‘Devil in Disguise’ Star Michael Chernus on John Wayne Gacy Transformation

SPOILER ALERT: This post comprises spoilers from “Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,” now streaming on Peacock.

When Michael Chernus signed on to face at the middle of Peacock’s latest anthology series “Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,” he wasn’t just landing one other role. He was agreeing to be related to one of the vital vile, irredeemable killers in American history for the remainder of his profession.

Every time people Google his name now, it’s likely that his chilling, uncanny turn as Gacy — who killed greater than 30 young men within the Nineteen Seventies — will likely be among the many first photos that pop up. (Though hopefully his fan-favorite turn as self-help guru Ricken Hale on “Severance” will make the cut as well). So Chernus didn’t take the job without considering all of the implications, not just for himself but for the story being told. From creator Patrick Macmanus, the brand new series takes a decidedly different approach to a true-crime story, selecting to focus more heavily on a dozen or so victims than Gacy himself. Prolonged periods of time pass within the series without Gacy on screen, especially in the ultimate episode, which has just one scene through which his face is visible.

When he talks concerning the role now, a yr after ending filming, Chernus puts a self-imposed distance between himself and the method. “You understand, I had the unlucky duty of playing John Wayne Gacy,” he tells Variety.

But Gacy’s limited presence within the series had been made clear to him when he first discussed the role with Macmanus, and it’s certainly one of the explanations he overcame his hesitation to sign on.

“He said to me, ‘I actually have to warn you, you’re not going to be in every scene. This just isn’t going to be about you, though you might be technically the lead of the show,’” Chernus says of his initial conversation with Macmanus. “I don’t know if he had met with other actors who had turned it down before me because they were upset about that or something, but that was a relief to me! With an individual as despicable as Gacy, I don’t wish to be in every scene and each frame of the show. And he shouldn’t be.”

Reasonably, he doesn’t need to be, Chernus adds. Also absent from the series is the signature clown makeup that would be the most well-known facet of Gacy’s story (he slathers it on once in Ep. 6, and never on to camera). But an important a part of the story left unseen within the series is the gut-wrenching violence Gacy inflicted on his victims, each those that died and the few who survived. Flashbacks to the victims’ stories scarcely  references Gacy by name, nor the ways through which they eventually and fatefully intersect with him, as an alternative depicting the lives they led before they were cut short. One notable exception is available in the sixth episode when Gacy lures his final victim, 15-year-old Robert Piest (Ryker Baloun), back to his home with the promise of a construction job, only to sexually terrorize him. The nearly 10-minute scene stops in need of the killing, nevertheless it is nevertheless bone-chilling in the way it depicts the predatory tactics Gacy deployed find, toying with and ultimately murdering his victims.

Below, Chernus talks to Variety about filming that specific scene, which he still has trouble watching; why his extensive research to organize to play Gacy was still happening every day until he began shooting his scenes — and the way he feels about Macmanus’ decision to chop nearly 25 minutes of footage he shot from the finale.

You could have spoken about your hesitations in taking this part, partly since it’s difficult getting into the mind of a serial killer. The series’ creative team did extensive research, but what did you do on your individual to feel comfortable and educated enough to take this on?

I still find that I’m doing research to remind myself of all the pieces, and have the ability to reply questions on him now a yr later. As you may imagine, the quantity of knowledge available is type of countless. Once I got the job, I read every book I could find, I watched every documentary, I listened to each podcast and watched every bad and bizarre YouTube video there’s. I actually went down quite the rabbit hole. We also had an incredible amount of research available to us, because Peacock made a documentary about Gacy a few years ago. All these items that didn’t make it to the ultimate cut of that documentary, NBC News also made available to us. Patrick also has his own researcher, so the solid members all had access to this dropbox filled with stuff, including incredible academic studies of John Gacy’s speech pattern and word selection and syntax use, and a breakdown of the Chicago dialect and his Polish background. Then I took a visit to Chicago before we began shooting, and went to a bunch of places that Gacy frequented. Regardless that Chicago 2024 looks nothing like Chicago within the Nineteen Seventies, it was still interesting simply to see the distances he would travel on any given night to cruise or, for lack of a greater word, hunt for his victims. 

Eventually, it got to a degree where Patrick was like, “That you must put down the books and begin specializing in the scripts,” and he was 100% right. I believe I could have stayed within the research realm eternally. Our show is predicated on a real story, nevertheless it’s not a documentary. It’s a fictional retelling. So I sort of needed to eventually just trust that the research was inside me after which let go of it. But on set each day, I might still hearken to Gacy’s voice right before we might do a take. There isn’t a ton of video footage of him, but there’s this interview with Robert Ressler and a few of that’s within the Peacock documentary. I had the entire interview with Ressler and I might watch that loads, simply to type of study Gacy — the way in which he talked and the way in which his face moved and his body moved. It is a good distance of claiming that I had this sense there would never be enough research and I had to simply accept that this was type of just going to be my very own version of this guy. 

Whenever you finally dug into it, how was it playing him?

