Charlie Hunnam has finally talked about how he ended up playing Ed Gein in the new season of Netflix’s ‘Monster‘, and the story is nothing like a regular casting process. He didn’t walk into that meeting expecting anything dark or disturbing. In fact, he went in thinking they were discussing a very different project.
However, as he explained, the meeting gradually changed direction until it focused on something he had never intended to take on.
Charlie Hunnam Shares How The ‘Monster’ Role Came To Him
Hunnam said he met Ryan Murphy to talk about a show set in Rome. But when Murphy arrived a bit late and clearly lost in his own head, he didn’t bring up Rome at all. Instead, he started talking about Ed Gein. Charlie shared that Murphy had been working on Gein’s story all day, so he was still deep into it. The conversation kept going, and before Charlie knew it, they had spent two hours going over Gein’s life and the tone of the new ‘Monster‘ season.
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Only then did Murphy ask him if he wanted to play the part. Charlie said he didn’t expect the offer, but he agreed because Murphy described it as a serious look at human behaviour, not a show made to shock people. That made him feel like he could take the role without it feeling exploitative. He even joked that this is how he “ended up in the mess” of playing such a heavy character.
Why Hunnam Chose That Surprising Voice For The Butcher Of Plainfield
If you’ve seen the show, you’ve likely heard the voice Charlie uses and been told that he based it on Gein’s relationship with his mother. Charlie said Gein grew up believing his mother wanted a daughter instead of him, so he tried to show that pressure in the way the character moved and spoke. He admitted the voice isn’t perfectly consistent in every scene.
Early on, he found an old recording of Gein, and it sounded nothing like the voice he created. Charlie said it shook his confidence for a moment, but he didn’t throw it away. Instead, he mixed a few details from the real recording into his version and kept going with the idea that felt right for the character.
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He also mentioned that he sometimes slipped into the voice at home without noticing. His wife wasn’t thrilled about that and asked him to stop because it made her uncomfortable. Even so, he stuck with the performance because the voice matched the character’s emotional side. Charlie added that he did manage to find a few recordings of Gein, but since there weren’t many, he took some creative freedom, similar to how the show itself approaches the story.
Even though he joked that he was “tricked” into taking the part, especially in the light of its miserable failure, Charlie made it clear he enjoyed working on the Netflix series. And he confirmed he will return for Season 4 of ‘Monster‘. This time, he won’t play Ed Gein again. He’ll take on a brand-new character, which makes him the first actor to return to the anthology in a totally different role. It shows that the team really appreciated the work he did this season.
