Nicholas Alexander Chavez is our favorite internet boyfriend. No one could have predicted his portrayal of Lyle Menendez in MONSTERS would lead to countless viral thirst-trap TikToks of him, but it happened. His upcoming role in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, out July 18, will only launch him further into his newfound fame. In the latest COSMOPOLITAN Centerfold feature, Chavez gets into everything from losing his anonymity overnight, why he didn’t consider himself a romantic until recently, and how he and his girlfriend, Victoria Abbott, are protecting their relationship in this era.
On the big difference between his life now and where he was at in September before Monsters launched: “I see a lot of people doing the double take whenever I’m out to restaurants or that sort of thing. It’s very funny when I get shown videos of myself that are taken from one or two football fields away. Always knowing consciously that you’re probably being watched is a bit strange. You feel people’s eyes on you in a different way.
“And it happens at odd times. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art the other day to look at some artwork, and I had a parade of people who were kind of following me around the museum, which was a bit funny. Like, there’s an actual Picasso in that room.”
On when he feels the most confident: “When I have a finely curated playlist blasting through my speakers. I also feel really confident whenever I’m playing poker. I host games at my house and I have some of my friends over and we just listen to music and we kick back. I also feel a ton of confidence when I’m on set. There’s a freedom that comes with knowing that you’re behaving as someone who is not you, and that separation gives you the permission to be able to behave in a really uninhibited way.”
On romance:m“More than anything else, it’s consideration. It’s the way that you consider the people in your life. And I think you can be romantic in a lot of different relationships because you can consider everyone in your life.
“Oftentimes, romance comes through in very small details that no one else would pick up on—by taking the time to learn the finer details about a person and what they like and dislike and what makes them comfortable and happy and then having enough forethought to make sure that those are considerations that are kept in mind. Then when you find someone who does that for you, it can be a really rewarding feeling.”
On really taking time to get to know people:n“My girlfriend and I were friends for a very, very long time before we started officially dating. There is probably no such thing as taking it too slow in terms of getting to know someone. And what I found is that the person who you end up seeing romantically truly becomes the most important person in your life.”
“Your conception of family changes as you get older. First, it’s Mom and Dad and your brothers and your sisters. And then as you become an adult, you realize, Oh, this person who I see every day and who we wake up with and have breakfast together, this is my family.
“Really taking the time to get to know who this person is and getting to know their heart and the way that they see the world and allowing them to show who they can be for you in a lot of different contexts is also helpful. My girlfriend has had opportunity after opportunity to show me how much she loves me and smashes it every single time.”
On why it took such a long time to go from friends to dating: “I’m a very avoidant person, so it really took effort on her part. She may tell you a very different story. She’d probably tell you that she was in the trenches for a long time trying to get it to work out. I was a coldhearted cynic. We were friends for, like, a year and a half…. It takes a long time for me to get to know someone and get to know them well. People are incredibly complex and deep and have so many different pockets of their humanity and of their personality, you can say very quickly whether or not you like a person. But in order for someone to get close to you, it takes so much time…”
On what makes a great date: “I want to do some kind of adventure. I want to either go on a road trip or I want to book a flight, something that really changes our environment or our scenery….But really, the best dates can’t be planned. It’s the kind of thing where you get out of town and then you see what there is to do, and then you let your heart and your creativity lead the way in terms of how the night’s gonna play out.”
On how he and his girlfriend are working to protect their relationship in this era:
“We know that it comes with the territory. I’m an artist first and foremost. It is so foundational and fundamental to who I am as a human being. With that comes attention and sometimes a lot of it, and that can feel quite flattering at times, of course, but that’s not the way that day-to-day life works. Day-to-day life works in the sense of, I have to come home, I have scripts to memorize, I’m stressed out about this scene. Where are we going for dinner? Hey, do you mind picking my brother up from the airport? There’s a lot of shiny objects, but both of us are so on the same page in terms of what is most valuable to us in our life, and it’s the art we make and the family we have. So we protect that pretty viciously.”
[Photo Credit: Bobby Doherty for Comospolitan Magazine]
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