Charlie Hunnam On What He Needed To Portray Ed Gein In Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monster’

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ on Netflix.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Charlie Hunnam went all in while preparing to portray serial killer Ed Gein. He underwent a drastic physical transformation, shedding nearly 30 pounds in three weeks to match Gein’s malnourished-looking frame. He also listened to Gein’s high-pitched voice in a rare recording of him and perfected his vocal pattern and tone.

It was also pertinent to Hunnam to find a way to relate to Gein’s humanity despite the grotesque things he did. He discussed how he got into the mind of a serial killer for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, which premiered on Netflix on October 3.

In a Zoom interview the day of the premiere, Hunnam, who also served as an executive producer on the series, told me how important it was to find the human being inside of Gein and not solely focus on his monstrous behavior.

“There was an enormous amount of trepidation and fear initially,” Hunnam admitted. “And then it was just trying to understand him, trying not to judge him, trying to find the truth and find the man behind the monster.”

Gein’s story is the third installment in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology series, which includes the stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and Lyle and Erik Menendez. And this isn’t the first time that the uniquely gruesome nature of Gein’s crimes has inspired Hollywood to tell his tale, or create characters in his likeness.

A mixture of isolation, psychosis, and an all-consuming obsession with his mother, with whom he had a toxic relationship, led to a string of murders so heinous that he became the blueprint for Hollywood horror. Gein has been the inspiration behind several classic films and fictional characters, including Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Norman Bates in Psycho, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Hunnam, Murphy, and Brennan had numerous conversations about Gein and his life throughout filming in an effort to learn as much as possible about the man who came across as mild-mannered, and yet was so uniquely deviant.

“What we did over and over throughout was ask ourselves why Ed did what he did. We definitely didn’t want to sensationalize this or make a show that was gratuitous or definitely not glorify what he did. It was really about, in the tradition of storytelling, trying to understand ourselves and say, like, ‘What makes a monster?’”

When asked what it was like to get into Gein’s skin, Hunnam explained that he was very focused on the human being inside the monster. “I had to understand him. That was the thing. I didn’t have to like him, but I had to try to find my own sense of the truth, of what I thought he was and who I thought he was, and then have the courage of conviction to be faithful to that. And I ended up not feeling protective of Ed, but protective of my perception of who he was, and trying to tell the story as honestly as I could. And sometimes that felt dangerous. Sometimes I questioned, like, am I being overly empathetic? Am I being overly sympathetic? Is this, you know, is this honest? Is this true? And so that became my obsession, just trying to tell the story as truthfully as we possibly could.”

Gein is a standout, even among serial killers, for the grotesque way he killed his victims and what he did with their bodies afterward. He lived on a dilapidated farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in the 1950s. Though he appeared mild-mannered and friendly, Eddie, the recluse, harbored a darkness within and had an incredibly twisted relationship with his mother, with whom he lived. Their home was described as a “house of horrors so gruesome it would redefine the American nightmare.”

The eight-episode series Monster was written by Brennan; he also executive-produced and directed two episodes alongside Max Winkler, who directed six. Also starring are Laurie Metcalf as Ed Gein’s overbearing mother, Augusta, Tom Hollander as Alfred Hitchcock, and Suzanna Son as Gein’s only friend, Adeline Watkins.

When asked if he was able to shed Gein’s darkness after work hours, Hunnam said he didn’t want to. He remained in character throughout the filming of the series, even when the cameras stopped rolling each day.

“The hardest thing about being an actor is that it requires an enormous amount of focus and concentration to fully inhabit somebody that is completely different from you,” Hunnam explained, describing his decision to stay in character.

“It’s like when you don’t go to the gym for two weeks, then it sucks. It takes this Herculean effort to go and actually force yourself through a workout. You know, it’s the same with acting. Once you’re inside this thing, I would rather just stay inside it than go and have a nice dinner and get drunk at night and then have to find my way back in the next day. So, just really, and it’s not about the character…I’m not method, it’s just about maintaining this hyper-focus. And, so I basically maintained that focus the whole time at work all day long, 14, 15, 16 hours on set, and I’d go home and just read the script and stay in it.”

Though Hunnam stayed with Gein throughout the duration of filming, he found a way to say goodbye after the show wrapped production by visiting Gein’s grave as a way to bid farewell.