AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Nicholas Alexander Chavez feels best between 'action' and 'cut'

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It's not an exaggeration to say Nicholas Alexander Chavez had a very good year.

Now a member of Ryan Murphy's unofficial acting troupe, he starred in two of the creator's new series. First came the Golden Globe-nominated “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” for Netflix. Chavez played Lyle, the elder of two brothers serving a lifetime prison sentence for killing their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989.

Chavez recognizes some parts of the series are “really, really difficult to digest” but points out that “Monsters” shows multiple sides to the story. The brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defense, following sexual abuse by their father.

“To my knowledge, it’s the first TV show about the Menendez brothers that’s told in that format,” said Chavez, who prepared by watching old court footage. (The drama — and a new documentary — reignited public interest in the case, and a judge is weighing Los Angeles County prosecutors' request to resentence the brothers.)

It was toward the end of filming “Monsters” that Murphy invited Chavez to join Niecy Nash in “Grotesquerie,” a double act that earned him a spot as one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2024.

“I was just so excited that he thought of me,” said Chavez of the opportunity. “I had studied Season 1 of ‘Monsters.’” The opportunity to act with Nash, says Chavez, “was really kind of a wonderful way for me to close the loop.” To get into character as Father Charlie, Chavez would listen to music: “Don’t Do Anything Illegal” by Charles Manson — yes, that one — was on his playlist.

Even before the Murphyverse, the 25-year-old had a loyal following from his work on ABC’s “General Hospital,” TV’s longest-running soap. Chavez was selling cars during the pandemic when he auditioned for and got a part on the daytime show. He played Spencer Cassadine, a grandson of legacy character Laura of the Luke and Laura days. A year later, he won the 2022 Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding younger performer in a drama series.

Of the training that actors get from soap operas, Chavez said the series helped him: “It’s no joke when they talk about the memorization. I think that my heaviest day on set was something like 85 pages.”

A career in acting wasn't on Chavez's radar until he played Atticus Finch in his high school production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“I just really, really enjoyed myself,” recalled Chavez. “I felt really free and present and immersed in the moment. It felt like I was doing the thing that I was put on earth to do.”

He remembers being told afterward by teachers that he should pursue acting as a career. Their encouragement stuck with him: “Not many kids in Denver got told this. It’s not really a part of the infrastructure the way that it is in LA or maybe in New York.”

Cooper Koch, who played Erik Menendez in “Monsters,” credits Chavez’s layered performance in the series. He recalls a scene when his character confesses to the crimes in a therapy session. Lyle bursts through the door to stop him.

“He’s sort of pleading with the doctor like, ‘We’re going to be OK, right? You can’t tell anyone,’” Koch said. “After we cut, me and Nick and our director of photography, Jason McCormick, sort of huddled up outside and we just started crying. It was so beautiful. And I really, really saw his (Lyle’s) humanity and the lion mask kind of come off and he became this wounded child. It was so, so beautiful to witness.”

Next, Chavez has a role in the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reboot. He also says he would like to get cast in a comedy. More than anything, he just wants to be on set working.

“My life feels whole and complete between the words ‘action’ and ‘cut.’ I live for those moments,” he said. “I think that is the purpose of my entire existence. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

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For more on AP’s 2024 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers