Los Angeles, Dec 14 (IANS): Actor Evan Peters initially had a hard time accepting the role of Jeffrey Dahmer.

The 35-year-old actor plays the notorious serial killer, who was convicted of murdering 17 men between 1978 and 1991,in the Netflix series 'Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' and revealed that he went "back and forth" before deciding he was "up for the challenge", reports aceshowbiz.com.

"It was a real struggle. I was really thinking about it and trying to process it. I went back and forth a lot. I knew that you're an incredible support system and I trust you and there's an honesty there," he said during a chat with showrunner Ryan Murphy.

"I knew that, with the goal in mind of finishing this thing as strong as I started it, that you would create a great safety net. If I fell down, I could get back up and we could finish this thing. I was up for the challenge."

The 'American Horror Story' star, who now wants to move on to a "lighter" role for his next project, went on to add that he "didn't have an appetite" for the first few episodes of the 1--part series after cutting out carbs and sugar in a bid to lose 15 pounds but found himself working out halfway through the shoot to reflect what Jeffrey would have looked like in prison.

He told Variety: "I didn't really have an appetite during the early stages of shooting. Then I was working out for episode 3 when Dahmer gets into working out and gained about 20 pounds for the end in prison to show how he looked then.

"I'm going to take a little break from darker roles and explore the light. It would be interesting to me to play something that is a little closer to home, a little more mundane and to explore the details of those kinds of experiences."