Peter Facinelli Shares Fun Stories, Acting Tips, And More!

Peter Facinelli had attended the 2026 Chicago Fan Expo on August 15^th. I attended his audience Q&A portion where he shared many fun stories and insight of an actor’s process.

How did you prepare for playing Keith Raniere, the cult leader for Escaping the NXIM Cult?

He researched and watched a lot of Keith’s videos. Peter expressed nervousness if Keith watched the film or would be able to watch it if he ever gets out of prison. He also shared, “I would so be sucked into a cult, I’m glad he didn’t get a hold of me.” He shared that he often falls for shopping late at night on targeted Instagram posts and ads as an example of being so susceptible. Good point, Peter, most people are not as self-aware.

He also said that the movie was for Lifetime and he was happy to do it because his mother loves the channel. He also did another one called On Fire with Fiona Dourif.

He shared the trailer to his directing debut for Grace Period and we all promised to go watch it, so keep an eye out for it because it does look fun and very relatable in this time and age, especially for women.

When it comes to how he chooses his roles, he explained, “Early in my career, my goal as an actor was to get a paycheck, to make a living as an actor. Now, every time my agents ask, ‘what do you want to do next?’ I say something I haven’t done before.”

He also considers: “Am I going to be excited to go to work? Cuz you have 5 am call times, time away from your kids, etc and if the answer is yes, I go with full passion into it because if it gets successful is not up to me. So I might as well get excited to go to work.”

The best compliment for him hearing is, “I didn’t know that was you,” and he tries a wide variety of content, to make something for someone.

Have you ever been star struck?

He said he has been so fortunate to work with lots of great people but he has a funny story of being start struck while shooting a scene. He was working with Ferris Bueller himself, Matthew Broderick (for Finding Amanda) and while it was Matthew’s lines, Peter was blown away. It took him a second to realize it was his turn so he finally said his lines. After the director said cut, he said “I love what you did there, Peter!” So naturally, he pretended he did it all on purpose.

You have had your head decapitated, what happened to that head prop and what is it like to have another head of yours?  

“It does things to a person,” he said but he doesn’t have it. He explained most movie props get repurposed so he thinks that is what happened with the head. He shared the first time he had to wear boots for a film, he was told Ethan Hawke wore it. So, he kept the boots!

Then the best insight came up at the end. We were done but Peter noticed a child in the back dressed up as Tinkerbell and said, “I’ll take one more question, from Tinkerbell.” She asked, How did you prepare for the role of Carlisle for Twilight?

He shared that he likes to write a journal about his characters whole life and with Carlisle, he had 350 years to fill. He asked if we knew Carlisle had two sisters. No, because it isn’t in the books but he thought of it. He wrote in the journal about what was Carlisle’s life before and after becoming a vampire, his losses, his gains, etc.

He said, in the films, Carlisle wears scarfs because Peter said he would have grown up in the 1800s when men wore ascots and looked gentlemanly and distinguished so he wanted to wear scarves, the modern ascot.

Another example is when they play baseball, he thought well why baseball? Carlisle came to the United States in the 1920s when Babe Ruth was huge and baseball was the major past time. What if Carlisle got to see Babe Ruth play? So, Peter suggested that when he goes to bat, he gets ready the way Babe Ruth did. Director, Catherine Hardwick loved it.

These are examples are like seeing the brush strokes of a painting. The viewer might not get all those details but because these details and research the actor and filmmakers collaborated on help elevate the viewing experience.