Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s simmering intensity embodied the brooding terror and trauma of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – Ryan Murphy’s anthology series chronicling the chilling Menendez brothers trial, which gripped America in the 1990s. Alongside Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, Chavez’s performance as Lyle got under your skin; spiked the psyche. Now, he’s taking that gravitas to the lauded Williamstown Theatre Festival stage, starring alongside Pamela Anderson in Tennessee Williams’ surrealist, fever-dream play, Camino Real. Currently in rehearsals, Chavez takes a break to reconnect with his on-screen Monsters mother: ultimate cult muse, Chloë Sevigny.

Chloë Sevigny: Hi!
Nicholas Alexander Chavez: Where are you, Chloë?

Chloë: I’m at home, I’m just getting out of the shower. [laughs]
Nicholas: I haven’t seen you since I ran into you randomly at that club. I was coming from the Mickey 17 premiere. It was so good, Robert Pattinson is amazing in it.

Chloë: Pattinson makes some smart choices.
Nicholas: He does, and Bong Joon Ho is such a great director.

Chloë: So great. What’re you up to right now?
Nicholas: I’m getting ready to do a Tennessee Williams play. We have some rehearsals in New York for a week before we go to Massachusetts and start rehearsing there.

Chloë: Is it a Williamstown Theatre thing?
Nicholas: It is, which I’ve never done before. Have you ever done that festival?

Chloë: No, I haven’t.
Nicholas: When I was in acting school everyone talked about it, it’s regional theatre but I remember all the actors in my acting conservatory dying to go to Williamstown because it’s been around forever. The play that I’m working on is super challenging, if I’m being candid with you, but pretty fun.

Chloë: Which play is it?
Nicholas: It’s Camino Real. It’s very surreal for Tennessee Williams and he uses a lot of elevated language. Admittedly, I had to buy several other books to help me understand what I was looking at in the play because it is pretty complicated.

Chloë: That’s fun. I would think that as you’re rehearsing you’re delving into the multi-layer meanings and all of that sort of stuff. Or is there not time?
Nicholas: I think there is time, which is really nice. We’re going to be in rehearsals for a month before we have to put the play up for the first time. I know you’re the indie darling to end all darlings, but…

Chloë: OK! I also have a very successful commercial career thank you very much, Nicholas Chavez!
Nicholas: Of course, I respect it all Chloë! [both laugh] We know that I respect it all.

Chloë: But, I’ve only done off-Broadway. I did a summer thing called Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre, a lot of New York theatre people go and workshop plays there. I did a play there once, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa who wrote on Big Love, he also wrote comic books, and he wrote this play about Abigail from The Crucible, twenty years post-Crucible dealing with her guilt. It was a great play, it never went anywhere but it was an amazing experience. We lived in dormitories and workshopped this play, I think we only did two or three shows.
Nicholas: I think those kinds of things are typically really helpful for the playwright, to hear what is written on its feet with actors. Did you just wrap something?

Chloë: I had two movies that came out, Bonjour Tristesse and Magic Farm. I haven’t worked in a year. Last summer, I made that new Luca Guadagnino movie called After The Hunt. It’s with Julia Roberts, excuse me! [laughs] I have a small supporting part but we shot in London and it was amazing just watching her work. I love Luca and we have a great relationship now, we have an ease. I think when you work with the same director repeatedly, there is a shorthand, I feel comfortable and more confident in myself knowing that he hires me over and over to try stuff again and again. That is such a nice place to be in, and I felt like that with Ryan [Murphy] a bit as he’s hired me a few times and I know he’s hired you a couple of times too. Didn’t you feel more comfortable going into the second show knowing that he really believed in you?
Nicholas: Yeah, the more you have an established artistic rapport with someone, you feel that much more confident going into the next thing. I was lucky because Max Winkler came over from Monsters [to direct Grotesquerie].

