Michael Angarano on his role as John Wayne Gacy’s attorney in “Devil in Disguise”

Michael Angarano had some big, and horrifying, shoes to fill when he was cast in Peacock’s award-winning true crime drama miniseries, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. The controversial series explores the life of infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, notorious for raping and killing countless young men and boys over the course of many years. The series goes in depth in its exploration of Gacy’s life, the lives of his victims, the grief the families endured, and examines failures, prejudices and glossed-over opportunities that allowed Gacy to evade detection for so long.

Moreover, the series finally explores Gacy’s sexuality, his struggles with it and suppressions of it, and covers the significant role internalized homophobia played in his life. Did Gacy’s own inability to come to terms with his sexuality drive him to kill in an attempt to rid himself of what he hated most about himself? This series shines light on the dangers of internalized homophobia in a Trump era where it is seemingly OK to be gay, just as long as you are not out. Given the rise in Sniffies and Grindr deaths at the hands of DL men, the timing is more important than ever.

Known for his roles in Sky High, Forbidden Kingdom, This Is Us, and Will & Grace, versatile actor Michael Angarano was tapped to portray Gacy’s attorney, Sam Amirante, a role he almost passed on. Michael sat down with me to celebrate having the No. 1 most-watched show during its launch week on Peacock and dive deep on all things Gacy.

There’s so much I want to discuss with you. You star as Sam Amirante in the Peacock series based on the life of John Wayne Gacy. I finished watching it recently. I was so captivated by it, and you really do the role justice. How much did you know about Gacy and his story prior to being cast?

Michael Angarano: I thought Peacock really did a thorough job of executing their intention, doing what they set out to do, and telling this story through the eyes of the victims. I admired how it was very victim-focused as opposed to sensationalizing Gacy. When I was cast, I knew very little about Gacy other than he was a working clown and focused on young men. This was all relatively new territory for me.

Did you only do a deep dive after finding out you got the gig?

MA: I did a very deep dive, and fortunately, there was time for me to do so. I was cast in July 2024, it was announced in August 2024, and we started shooting in September 2024. We shot through to March 2025. For me it was intensive at the front because this occurred almost 50 years ago. There was so much research involved, so much information, and particularly new information compared to what was known back when this all broke in real time.

For you, what went into the role?

MA: When I read the script and auditioned, it was very evident what Sam Amirante’s conflict was going to be throughout the course of the show. Sam is conflicted with this gray ethical area of his own professional ambition versus the personal guilt of defending a monster who really can’t be defended.

Sam is a character that I related to instantly. In real life, my wife and I just had a child in August 2024, I was not looking to work, and pursuing a new role was not something I was seeking out. When I was sent the script, I almost didn’t even want to look at it. I wanted to be a present father. Then, I read the very first scene between Sam and his wife debating whether he should take on the John Wayne Gacy case. The script for Sam immediately, and very eerily, began to parallel my own life.

Michael Chernus, who plays Gacy, was the first call I received even before my agents told me that I got the role. Michael called to welcome me on board, and we spoke for at least an hour and a half. He was so committed to the role, caring and generous. We just had each other’s backs. I think the very first scene we shot was the confession scene, which was a two-day shoot for us, and it was a whole episode of material.

How intense was the filming process?

MA: For filming, I went back and forth to Toronto more than 30 times over the course of eight months. I found that physical separation really helped me because when I was home in LA with my family, this is not the kind of material to listen to nor study around your loved ones. So, from the moment I stepped out of my house, I was in the world of John Wayne Gacy. The shooting was a joy, albeit intense. The material itself is obviously dark and upsetting, but the cast and crew were so well taken care of by showrunner Patrick Macmanus.

It’s so interesting how synchronistic this entire process was for you, personally and professionally. You were trying to avoid taking the job, and as it turns out, that was the case for the character you are portraying.

MA: Exactly! The entire filming process was synchronistic because weird things kept occurring in my life which paralleled Sam’s. When I was filming the scene where Sam’s son had croup, my own son had croup. When I was filming Sam discussing how he was getting sick, I was getting sick myself. There are many more examples I could pull from. Sam falls under that umbrella of being a likable character, doing something that is hard to justify, yet he is defending the Constitution’s right for every citizen to receive equal defense. Being a soldier, a Marine himself, it was a passion for him to uphold the law regardless. Thus, he was conflicted, and as an actor I haven’t really had the opportunity to portray a man who is faced with a true ethical quandary until now.

Sam was at a genuine crossroads the entire time.

MA: What is even more interesting is how he took on Gacy under false pretenses, and then everything came to a head once he confessed. The irony is how Sam related to the victim’s families due to having his own family, yet at the same time, ethically felt like John Wayne Gacy still deserved a fair trial despite who he was. It was such a complex character to play.

As a parent, Sam was horrified. As a professional, he had to put blinders on just to be in the same room as Gacy. He was never intimidated being in the same room with Gacy, and that is what he found most scary — that he was never afraid to be alone with Gacy.

That speaks to how incredibly disarming Gacy must have been, which is worse because you don’t feel inclined to be on the defense. That is when we are always hurt the most.

MA: He was a true sociopath in that sense. He wore a real disguise, and I am not talking about the literal clown costume, but rather how he embodied all the character traits of a true predator yet never came across as such.

When pressed, John Wayne Gacy described himself as bisexual. However, he was highly defensive when asked if he was gay, and always staunchly denied it. He cited his multiple marriages to women and him having children as reasons he could not be gay. Yet, we all know, most DL men today are either in heterosexual relationships, have children or both. Do you feel like Gacy was a self-loathing homosexual?

MA: Definitely. If Gacy was born in the generation we live in now, maybe these crimes would have been avoided. The self-loathing was very evident as was his denial. He could have well been bisexual, but the part of him that liked having sex with men was a part of himself that he was in total avoidance of acknowledging.

This resonated on screen. It almost seemed as though Gacy killing the victims was akin to killing a part of himself that he was trying to escape.

MA: If you recall the scene where Gacy gets evaluated by a psychiatrist, that’s what she basically comes away saying. Each crime he committed was a crime [done] to himself, essentially. He was killing bits and pieces of himself. You can’t help but wonder if things would have been different if it were another time and place. That is what is so special about the show; it really illuminates the prejudices and systemic failures of that time period including prejudice [people] had against homosexuals. It was not just prejudice against one thing.

Drawing from that, how much of a role do you think society at the time as well as Gacy’s own upbringing had on his actions, or rather affected them?

MA: I think it all played a major part in the crimes that he committed. More importantly, I feel it played a major part in allowing Gacy to get away with committing as many crimes as he did.

The series does not focus on the gore and the death, but rather, heavily examines the psychological element and takes you inside all the characters’ minds. It is brilliant, yet were you nervous initially this would turn off traditional true-crime viewers?

MA: It is a testament to the creator, showrunner and executive producer, Patrick Macmanus, along with his team of writers and producers. The only way he wanted to tell the story was through the eyes of the victims. He did not want to show any murders, any gore, any violence.

In our society and culture now, you are taking a risk by not going that route, particularly in the true-crime genre. Yet, people always come up to me and say it was still a hard watch, nevertheless one which they could not stop. This is a huge compliment and accomplishment because that means it set out to do what it was meant to.

@michaelangarano