- - Charlie Hunnam Wondered If He Made a Mistake Playing Ed Gein in “Monster ”Before This Breakthrough Moment“ ”(Exclusive)

Brenton Blanchet, Scott HuverJanuary 2, 2026 at 3:30 AM

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Charley Gallay/Getty;Courtesy Of Netflix

Charlie Hunnam; the actor as Ed Gein in 'Monster The Ed Gein Story' -

Charlie Hunnam was worried he made a "mistake" before boarding Monster: The Ed Gein Story

The actor tells PEOPLE he was worried he signed up for "a horrible process" when agreeing to play the infamous murderer

"I really started to get scared that maybe I'd made a mistake and this was just going to be impossibly bleak and dark and a horrible process," Hunnam says

Charlie Hunnam is getting candid about his mindset going into the role of Ed Gein.

The Monster: The Ed Gein Story star, 45, caught up with PEOPLE at Netflix's Tudum Theater in Hollywood on Nov. 10, and detailed why he initially thought he made a "mistake" in his decision to play the titular murderer and grave robber.

Hunnam, who previously revealed his second thoughts back in October when the series first hit the streamer, says he was initially worried he signed up for "a horrible process" when agreeing to play Gein.

"I mean, it got in my head…The most in my head. Before we started shooting, during the research period, everything that's been written about Ed have been these sort of sensationalist, grotesque litanies of just horror. And I really started to get scared that maybe I'd made a mistake and this was just going to be impossibly bleak and dark and a horrible process," Hunnam says. "And then there was a breakthrough."

Netflix

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'

That "breakthrough," Hunnam shares, came when he began to "really read" Gein's medical records. which "gave a less sensationalized depiction of who he was."

"It was just the brass facts of his mental illness, his struggles with isolation, his emotional abandonment from his mother. And I just started to see the human," Hunnam adds. "Because that’s what we were really trying to do, is just find the human story within this, ask the question what creates a monster and why this man did the things that he did, and less interested in what he did, and really very interested in trying to answer the question why he did what he did."

Hunnam previously shared his hesitancy regarding the role of Gein — who was initially arrested in 1957 and died in 1984 — in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Oct. 6. At the time, he said that understanding he would be playing the murderer, widely known for exhuming human remains and using them as everyday items, sent him "into a full panic."

Gein's crimes are believed to have inspired several horror films, such as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. As for Hunnam, he revealed at the time that he doesn't "really like the horror genre," making the job "kind of a strange choice" for him.

"I just found myself saying yes, based, I would say like 99 percent of it, on just how much I liked Ryan," Hunnam said of series creator Ryan Murphy.

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Hunnam stars in Monster alongside Tom Hollander, Laurie Metcalf and Suzanna Son, with Vicky Krieps, Addison Rae, and more filling out the cast. It marks the third installment of Murphy's anthology series, which previously explored the legacies of Jeffrey Dahmer and Lyle and Erik Menendez.

Courtesy Of Netflix

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'

"I think Ryan does a very good job in the show of asking the question, 'Why do we tell these stories and what is the consequence of it?' I felt it was my job to truly try to understand this character and try to bring him to life," he says. "And I asked myself a lot, 'Why we do tell these stories and what is the function of them?' And I think in the history of the function of storytelling is to bring light to confusing and dark parts of the world, or to the human condition just writ large."

He adds that he hopes "nobody gets any ideas from watching Ed Gein" and that there wasn't "anything positive" in his actions. "He was just a truly disturbed and deeply sad character who never found any joy in his life," Hunnam says. "There was nothing positive that came for Ed or anybody that he came into contact with."

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream in full on Netflix.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”