Nicholas Alexander Chavez Talks His Viral ‘Monsters’ Fame

The “Monsters” actor confessed that it has been unreal for him to deal with his work getting so much attention from people, but he would not have it any other way.

Nicholas Alexander Chavez emerged on the scene as a character in “General Hospital” and has since starred in two Ryan Murphy productions this fall, including “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and “Grotesquerie.”

The 25-year-old reminisced on his incredible progress this year, especially since the premiere of “Monsters” on September 19 and “Grotesquerie” a few days after.

“How could you ever keep track of it all? Honestly, to be direct with you, it’s very cool, and more than anything, it’s cool to get those signals from people that they’re responding to the work. But it is strange to see the response,” he stated.

Chavez emerged as an internet sensation nearly overnight, with edits of him gathering as much as 52 million views on TikTok, which the actor is now well aware of.

“My girlfriend and my brother and my friends, they send me the ones that they think are funny, and those are the ones that I watch,” he says of the clip, which has been liked by close to 5.5 million people. “I could have never predicted that,” the actor noted.

He admitted to PEOPLE that the most mind-blowing video he had seen yet was shown to him by his girlfriend, and it was “a video of a bunch of people in a college classroom, literally hundreds of people gathered in a college classroom, watching this edit, which is so funny to me.”

He noted that the whole thing bowled him over, but more than anything, he is glad people are having fun.

Not only are his edits pulling the numbers, but his social media account is also reflecting his newly found status. The actor’s Instagram account gained over 1 million between the “Grotesquerie” premiere, where he engaged the fans, and October 11.

Chavez described the development as wild, adding that he appreciates that people are responding to the work. He continued that whenever he sees comments from people who “found the show meaningful, or entertaining, or whatever it might be,” he feels a sense of fulfillment as an actor.

The internet sensation confessed that he “got interested in acting very slowly” after he appeared in an impromptu school performance of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which the faculty received in a really positive way and commended him for doing a great job.

“Then I started to go down that rabbit hole [and] I realized it was really, really hard. But I also realized at that point that it was my purpose in life, and that I wasn’t really going to be able to do anything else,” he stated.

Chavez also mentioned that after a brief career as a car and life insurance salesman in Florida during the pandemic, he stumbled on a soap opera audition, and things moved quickly.

However, the grand nature of his new reality dawned on him in the last few weeks leading to the almost twin premieres. He shared:

“It’s a surreal experience. You know what I mean? I think multiple times Cooper Koch and I would just look around. We would just say, ‘Is this real life right now? It’s actually happening?’ Because it’s a crazy thing to process.”

The celebrity described “Monster” as a commercial success amongst many things, noting that it also got a lot of people’s attention.

He explained that being on a project of that magnitude has afforded him the opportunity to have a lot of conversations “with people that you just don’t necessarily get to have.”

Chavez noted that he was starting to experience the bliss of the best artists in the world, inviting him into spaces to have “conversations with them, to talk about what you want to create.” He described it as the best feeling in the world.

Chavez extended his sympathy to the brothers whose lives were portrayed in “Monsters” and stated:

“I really sympathize with the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their life, and then having that put on television for the world to see. I would imagine that would be incredibly heavy.”

The Blast reported that the talented actor played the role of Lyle Menendez, currently incarcerated alongside his brother Erik Menendez, played by Koch, after being convicted of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, in “Monsters.” 

The Menendez brothers have insisted that they committed the murders following years of continued mental, physical, and sexual abuse from the parents.

Despite playing his life in the Netflix series, Nicholas Alexander Chavez disclosed that he had never spoken directly to Lyle Menendez.