By way of the roles inside our crew, it sometimes felt like we were this theater company — a troop of storytellers coming together to shine light on a few of these victims’ voices, which hadn’t been heard, and I just kept drawing the short straw of getting to play the villain every night. I care deeply about this story, not about John Gacy’s personal story, but just concerning the larger story that we were telling. But it surely was hard to live with. I might come home and a few nights, the Chicago dialect and the Gacy voice would sort of creep into my very own speaking voice and my wife can be like, “Cut it out! He’s not allowed here.” A tough a part of it, too, was eventually having to commit to embodying him fully in an effort to tell the story completely. I didn’t really need to be him. That’s why I used to be hesitant to start with. I didn’t wish to be in his skin or walk a mile in his shoes. I don’t have any empathy for him. But there got here some extent where Patrick was like, “To ensure that us to know why a few of those victims would get in his automotive or return to his house or work at his construction company, you have got to completely embody him, including the parts of him that were perceived as charming or harmless and even likable.”

In my first meeting with Patrick, he said to me, “I actually have to warn you, you’re not going to be in every scene. This just isn’t going to be about you, though you might be technically the lead of the show.” I don’t know if you happen to had met with other actors who had turned it down before me because they were upset about that or something, but that was a relief to me! With an individual as despicable as Gacy, I don’t wish to be in every scene and each frame of the show, and he shouldn’t be.

Without showing the violence, the show’s perspective of Gacy’s menace relies heavily in your physical performance of him. Your posture, and the way in which his demeanor and stare changes instantly. Did you have got to do multiple takes to get the precise level of menace? Or was all of it instinct?

We needed to try a bunch of various stuff, and I used to be so grateful to have Patrick as our showrunner and the administrators that we had for all of the episodes because we were all on the identical page that we didn’t wish to do some hackneyed, mustache-twirling sort of serial killer. But at the identical time, you needed to see these moments of menace. You needed to see the mask drop, and that was how we began to explain it. So we might just do numerous takes where the director would say, “Now, let’s try one which’s a bit bit more menacing. Or, now let’s do one with none of that.” We tried a bunch of stuff until we began to search out a vocabulary and a shorthand, where I knew which version of him we were seeing at any given moment. I never felt like I used to be having to play the whole thing of him abruptly. It was all the time whatever piece he wanted you to see. But we now have no footage of that version of him, when the darkness would come out, so I had no idea what that looked like. There are accounts of it from surviving victims who said it looked like his eyes were dead or that his eyes would turn black. I literally couldn’t make my eyes turn black, but I knew what that conjured when it comes to an icy coldness. 

There are only a few moments within the series that show Gacy being violent along with his victims. The longest and most horrifying scene is in Episode 6, when he lures his final victim, 15-year-old Robert Piest, back to his house, tricks him into handcuffs, threatens to rape him after which ultimately kills him. We don’t see the killing, but we see the phobia he put that boy through in his final moments. How was it filming that scene whenever you needed to play Gacy the predator?

That episode is actually hard for me to look at. It’s probably the most we see John Gacy within the show, period. It’s the closest we get to seeing not only the violence that he committed, however the manipulation and grooming and gaslighting that he would inflict on these boys. The young actor — Ryker Baloun, who played Rob Piest — is so great. But that was a extremely difficult day. It’s an extended scene, and we spent all the day shooting it, which is a rare thing on TV. But I believe everyone knew that it needed that sort of care and sensitivity. Certainly one of the toughest things for me as an actor happens in that scene, since it is the very best example of John Gacy switching backwards and forwards from these different sorts of masks and personalities. From all of the accounts that I’ve examine it, he would sometimes surprise himself even. That’s to not let him off the hook in any way, but almost like he would black out to some extent for a minute. There’s this moment where the Rob Piest character turns John down for any sort of sexual intercourse, and I actually have say to something like, “Well, I’m just going to should rape you.” Then I attack him, and pull his pants down, and after I’m sitting there on the bottom his underwear, I say, “Oh, God, what happened?” That sort of flipping backwards and forwards between the realities of the various Johns, that was such a jarring thing to do as an actor. I can’t imagine what that might have been like for anyone who was alone with him in his home. It’s just such a terrifying thing to be confronted with.

Patrick Macmanus revealed to Variety that there was about 23 minutes of fabric you shot for the finale that he decided to chop, a few of which showed Gacy in 1994 on the day of his execution. How did you’re feeling about losing that from the last episode?

I assumed it was incredibly brave. After all, it stung at first, just as an actor and for my very own ego. But I understood. By that time, we were thus far down the road together, Patrick and I actually saw eye to eye on this, and we’re so in lockstep with one another that it made total sense to me. I realize it was difficult for him, and difficult for me to digest. Now I do know that it was absolutely the precise decision. 

Was there anything you shot that you simply were particularly happy with or wish had made the ultimate cut?

I’m happy with all of it, but I don’t think it needs to be within the show. Purely as an acting exercise, it was interesting, because we saw an older Gacy at the top of his life in those scenes. It’s the version of him that all of us sort of know since it’s from the time he did the one on-camera interviews that exist of him when he was on death row. He’s a more feeble man then, with shock white hair. But I believe witnessing anyone on death row about to be executed, there’s some a part of your humanity that may wish to take care of them or feel bad for them. But that was not the show we were attempting to make. There’s a scene at the top of the entire series within the finale where the victims’ families didn’t get to witness the execution. That may be a true story. They were brought out to the prison, but they’d to sit down within the basement and just watch the local news and so they didn’t get to see it. They weren’t allowed within the execution room or to see him that day, so why should we as an audience get to see it?

This interview has been edited and condensed.