Nicholas Alexander Chavez is on the verge of becoming Hollywood’s next big thing. He gained major attention for his breakout role as Lyle Menendez on Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. But he hasn’t forgotten his soap days. He looked back on his role as Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital. Keep reading to see what he had to say about working on the daytime drama.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez Gets Big Break
The internet can’t stop talking about Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s performance as one of the Menendez brothers on Netflix’s Monsters anthology. Season 2 of the Ryan Murphy series focused on Lyle and Erik Menendez, the two rich kids from California who shot their parents to death in 1989. The two are currently serving life sentences, but there is a small chance they could be free soon.
The show cast Hollywood heavy hitters Chloë Sevigny and Javier Bardem as parents Kitty and Jose Menendez. The roles of the brothers went to relative newbies, Cooper Koch (Erik Menendez) and Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Lyle.)
Ryan Murphy was so impressed by Chavez’s performance that he gave him another role in the FX series Grotesquerie. The young actor’s star is clearly on the rise, but he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.
Admits He Was ‘Nervous’ First Day On General Hospital
Nicholas Alexander Chavez candidly confessed to PEOPLE magazine that getting the role of Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital was one of the best things that ever happened to him. Before joining the soap in 2021, he was a car and insurance salesman in Florida. He took a leave of absence in the summer of 2023 to film the Netflix series. But his exit became permanent after he continued to book other jobs.
He recalled the nerve-wracking audition process. It was his first professional callback in his burgeoning career. He remembered, “I get there, and I’m staying at the hotel, I’m trying to get all of my lines down, and then the day comes. And I’m standing in a room with 20 of the most handsome guys that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And I’m like, ‘Jeez.’”
The actor added, “I had done an acting conservatory, I had done these plays, but I hadn’t actually, really, been in front of a camera before. And I remember the first day that I was on camera for General Hospital, I was so nervous. I had whole body shakes.”
How Show Helped Him Get Monsters Role
Despite being the ‘It’ man of the moment, Nicholas Alexander Chavez looks back fondly on his soap days. He credits the show for letting him take the Monsters role.
“It’s kind of an interesting, weird path — a weird way in — but [the show] gave me all the experience and connected me to a really interesting aspect of TV and entertainment culture,” he said about his time on the ABC sudser.