Chloë: I love Max.
Nicholas: We got to work together, and then Alexis Martin Woodall, who was high level on Monsters also directed on Grotesquerie, so I totally know what you’re talking about. It is really helpful, and I imagine as your career goes on, you start to have that come up more and more. What was it like working with Julia Roberts?

“No two actors are the same in the journey that they take.. it’s going to go in a million different directions and it’s going to be very unpredictable.”

Chloë: She was amazing, I think she was the most pleasant actor I’ve ever worked with on set. She was always in a good mood, saying hi to everybody. The work was pretty intense, so I was like, “Is she going to be private or guarded?” As lovely as Javier [Bardem] was, when he was sitting in his chair, I didn’t feel like I wanted to sit down and start chatting with him. That subject matter was pretty heavy-handed and I wanted to give him space, but with Julia, she was super welcoming, we had table reads where she invited everybody to her house. She was very generous in all ways, very fun to be around, glamorous, she has her infectious laugh and smile – all the Julia Roberts traits you would expect were on full display. Ayo Edebiri is in it and Andrew Garfield, it’s a cool cast, it was fun.
Nicholas: What an all-star cast. When is that supposed to come out?

Chloë: October.
Nicholas: Oh my god, I’m dying. Where’s the premiere?

Chloë: I don’t know where they’ll have it. I think there are talks of Venice because he always goes to Venice with his movies. I hope they invite me. [laughs]
Nicholas: That would be so cool. I hear Venice is beautiful, I haven’t been yet.

Chloë: Now there’s this new thing coming up that will be for a major streaming platform with a bunch of girls, and they want to have the girls clearly defined à la Sex and The City, which could be really fun. One would hope that girls would want to be my character. [laughs]
Nicholas: You’re the idol to end all idols, Chloë.

Chloë: Then I have a couple of indies lined up that I’m hoping will get financing. One to maybe shoot in the fall and one maybe to shoot in the winter, but you never know.
Nicholas: Well, Chloë Sevigny is going to be in the movie, just give them the money.

“You’re the idol to end all idols, Chloë.”

Chloë: Oh, please. I just want to work, I want to challenge myself. I also want to do various things. How are you enjoying your fashion life?
Nicholas: Oh, it’s fine.

Chloë: You’re really excelling in that department and it’s good if you can enjoy it because sometimes it feels a little trite. If you can think of it as just another aspect and have fun with it, I think you’ll enjoy it more.
Nicholas: I think that’s true. I had a lot of fun when I went to Paris earlier this year, I really enjoyed myself. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some cool moments. I have to ask you, when you were doing the play and staying in the dorms, how was the dorm life? Because that’s exactly where they want to put me.

Chloë: It was not glamorous, but that’s OK. But I also had to be roommates with the other people in the play.
Nicholas: See, that’s cool and kind of fun.

Chloë: Also not fun, because you want a little space.
Nicholas: True, because you get done with a twelve-hour rehearsal, get dinner together and then go back to your dorm room together, and you’re together for months on end.

Chloë: I would say bring some trappings from home that make you comfortable, like when you’re going off to college.
Nicholas: That’s what I asked, I was like, “Are there pillows and blankets on the bed? Is there AC in the unit?” [laughs] These are things we need to knock out early, guys. Jury is still out, I’ve not found out for sure yet.

Chloë: Do you know who you’re going to be working with?
Nicholas: I do, Pamela Anderson. She and I are going to be working very closely together. I met her in Paris and she was very lovely. There are a few other folks, too.

Chloë: Pamela Anderson is enough of a name for everyone to be satisfied.
Nicholas: They’re going to have a lot of fun. She’s so good in The Last Showgirl.

Chloë: I’m loving the Pamela Anderson renaissance.
Nicholas: It came out of nowhere like lightning and thunder, it’s so awesome.

