Disney alum Ross Lynch plays gay serial
killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the upcoming feature film My Friend
Dahmer.
The 21-year-old Lynch is best known for
playing Austin Moon in the Disney Channel's Austin & Ally
and Brady in the Teen Beach Movie series. He's also a
founding member of the pop rock band R5, which is currently on tour.
Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee
Cannibal, raped, murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between
1978 and 1991. While serving time at the Columbia Correctional
Institution in Wisconsin, Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow
inmate in 1994. He was 34.
My
Friend Dahmer is based on the graphic memoir of the same name
by John “Derf” Backderf. In the novel, Backderf recounts his
teenage friendship with Dahmer. It follows Dahmer from age 12 to the
day he committed his first murder, two weeks after graduation from
high school.
“You hear about serial killers and
think it's a terrible thing,” Lynch told LGBT
glossy OUT,
“but Dahmer went the extra mile. It was shocking.”
“You have to put yourself in the
person's world, and his was very isolated,” he continued. “A big
thing for me was the question you'd ask about any killer: Is it
nature or nurture?”
Backderf's portrait of Dahmer is of a
lonely young man neglected by the adults in his life, a point not
lost on Lynch.
“Maybe we can make better efforts
with people who seem out of place,” Lynch added. “Maybe we can
step in and avoid creating more Jeffrey Dahmers.”
My Friend Dahmer opens Friday,
November 3.