Why Gacy’s Lawyer in ‘Devil in Disguise’ Looks So Familiar — and What He Says About the Role

In the limited series Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, the notorious serial killer is placed under scrutiny as his dual life is peeled back layer by layer. The series reveals how Gacy, a seemingly upstanding community member and local contractor, successfully concealed his monstrous crimes behind a façade of charm and civic involvement.

In the series, Gacy’s lawyer Sam Amirante is depicted as a man determined to uphold his duty, ensuring his client receives proper legal representation, no matter how reprehensible or despicable he finds his client. His portrayal captures the striking duality of a man whose career could be defined by this notorious case, yet who is deeply repulsed and unsettled by the person he’s defending. Amirante walks a careful tightrope between moral disgust and professional obligation, fully aware that he is representing a monster, but committed to preserving the integrity of the law.

But behind the nervous demeanor and ’70s brown suits, the actor portraying Amirante is a familiar face to many. Depending on when viewers first discovered Michael Angarano, they might remember the actor as young William Miller in the 2000’s Almost Famous, the precocious kid who grows into a teenage music journalist hired to cover the band Stillwater.

Or perhaps viewers know him as Will Stronghold from 2005’s Sky High, the son of two famous superheroes who attends a high school for kids with superpowers.

Will & Grace fans know Amirante as Elliot, the biological son of Jack McFarland (played by Sean Hayes) conceived via sperm donation years earlier.

Buena Vista/courtesy Everett Collection

The actor has been a fixture in pop culture since the 1990s, beginning his career as a child actor with small roles on Cybill and Saturday Night Live before landing his breakout part in Almost Famous. From the mid-2000s to the present, Angarano has built an eclectic résumé, appearing in both film and television, with standout supporting turns in indie favorites like Lords of Dogtown, Seabiscuit, and Red State, as well as in acclaimed prestige dramas such as The Knick and I’m Dying Up Here.

But his biggest impact to date was as in This Is Us, where Angarano played Nick “Nicky” Pearson, the younger brother of Jack (Milo Ventimiglia). Nicky is introduced through flashbacks as a sensitive, troubled young man who serves in the Vietnam War alongside his brother. The experience leaves him deeply traumatized, leading to estrangement from Jack and decades of isolation. In later episodes, as an older man (portrayed by Griffin Dunne), Nicky struggles with PTSD, addiction, and guilt, but eventually begins to reconnect with the surviving family members.

Since then, Angarano has been a familiar face in several Universal and Peacock projects, including part of the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan.

“I continue to be very fortunate in my life and career in working with great artists, and writer, and actors, and directors. My part’s in Almost Famous or Sky High or Dear Wendy or Will & Grace were formative experiences in my life where I was just falling in love with acting and realized it was something I wanted to do as an adult. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve continued to work with people who were concerned with not only making great art, but with also having positive, healthy experiences,” Angarano told ReMIND.

NBC

“And Devil in Disguise was — in spite of its incredibly sad and dark heavy subject matter — an incredibly warm and positive experience. Patrick McManus created a set that felt responsible and self aware and nuturing. Not only to the cast, but to the crew as well,” continued the actor.

“The part of Sam was a gift, because Sam exists in a gray area of defending an almost undefensalbe man, with the principle that everybody deserves the same defense, wheather or not they are guilty,” said Angarano. “For me as an actor, that was a great gift, despite its challenges.”

Angarano’s turn as Amirante in Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy has drawn positive notice from critics, especially in how he handles the moral tension of defending a monstrous client. In the role, he provides a counterpoint to the other characters while portraying a person caught in an ethical dilemma. It’s a far cry from the coming-of-age kiddos he played in Almost Famous and Sky High, roles that showcased his youthful charm. Here, that same sensitivity is reshaped into something more complex and haunting, proving how far Angarano has come since his early days in Hollywood.

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