Charley Gallay/Getty;Courtesy Of Netflix
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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 Hunnamis getting candid about his mindset going into the role of Ed Gein.
TheMonster: The Ed Gein Storystar, 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 previouslyrevealed his second thoughtsback 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."
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 withEntertainment Weeklypublished 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 asPsycho, The Texas Chainsaw MassacreandThe 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 creatorRyan Murphy.
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Hunnam stars inMonsteralongsideTom Hollander,Laurie Metcalfand 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 ofJeffrey DahmerandLyle and Erik Menendez.
Courtesy Of Netflix
"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 Storyis available to stream in full on Netflix.
Read the original article onPeople
