‘Dahmer – Monster’ Co-Star Michael Learned On How She Got The Role As The Killer’s Grandma
07.06.2023 - 19:47
/ deadline.com
Dahmer – Monster may have been a dark series about a serial killer, but Michael Learned thinks she got the role as the cannibal’s grandmother by showing off her wry sense of humor.
While shooting a self-tape for the role of Catherine Dahmer, Learned’s manager suggested that she include a full body shot as part of the audition.
“I said, ‘oh God, if I’d known you were gonna do that, I would’ve worn a bra,” Learned recalls to Deadline. “I hiked up my boobs. I thought my manager was going to cut it out. But he left it in and I think I probably got the part because it just made them laugh.”
An ability to put viewers in stitches wasn’t exactly a requirement of the job. Instead, Learned was hired to portray Dahmer’s rather tolerant grandma who takes the young man into her home in episodes 4 and 5.
Learned was thrilled at the possibility of working with Ryan Murphy, who co-created the limited series for Netflix with Ian Brennan.
“Sarah Paulson is a friend of mine and I watched her become a star through him,” says Learned, who first befriended Murphy’s muse while they both worked on Broadway’s The Best Man in 2000. “He has a lot of courage because he works with people who are unknown and he turns them into superstars.”
That’s hardly the case for the Emmy-winning Learned, who is best known for playing the matriarch Olivia on The Waltons in the ’70s. Besides reprising the beloved role for multiple reunion movies, Learned kept busy doing episodic work over the last few decades on shows like St. Elsewhere, Murder She Wrote, Profiler and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In 2011, Learned was asked to temporarily fill in for the late Jeanne Cooper on The Young and the Restless. (Cooper died two years later).
“It was a wonderful