Why Charlie Hunnam uses 'historically inaccurate' accent in Lizzie Borden Monster series
Charlie Hunnam is returning to Monster and this time he isn’t playing the murderer but instead the victim of a brutal crime.
Hunnam received a mixed response for his leading role as Ed Gein on the last season of Monster, and as if often the case with the Newcastle-born actor his accent was a hot topic of discussion.
Recordings of Ed Gein’s real voice shocked viewers as they discovered that Hunnam had taken some serious artistic license in recreating the murderer’s accent.
The actor has now spoken out about how he will go about voicing his character in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story where he will play Andrew Borden, the father of Lizzie who was murdered in a vicious axe attack. This time round he has specifically acknowledged that his accent will be ‘historically inaccurate’, but has stated why in a new interview.
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Monster creator Ryan Murphy has spoken about how the season will continue one of the main themes of the show, examining whether monsters are ‘born or made’, and will portray some of Andrew Borden’s lesser-known dark moments.
Hunnam will portray Andrew Borden as having a lisp and stutter
The Rebel Moon actor was asked about how he goes about developing the voice of characters by CBR, specifically noting that he has a lisp and stutter in the show.
He was asked how we ‘found’ the voice and accent, explaining that the first thing he does is read the script for his roles repeatedly. Hunnam continued: “The first thing I just started to hear with Andrew was that there was a stutter, you know, and that's not historically accurate. There's nothing to indicate that he actually had a stutter.” The original script had one moment of a stutter when Andrew is under ‘emotional duress’, but he decided to expand this.
The star explained that, whilst he doesn’t have the best memory, he is great at remembering dialogue and will often repeat dialogue to himself whilst walking or driving.
Hunnam added: “That stutter and that voice just started to present itself to me.”
Andrew Borden will be portrayed as a ‘monstrous person’ in the show, but a common myth suggests he murdered Lizzie’s personal pigeons isn’t quite accurate
Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found murdered in 1892, with his daughter Lizzie being arrested and charged with the crime. Ultimately however, she was acquitted, but no one was ever charged with the murder, and history has remembered her as a killer despite her acquittal.
The common portrayals of the case have shown Andrew Borden killing Lizzie’s pet-pigeons with an axe just days prior to his death, often presented as part of a possible motive for her to kill her father.
The reality however is that, when questioned in an inquest, she stated that her father had killed some pigeons months prior when simply asked whether any animals had been killed in the house. Despite being portrayed as pets of Lizzie’s, they were more likely raised as food.
The interviewer claims that Andrew and his wife Abby are portrayed as being ‘monstrous’ in the series, with Hunnam saying: “He's, you know, a pretty monstrous dude Andrew Bordon, both Lizzie’s parents were deeply unhappy, spiteful people. And so, the journey for me was understanding why.
“It was ultimately in Andrew’s case born out of tragedy. He lost his wife, one of his daughter’s died, he just endured having to lose the life that he created for himself and then he created this other life in its place that never made him happy and that made him feel oppressed and trapped and through that oppression came all of this rage and spite.”
Hunnam stars alongside Ella Beatty, who plays Lizzie Borden, whilst Sarah Paulson stars as 1980s serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Charlie Hunnam, Netflix, True Crime, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin