How Charlie Hunnam Recreated Ed Gein's Disturbing Voice For Netflix's Monster Role

Ryan Murphy is at it again, folks, and this time he's brought actor Charlie Hunnam along for the ride. The television empire built up by the endlessly efficient writer/producer/showrunner extraordinaire spans the likes of "Glee," "American Horror Story," "9-1-1," and, of course, the recent "Monster" anthology series. After the true-crime show previously explored the depths of killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Erik and Lyle Menendez, this latest installment stars Hunnam as Ed Gein — a real-life villain no less monstrous, but one that the general public knows far less about (comparatively speaking, at least). That posed a bit of a challenge for the creative team, Hunnam included, though it also gave rise to as chilling and memorable a performance as any in his career thus far.

Days before all eight episodes of "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" premiered on Netflix, Variety published an interview with Hunnam where he delved into his portrayal of the serial killer and grave-robber. Of the little that has been preserved about Gein, who was active up until his arrest in 1957, we do know that the notorious figure had a distinctive and unforgettable voice. Hunnam sought to bring this to life in the Netflix series, which makes for one of the many early surprises in the premiere. According to Hunnam, a native of Northern England, "The voice needed to be really specific. But I don't think any of us really had an idea of what that was."

That is, until Hunnam managed to get his hands on a rare recording that even the show's "best researchers" couldn't find.

There's a reason why serial killers continue to be such great cinematic (or, in this case, streaming) villains. Apart from all this says about our society's preoccupation with violence and other sordid topics, there is something to be said for how well-suited these monsters are to dramatizations in our mass entertainment. David Fincher found the key to this multiple times in both "Se7en" and "Zodiac," leading to two of the most memorable murderers we've ever witnessed on the big screen. (You can add several more to Fincher's name through the Netflix series "Mindhunter," which may return in the form of a movie or three.) Arguably the most famous of them all, Hannibal Lecter, has resulted in several movies and shows that many would consider to be modern classics. In that light, it was inevitable for the real-life inspiration behind "Psycho" and, yes, "The Silence of the Lambs" to finally get his turn in the spotlight.

Later in the interview, series director Max Winkler goes on to describe the lengths Charlie Hunnam went to embody the title character in "Monster: The Ed Gein Story." After explaining how even the show's researchers couldn't procure the decades-old audio of Ed Gein's interview immediately following his arrest, Winkler revealed, "But Charlie got it, because he's Charlie and he does crazy s***." The tape revealed a high-pitched, almost childlike voice that Winkler sees as a combination of actor Mark Rylance in the 2009 stage play "Jerusalem" and Michael Jackson. According to Hunnam, this directly influenced his performance:

"I started to see [Ed Gein] through a series of affectations to please his mother. That's where the voice came from."

"Monster: The Ed Gein Story" is currently streaming on Netflix.