In a candid sit-down about Lifetime’s Monster within the Household: The Stacey Kananen Story, actor Brendan Taylor opens up about why he chased one of many hardest roles of his profession, and the way he protected his head and coronary heart whereas filming it. What started as “an audition like some other” shortly turned a calling: the fabric’s ethical grey zones and painfully human selections hooked him. “I like these complicated tales that make us ask questions on our personal morality,” he says, noting how simply strange folks can rationalize extraordinary actions based mostly on what they’ve endured. That universality, “on a regular basis form of folks, one thing that would occur in virtually any society,” is what pulled him in.
As a result of the movie is rooted in actual occasions, Brendan approached the half like a journalist and an empath. He dove into analysis, together with publicly obtainable court docket depositions, and mined the author and director for context. The purpose wasn’t to evaluate, however to honor. “It’s a must to see the place they’re coming from to elucidate that habits,” he says. Enjoying Ricky, an actual particular person now in jail, meant committing to the character’s internal reality, how he noticed himself, what he believed he was owed after a stolen childhood, with out ever excusing the hurt.
 |
| © 2025 Corus Leisure Inc. All rights reserved. Corus Tv. |
Past approach, the story’s themes of trauma, household dynamics and survival, gave the work urgency. Brendan speaks overtly about family abuse and its lengthy tail, particularly on youngsters who adapt in very alternative ways simply to get by. What moved him most was the arc of Stacey herself, who finally turns into an advocate. “That’s the necessary half. We’re bringing gentle to what this does, and one way or the other she turns it into power for others.”
Authenticity was a staff effort. Brendan calls working with Elisha Cuthbert “pleasant” and elevating—her on-set fluency raised everybody’s recreation. Serendipity helped, too: he shares a protracted historical past with a number of solid members, together with an actor who’d been his coach for years and a longtime theater collaborator. That in-built belief paid off within the movie’s most intimate moments, like when manufacturing arrange an actual, enclosed driving setting for the truck sequence—no crew crammed within the cab, simply two actors working the scene repeatedly and discovering new layers every move. “That’s the place the magic occurs,” he says.
 |
| © 2025 Corus Leisure Inc. All rights reserved. Corus Tv. |
As for what’s subsequent, Brendan’s simply again from a pair of economic shoots in Vancouver and Toronto, settling into Los Angeles, and leaping into class to maintain the instruments sharp. There are a couple of irons within the hearth he can’t talk about but—“feelers out,” as he places it—however for now he’s centered on constructing group and staying prepared.
This dialog solely scratches the floor. Brendan goes deeper on craft, character, and the true folks behind the headlines within the full video. Watch the whole interview beneath for the uncut, emotionally wealthy model.