Chloë: That’s what’s so great about being an actor, being able to reinvent yourself and play different parts. On my Instagram, I have this ‘I Heart Actresses’ thing where I like to showcase how we come in so many different shapes, sizes, colours and forms and also careers. You can have one show and it be as impactful as being in a hundred movies, it’s so awesome how you can make an impact in such a variety of ways and also have so many twists and turns in your career. She’s an incredible study in that.
Nicholas: She really is. I’ve seen that series that you do on your Instagram and I think it’s so cool that you do that because this career can have so many different shapes to it, no two actors are the same in the journey that they take. The only thing that binds them is that it’s going to go in a million different directions and it’s going to be very unpredictable. I’m sure that you’ve probably learned a lot. I don’t know if you can see it or if you’re too close to it but seeing other people’s journeys, you must have a pretty deep appreciation for your own.

Chloë: I think I started it in order to find that. I was at a point where I was frustrated. You saying, “Of course they have Chloë, why don’t they make the movie”, or whatnot, but I found that I was doing the comparing and despairing. I was trying to find my worth through other people in a way, it’s helpful to be more comfortable in my journey and the path that my career has taken. Even with ageing, there’s always a younger, more beautiful girl that comes up and you cycle out. It was a way of appreciating what actresses do, so often it’s the filmmaker who is the star or the director who is the star and the real artist. For me, I’ve always struggled with acting as an art form, but I think having come up through more formal training, you probably have a stronger backbone.
Nicholas: Oh, no. Definitely not. [both laugh]

Chloë: No?!
Nicholas: That would be very nice if it worked out like that, but I don’t think it does. I think this world just comes at you so fast, nothing could actually prepare you for what it truly is. On the outside looking in, this world all blends together, then you get into it and you see that it’s actually a million different things. The closer you are to it, the more you start spinning your wheels, but it’s really fun and I believe that you meet the people who you need to meet. I’m very lucky Monsters opened a lot of doors for me, I’ve been able to meet a lot of really interesting artists and folk that I probably would not have met otherwise. Like you said, there is compare and despair, but I try and flip that to see the other side of the coin and think, “How lucky am I to just be in contact with some of the greatest artists in the world right now?” And there are good days and bad days in terms of how you feel about yourself as an artist. For a lot of artists, your greatest enemy is usually yourself. Is there anything that anchors you when you start to feel like that? It sounds like you started diving into other people’s lives as a way of finding that, but is there a mantra that you’ve found that snaps you back into a place of gratitude or feeling more grounded with yourself?

Chloë: I’ve always been pretty grounded, I don’t know if I have something specifically. There was a time where I actually turned back to the Church, which a lot of people don’t know. I’d grown up Catholic and I was doing a play off-Broadway, which was another true crime story where I was playing a character who was a teenager that killed this other girl and she did all these horrible things. I was accessing that every night and it was really dark, I started going to mass again. [laughs]
Nicholas: Wow.

Chloë: But now with a kid, there are so many outside things that jostle you out of being too introspective or too self-obsessive.
Nicholas: You’re like, “Gosh I have this kid, I can’t even loathe myself in the same way anymore.” [both laugh]

Chloë: I can’t watch myself, it’s painful. I want to celebrate things that I’m in more and because I have such a hard time watching myself it’s hard for me to enjoy the work.
Nicholas: Interesting. So you almost feel like there’s a third person outside of yourself watching yourself work while you’re working.

Chloë: I guess so. I’m trying very much to shed all of that ego and be able to be really present. In the Luca movie, I had this funny wig, glasses and weird contacts to make my eyes look red and they stained my teeth yellow. I feel like that kind of stuff makes it more fun and freeing.
Nicholas: Did you feel like you were wearing a mask? I feel like with mask work the ego goes away a lot of the time because you’re like, “It’s not even me at this point.”

“I’m very lucky Monsters opened a lot of doors for me.”

