Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s role as Lyle Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story thrust him into the spotlight — but it’s his bald scenes that have left the biggest impression.
“It was so concerning, honestly,” Chavez, 25, told ELLE in its “Ask Me Anything” segment posted on Tuesday, November 12, revealing his initial reaction to seeing himself bald. “It made me realize that I never, ever, ever want to lose my hair.”
The actor confessed, “Now I have a lot more sympathy for bald people.”
While Chavez described his bald TV show look as “kind of cool” and reminiscent of “the hitman, agent 47 look,” he is adamant that it’s not the style for him. “I don’t know, it made me definitely not want to lose my hair,” he added.
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In the series, Chavez portrayed real-life person Lyle, who along with his brother, Erik Menendez (Cooper Koch), is currently serving life without parole for the murder of their parents in 1989. (The Menendez brothers were 18 and 21, respectively, when they killed their parents. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles District Attorney recommended their case get a second look.)
During one episode, viewers were shocked when Lyle’s mother, Kitty Menendez, violently ripped his hairpiece off his head during a heated dinner.
Throughout the series, fans learned more about Lyle’s toupée which he wore starting at a young age due to hair loss.
“I really saw this wig as a mask of sorts,” Chavez told Deadline in September. “It’s not one that he imposes on himself. It’s imposed by his father and the perfectionist standard that Lyle has to live up to. It’s a mask that hides a deeply, deeply wounded inner child who surfaces in episode four.”
During episode four, Lyle starts losing his hair so his father, Jose Menendez (Javier Bardem), takes him to get fitted for a hairpiece. “You look great in that,” Jose told Lyle in the episode. “You want to succeed in business? You wanna go into politics? Then you’ve got to have a good head of hair.”
While Lyle, who has alleged that his father molested him and his brother growing up, doesn’t want to wear the wig, he eventually gives into his dad’s wishes.
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Unlike his character, Chavez has a full head of hair, which was styled by “teasing it” to look like a wig during production.
“The only time where it’s not my real hair is if there’s a gag,” he told Deadline. “So if the wig comes off, like the scene at the dinner table, or the scene where it gets snatched off while I’m in the prison showers, they would put the bald cap on.”
Although Chavez is hoping he never goes bald, he did like Lyle’s on-set wardrobe. In fact, he walked away with one special piece once filming wrapped.
“There’s this vintage Versace jacket that Lyle wears. I asked, of course, and then they said, ‘Yes,’” the Grotesquerie actor recalled. “I was like, ‘Yes!’ I took the leather jacket.”
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix.
