Michael Chernus is unveiling his John Wayne Gacy.
The Severance and Orange Is the New Black star plays the hiding-in-plain-sight serial killer in Peacock’s true-crime series launching this fall, and Chernus makes a brief appearance in the role at the end of the eerie teaser trailer released on Tuesday (below).
All eight episodes release Thursday, Oct. 16 on Peacock.
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is executive produced by showrunner Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death, The Girl From Plainville). Alongside Chernus, the series stars Gabriel Luna (The Last of Us), Michael Angarano (Oppenheimer), Chris Sullivan (This is Us) and Marin Ireland (The Irishman).
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy will explore the heartbreaking stories of Gacy’s victims and the immense grief and trauma that their families endured while his crimes went unnoticed for so long.
Chernus said he was initially hesitant to take on the role. “Absolutely in no way did I want to be a part of something that was glorifying John Gacy,” he told Vanity Fair on Tuesday. “[In other true-crime series] the victims, if they’re named at all, only [appear] in their relation to the person who perpetrated the crimes.”
It was Macmanus who ultimately convinced him, telling him, “Gacy’s not going to be at the center of this, so you won’t be in every scene.” In fact, there are no murders shown in the series.
Macmanus told the outlet he had similar, initial hesitations, citing the backlash against Ryan Murphy’s true-crime Netflix hit series Monster: “I honestly didn’t want this to be Dahmer. And truth be told, at the time, I didn’t really know how to make it anything but that.”
Instead, the series will explore the victims through flashbacks: “There’s plenty of googling that can go on in order to do a deeper dive into how these victims interacted with John Wayne Gacy. I had absolutely no interest in directly connecting the victims to him.” The showrunner says they received blessings from all of the victims’ families they did end up reaching.
But that doesn’t mean the role was easy for the actor. “I, Michael, know that this is a horrible, horrific thing my character is doing, while also knowing that my character doesn’t see it that way. It was just such a weird mindfuck,” he said. “I’d get back to my trailer at the end of the day and take off my costume, and then it would kind of all come crashing down on me.”
Here’s the series’ synopsis: “From 1972-1978, 33 young men were kidnapped, murdered and buried in a crawl space beneath their killer’s house. And no one was the wiser. Not for all those years. Why? He was charming and funny. Had a good, All-American job. Was a community leader. He even volunteered to entertain sick kids… while dressed as a clown. Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy peels back the twisted layers of Gacy’s life while weaving in heartrending stories of his victims; exploring the grief, guilt, and trauma of their families and friends; and exposing the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror.”
Gacy was sentenced to death after a 1980 conviction and executed by lethal injection in 1994.
Executive producers also include Noah Oppenheim (Zero Day, The Maze Runner, Jackie) and Liz Cole (John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise, The Thing About Pam) for NBC News Studios, Ashley Michel Hoban (Dr. Death 2, The Girl From Plainville), Ahmadu Garba (Dr. Death, Halo), and Kelly Funke for Littleton Road Productions. Macmanus directs the finale. The series from UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, filmed in Toronto.
