!

CK: You know what, I need to go to the gym. I have not been getting enough exercise because I’ve been so busy.

LG: The routine is off.

CK: The routine is off and the routine needs to be back on!

LG: You’ve given yourself the space and time to really think about what you want to do next, creatively. I understand that you have a fantasy list of literary works you’d like to be a part of adapting.

Knit sweater and canvas shorts DIOR MEN

CK: Yes: Giovanni’s Room, All Fours, and A Little Life. Those are the top three. I don’t want it to sound like I’m conceited, like I can do whatever I want. It’s more like, I just want to do things that I feel have meaning and purpose that I’m passionate about.

LG: When you were filming, you made your trailer match Erik’s room. Can you talk about that process of merging your sense of self with Erik’s?

CK: Well, it started with these Post-its that were on the inside of my medicine cabinet. There was a baby picture of me and my twin brother and all these Post-its that say, like, “You can do this,” “You’re an amazing actor,” “Keep going,” “I believe in you.” It’s a little kitschy at first, but if you read them all while you brush your teeth twice a day, they start organically seeping into your mind, and you start believing them. I did a similar thing with my trailer, where I had all pictures of Erik and of me on my trailer mirror and some of my lines. I would read them every day.

LG: You’ve talked before about how much you’ve learned about yourself from playing Erik. And you’ve said that you hope 2025 is the year that the Menendez brothers are released from prison.

Honore T-shirt MARANT, Ring talent’s own

CK: The main lesson is that wisdom begins when you accept things as they are. Erik teaches speech classes, yoga, and meditation, and they help people who have been through sexual abuse. They’ve gotten college degrees. They’ve found a life in prison because they’ve accepted what happened to them, and they accepted what they did. That takes such courage and bravery and strength and time. I think for that reason they deserve to come home.

LG: You got your start as a theater kid. Do you ever think about returning to that world?

CK: I would love to! I did musicals all throughout my childhood and then in high school. When I was growing up doing theater, I was always imitating the YouTube videos of the people on Broadway. I learned in school that acting actually comes from within yourself. And you have to—again, bringing it back to the acceptance thing—you have to accept and understand who you are in order to play other people. You have to tap into your own shit in order to get into somebody else’s shit. That became very addicting. That feeling of when you’re in a scene and you lose time. You’re walking this line between what is real and what’s not. It’s this magical, euphoric feeling that is experienced by all the people in the room, and it’s different every night, and you don’t have to stop; you just live through it. I want to do that for the rest of my life.

This cover story appears in the pages of VMAN 54: now available for purchase!

Photography Alvaro Beamud Cortes

Fashion Nicola Formichetti

Creative Director / Editor-in-Chief Stephen Gan

Makeup Charlotte Willer using Chanel Beauty

Hair Shin Arima

Set Design Lane Vineyard

Production Alyson Cox

Digitech Chris Glover

1st Photo Assistant Simone Triacca

2nd Photo Assistant Hector Adalid

Fashion Assistants AJ Grove, Angelina Khachaturyan

Set Design Assistant Joshua Stoker

Production Assistant Gabrielle Arriaga, Mizu Matsuura, Nora Walid

Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio

Location Gary’s Loft