IR Interview: Patrick McManus & Michael Chernus For "Devil In Disguise - John Wayne Gacy" (Awards Track) [Peacock] - Part I - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Showrunner/Director/Writer Patrick McManus & Actor Michael Chernus talk to Awards Track about build, responsibility and characterization in regards to their true crime drama series: "Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy" on Peacock

Transcript

00:00it's a tricky series to do both within structure and characterization um Patrick could you first

00:26talk about now that it's out and you've seen the reactions looking at the way it was built you

00:32know and in showing certain obviously the lives of the men that Gacy took away but also understanding

00:40the multiple layers of personality that was within you know Gacy from the beginning so well

00:48I will let Michael speak to to Gacy and but and just say that um I'll just start by saying that

00:54I am extraordinarily proud of everything that we have done I mean you know for so long you live

01:00with it alone and and your concern your primary concern is is that people aren't going to quote

01:06unquote get it and one of the things that has been a pleasure to watch is the fact that it's been

01:12successful for Peacock and it's been successful for Peacock because people have gotten it um it's

01:17very hard right to to try to do something different and get people to to pay attention and one of the

01:24not fears but one of the challenges of making this show is is along the lines of the fact that

01:30you know you've got people who have certain expectations for true crime but you're working

01:34against those expectations for true crime and then you've got certain people who have expectations of

01:39true crime that keeps them away from true crime and that's the primary audience that you're going

01:44after which is that we're trying to do it differently and and a phrase that we keep using over and over

01:48again is that we were trying to do it quote unquote right and the one thing that I am so grateful to

01:54the press for first and foremost is the fact that that they got what we were trying to do and they

02:01had been spreading the word um and that word has been extraordinarily helpful for us because at the end

02:06of the day I I want two things to come out of this number one I want people to believe that there is

02:11another way that you can do true crime and that you can do true crime with a heart and with emotion

02:15and with a purpose and number two simply about this show is that people are focused on and I'm pointing

02:20at the box up there which is Michael Ternis which is the the extraordinary performance that that that

02:26he that he that he did and and and to me one of the things that is shocking to me because I've known

02:31him for so long not just on this show but with his body of work is that this is somehow his his first

02:37number one on the call sheet I don't know if he appreciates number first number one on the call sheet

02:41being John Wayne Gacy but I can tell you that his partnership from minute one his leadership on

02:46and offset from minute one has just been an absolute gift to to me and to everybody that worked on on

02:51our production when you came home how did

02:54excuse me for a moment

03:01sorry I know I have another pen yes Vegas how did your family react when you came home

03:22this is a mess

03:25is it bothering you better question is why isn't it bothering you

03:36cleanliness is godliness you're a goddamn heathen aren't you

03:41well that's the thing Michael is talking about the actual being number one the call sheet but

03:51understand the responsibility the that because there's so many characters floating around him

03:55to vor you know obviously you have sam all these people you have to deal with on a much different

04:01level every single scene and sit still maintain that being number one the call sheet there is a

04:07responsibility but there's also the idea of how aware did you need to be of everything around him

04:12in order to focus in on what Gacy from your point of view was beyond a killer because obviously he's a

04:20killer but beyond that

04:23great question first of all you guys are making me blush thank you so much for all those kind words

04:28um I you know for me I think to some extent they were two separate tasks like I looked at being a

04:36leader on the show um as you know that that's coming from Michael right like setting a tone

04:44and a vibe of um inclusion and uh you know no matter who it is like best idea wins and we're all in this

04:53together um and also looking out for everybody's sort of mental health as much as I could as number one

05:03um that's a huge responsibility so I couldn't take that on entirely but what I mean is just like checking in

05:10with the crew and everyone around me being like how we doing how we feeling um and there were days

05:15where you know I'd see some of the camera guys just having a hard time and just going over and you know

05:20just you know saying hey I'm here with you you know if you want to talk um so it was it was that kind of set

05:28and I wanted to be a part of setting that tone that it didn't feel like there was this separation between

05:34cast and crew you're not gonna tidy up clean it

05:43CLEAN IT

05:58Jacket

06:20In terms of playing Gacy that was like a whole other bag of chips um

06:27you know I felt so blessed in all the support that I had we had incredible research team on the

06:33show Patrick and his writing staff wrote these incredible scripts that really captured Gacy's

06:40voice and his weird folksy rhythms so I was starting from such a base of um specificity and intention

06:49um but then for me it was just taking that leap from it being this intellectual exercise of reading

06:55the books and watching the documentaries to embodying him and that was terrifying in the beginning because

07:01who wants to embody this awful evil person um so I started to think about him in parts you know that

07:11there were these and he said it himself there were these different Johns there was John the family man

07:16John the contractor John the politician John the clown and then the evil guy and so the more I could kind of

07:22separate the scenes into like okay he's putting on this face for this person he wants to get this out

07:29of this detective so he's gonna act a certain way to manipulate him and cajole him and get him on his

07:35side and so I never felt like I had to play like all of the parts of him at once and that that was like a

07:42great way in for me and then there were these moments where all the masks would kind of drop and we would

07:49see this soulless person behind the mask and those were just it was about giving options to Patrick and

07:58the editors just you know varying degrees of now we're going to do one that's really lean into the

08:03serial killer thing and now let's do one that just is you're just throwing it away and just trying to

08:07find the the luxury of working on tv shows you you can just do multiple versions and see what works

08:15um so that's that's like a very basic answer to your very you know complicated nuanced question but I

08:22think um for me the like leadership aspect of it had to be a little separate from the work then of the actor

IR Interview: Patrick McManus & Michael Chernus For "Devil In Disguise - John Wayne Gacy" (Awards Track) [Peacock] - Part I

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