Chloë: It was a little bit like that on Monsters because she’s so horrible, but she was also meant to be kind of glamorous so that was a little confusing. [laughs]
Nicholas: It’s hard when the mask is glamour. That was the thing with that family, it was a mask of perfectionism, which is just as toxic but is totally driven by the ego, so it’s hard to let that fall away. But that’s so cool about the red contacts and yellow teeth, that sounds like a crazy look.

Chloë: She’s supposed to be an alcoholic, chain smoking kind of intellectual professor. He has fun playing with actor’s looks, he did that to me in Bones and All, too. It’s very freeing.
Nicholas: Mask work has always been one of my favourite things because you disappear. Are there other aspects of being in Luca’s projects that you feel are very signature to him and that you really enjoy?

Chloë: He’s very impulsive, which I always like in a director. When a director is too prepared, I find it frustrating because I feel like they already have an idea of what they want instead of finding it, and I like to find it together. I can adapt to that and part of the reason why I like being an actor is adapting to different people’s ideas and how they work, but I prefer finding stuff in the moment. That’s a real signature for him.
Nicholas: You’re pretty impulsive in Monsters too, I feel like with you no two takes were quite the same. You really wanted to explore a lot of different things and what’s great is that all the directors were pretty open to that.

Chloë: We were lucky we had the luxury of time. On a lot of indies they have their shot lists and everything framed out because they don’t have a lot of time, so they’re afraid to find things in the moment and I think that can hurt the movie.
Nicholas: I was working with this guy on this film earlier this year, it’s his first time directing and he wrote the script several years ago, so he’s been trying to get it made for some time. You would think going into this project that he would have been overly precious about each and every detail, because that’s the natural tendency if you’ve worked so hard on something – but it was exactly the opposite experience. It’s interesting how there’s never really any way to call the ball on creatives like that, and typically you’re surprised by the way they end up handling the situation in the moment. After The Hunt comes out in October, you’re going to be spending your summer in  LA, which is very exciting – you and I are switching places. You’re coming here for the summer, I’m going there.

Chloë: And then maybe in the winter I’ll be upstate shooting these indies, we’ll see. Maybe we’ll be at the Emmy’s.
Nicholas: That’d be nice, it’d be great to see you.

Chloë: After Williamstown, what’s next?
Nicholas: So, you know how when you have twenty irons in the fire and then you’re just trying to see which ones are going to actually go, it’s that right now for me. There were some things they wanted me to do that I couldn’t because I was already doing the play – and I want to do the play, I need to do the play – if I don’t do the play I’ll die.

Chloë: You seem like you’re in a good place, you have a bunch of things coming out. There’s always that fear of what’s coming next, have you ever read this Frank Langella essay called The Demon Seesaw?
Nicholas: No, but I’m going to look it up and read it later today. What’s it about?

Chloë: It’s about being an actor, the highs and lows and the moments when you’re waiting for the next call. It’s a very comforting thing to return to if you ever find yourself in a lull when there aren’t any opportunities – which I don’t think will happen because you’re red hot right now. I think you might find some comfort in it, so this is my gift to you.
Nicholas: Thank you, Chloë, I really appreciate it. I’ll check it out. I’m in one of those spots where I have to wait and see, I’m putting all of my things in storage right now and I’m hoping that by the time this play finishes in a few moths I’ll have some clarity about where I’m going next.

Chloë: You’re going to leave LA?
Nicholas: That’s the thing, everything shoots everywhere now. There’s stuff in Vancouver, New Mexico and in Europe, it’s all over the place. I just want to wait and see what projects we’re actually going to move forward with and then I’ll be able to know where to base my life. Being an actor now is a pretty nomadic lifestyle, it used to be that if you’re in actor you’re in LA or New York and I just don’t think it’s like that anymore. You base out of one of those places but where you work and where you spend your time are different things.

Chloë: I always say I’m on vacation when I’m home in New York, I’m on vacation and I go away to work.
Nicholas: That’s a good way of thinking about. Well, that’s my update. This felt great, thank you so much Chloë, I really appreciate it.

Chloë: My pleasure, I’m always here.