Devil in Disguise has received praise for the care that went into centering the show around John Wayne Gacy‘s victims while also clarifying misinformation about the notorious serial killer.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Michael Chernus broke down his process of bringing Gacy to life, saying, “The research was as extensive as you’d imagine with something like this. There was so much material available — from books to documentaries to podcasts to YouTube videos. I did want to learn as much as I could about the cultural and public perception of John Wayne Gacy because one of the things we’re trying to do with this show is turn that perception on its head and bust some of the myths about him and this story.”
It was also a priority to “correct some of the misinformation” out there about Gacy.
“One example is that a lot of the movies and projects that have been made about him focus on the fact that he was a clown. A lot of books are called The Killer Clown but the whole clowning thing was just a small aspect of who he was,” Chernus, 48, explained. “As far as we know, he didn’t kill any of his victims dressed as a clown. He didn’t use his clown persona to lure boys back to his house. It was actually — in a way — even more sinister than that. It was one of many masks that he wore and one of many personalities he constructed to hide, to fit into society and to come off as harmless or non-threatening.”
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The actor continued: “I was very interested in understanding why some people are obsessed with him and what the lure was and how we could approach the story in a different way to point out that that actually isn’t really how all of this happened. He wasn’t what the culture perceived him to be. In a way, the clown helped to dehumanize him and make him into this larger than life boogeyman and this killer clown, when actually truth is so much scarier than fiction.”
Gacy was a serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered dozens of young men and boys. After he was convicted of 32 murders in 1980, he was sentenced to death and died by lethal injection in 1994.
Devil in Disguise, which premiered earlier this month, shifted the focus from Gacy to the trauma inflicted on the victims’ families. The Peacock series named each episode after a victim of Gacy’s and questioned investigative missteps and systemic failures that led to Gacy evading the law for so long.
“I was hesitant to even throw my hat in the ring for this job, initially. Because I didn’t want to do anything that — in any way — glorified John Wayne Gacy,” Chernus shared with Us. “[Showrunner] Patrick Macmanus told me this idea of focusing on the victims and telling their stories and shedding light.”
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Chernus was glad that the show “wouldn’t be showing any graphic violence or murder” on screen.
“John Wayne Gacy is a part of the story because he has to be,” Chernus said. “But I only want people to learn about him in so much as it maybe helps us understand psychopathy and maybe in some small way a TV show could prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
Devil in Disguise doesn’t want viewers to “walk away with empathy or sympathy” for the subject, with the actor adding, “But there’s often a thing where actors talk about how to play a character, you have to find a way to love them. You have to have empathy for them. You have to walk 1000 miles in their shoes and I really have believed that up until now. I don’t — at least with this character — believe that. I never got to a place where I had real empathy for him.”
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is now streaming on Peacock.
