India, Nov. 1 -- For actor Michael Chernus, who played the eponymous serial killer in the recently released true crime series, Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, the most amusing part about his character was its normalcy. "What's scary about many of these serial killers is that they hide in plain sight, and John is the epitome of that. He was trying so hard to fit into normal society," he says. Ask if the darkness of his character ever affected his mental state, and the 48-year-old reveals that it was John himself who helped him avoid being consumed by it. "There were multiple versions to John: John the contractor, John the politician, John the family man, and then the evil guy. So thinking of him as someone who had all these different masks that he put on depending on who he was dealing with, that was a real way in for me," he says. Michael adds, "Knowing I didn't have to play the totality of him all at once, and that he shouldn't appear evil very often, helped me. We only see the mask drop and catch a glimpse of the guy behind it occasionally. But because he's constantly shifting between these other personas, it allowed me to avoid going to that dark place all the time." Having been part of projects like Severance, Orange Is The New Black and Spider Man: Homecoming (2017), Michael is no stranger to global fandom. "It's a very exciting time to be an actor and be a part of the entertainment industry. We have all these streaming platforms where our work reaches a global audience. You also make choices as an actor based on that responsibility," he says, adding, "With this story, I was very conscious of the fact that we are also trying to shed light on the victims and their stories before they ever crossed paths with John, and to retell this story in a way that hadn't been done when he was arrested in the 1970s." Among his global fanbase are also many Indians, and Michael has only love for the people and the country. "I've always wanted to come to India, but I never have. Now I definitely have to, I didn't know I had so many fans there," he shares. On working in Indian films, he says, "I'm so impressed by the Indian film industry, but I've got my hands full here at the moment. Still, you never know."...