“Menendez” actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez talks about the “Monsters” audition

Nicholas Alexander Chavez says his final audition for the role of Lyle Menendez in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez was unlike any he’s ever done.

“When you go to a callback, there are usually four or five other people playing the role. But it was just Cooper (Koch) and me,” says Chavez, referring to his co-star who plays Erik Menendez. “And then Ryan (Murphy) strolled by and we had no idea who was going to be there, so we were completely caught off guard. They made us feel comfortable. We went there and did the scenes. I think with Cooper it felt electric straight away. Ryan called us two days later to tell us that if he couldn’t make it with us, he wouldn’t do the show.”

Chavez says his preparation for the Netflix series involved reading, watching and listening to everything he could about the siblings and their two trials. The Menendez brothers are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989.

Koch spoke to Erik on the phone the night before the series premiered on Netflix last month and then met him with Lyle when he visited her in prison with Kim Kardashian. Chavez, like show co-creator Murphy, has no such plans.

“As an artist, you can’t help but have a kind of morbid curiosity about the people you play, and after living in this character and in these circumstances for the six months I spent filming this project, I think that in a certain way that is the case, a wish,” says Chavez. “But ultimately I realized that as an artist it’s important to have the grace to be able to release characters after they’re finished. That’s a big part of the job, and I kind of stay true to that.”

When asked if he believes the brothers deserve a retrial, Chavez simply replied: “I know there has been a lot of discussion about it. I’m really excited to see what will happen in the future. I think it’s up to the judiciary of the United States to decide.”

MORE: ‘Monsters’ Cast Respond to Controversy Over Homoerotic Brother Scenes; Erik Menendez actor Cooper Koch “doesn’t believe” the siblings were incestuous

“Monsters” was still in production when Murphy cast Chavez on his other series, FX’s “Grotesquerie.” “In the last weeks of filming ‘Menendez,’ I also shot ‘Grotesquerie,’” the actor remembers. “Then the night we were filming ‘Menendez,’ I remember getting into a car and then they took me to the hotel near where we were filming ‘Grotesquerie,’ and the next day I jumped directly. I think I shot for five days straight after that, so it was really one project running through the next. It was very cool to see Ryan’s creative vision in two different worlds because they are very different.”

Travis Kelce makes his acting debut in Grotesquerie. “He’s so charming, he’s so charismatic, he’s so down to earth. And you can definitely tell that the guy plays professional football for a living because he’s a team player,” Chavez says of his co-star. “He was super cooperative. He performs with confidence. I was honestly blown away that it was his first time acting.”

Does Chavez consider himself a Swiftie? “Am I a Swiftie?” he says with a smile. “You know, their music is infectious. And whenever it sounds, I find myself dancing to it. She has so much fun and is just a great performer.”

He thinks about it, then adds, “Okay, fine, I’m a Swiftie.”