Bizarre Ed Gein accent perfected by Charlie Hunnam after taking extreme lengths for Netflix show
The newest season of Monster has finally been released on Netflix and focuses on Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, known by many as the ‘Butcher of Plainfield’.
Ed Gein killed two people in the 1950s, robbed numerous graves to make furniture and clothing from their skin and bones, and is thought to have killed even more.
The newest season follows on from Monster seasons on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers, co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan.
Hunnam’s bizarre portrayal as Ed Gein in the new Netflix season sees him take on the role of a killer who many believe had an intense psychosexual fixation on his own mother.
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His accent, however, is a particularly bizarre part of this, though, with many who watch probably surprised by the decisions Hunnam makes.
Hunnam himself is not a stranger to bold accent choices in film, having famously played a ‘cockney’ in Green Street and attempted a Belfast accent in Rebel Moon, both to severe ridicule.
His accent in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, however, saw him go to extreme lengths.
How did Charlie Hunnam come up with his accent for Ed Gein?
The Pacific Rim star's accent has already been a point of contention just hours after the show's release, with one fan posting on X: "I am giving the new season of Monster a try and, no hate, but anyone else think Charlie Hunnam’s Ed Gein sounds like a depressed Kermit the Frog?"
Despite the criticism, Hunnam's accent is actually quite closely based on Ed Gein's real voice.
In a recent interview with Variety, Hunnam and the show’s creatives explained just how far the Geordie actor had gone to get the accent for Ed Gein right.
He said: “The voice needed to be really specific… but I don’t think any of us really had an idea of what that was.”
Considering that Gein was arrested in 1957 and spent the rest of his life in a mental facility, very few recordings of him exist.
That being said, Max Winkler, director of six of the eight episodes, revealed the lengths Hunnam went to get his hands on one.
He said: “Our best researchers couldn’t get [a tape of Gein’s voice] but Charlie got it, because he’s Charlie and he does crazy sh*t.”
Hunnam had reached out to the producer of a documentary, Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein, for access to a 70-minute interview with Gein that had never seen the light of day, as it was not legally admissible.
He said after listening to the recording: “I started to see him through a series of affectations to please his mother… that’s where the voice came from.”
Hunnam went to even more extreme lengths to decompress from playing Ed Gein
Playing a serial killer can be something that can mess with the psyche of an actor, so Hunnam has spoken about how important it was for him to unwind.
Speaking on the TODAY show, he revealed that his wife had agreed that he would not come home until he had been able to leave the role behind properly.
This involved Hunnam staying behind in Chicago an extra week before going home.
Speaking on the talk show, however, the actor revealed that he had made an eight-hour drive to where Gein was buried in Wisconsin.
Hunnam said: “I thought … it was a good conclusion to go visit his grave and say what I wanted to say to him and basically that I hoped we had told his story honestly at the very least and didn’t invite him to come on the journey with me moving forward.”
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream on Netflix now.
Topics: Charlie Hunnam, Netflix, TV, TV and Film, True Crime, Ed Gein
Michael Slavin