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The Unusual Side Effect of Playing a Serial Killer
Dating an actor can come with some unexpected challenges, especially when the role they take on is as intense as portraying a real-life serial killer. For Charlie Hunnam, this experience was more than just a professional challenge—it became a personal one, particularly for his girlfriend, Morgana McNelis.
Hunnam’s portrayal of Ed Gein in Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story required him to fully immerse himself in the character. This level of commitment had an unusual side effect: he started speaking like the infamous killer, even at home. His partner found this behavior unsettling and had to ask him to stop.
At the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, Hunnam shared that he would slip into the Ed Gein voice “around the house” during filming. “I was slipping in and out of it all the time,” he admitted. “And she would say, ‘Dude, you have to stop at the voice.’” He added, “At breakfast, it’s a little too much.”
A Role That Wasn’t Easy to Let Go
Hunnam initially felt uneasy about taking on the role. He told Entertainment Weekly that once he said yes, he thought he had made a “horrible mistake.” Researching Ed Gein led to a sense of panic, as he feared the role might be too dark for him. “This is so dark, to inhabit this character,” he said. “I just thought there might be no coming back from this.”
However, after reading the scripts, his perspective changed. He realized that the story wasn’t just about the crimes Ed Gein committed—it was about understanding why he did what he did. “It was about trying to find the human being behind the monster,” Hunnam explained.
The Emotional Struggle of the Role
Despite the shift in perspective, the role was emotionally taxing. Hunnam described working on the series as “a really beautiful experience” in some ways, but also “definitely dark at times.” He recalled moments when the cast and crew questioned how they would make it through the day.
When he first took the role, he didn’t have access to the scripts. “All I had to go upon were all of the texts that have been written about him,” he explained. “They were just this litany of this sensationalist horror show of all of the things that he did, which were undoubtedly terrible.”
But as he delved deeper, he began to see the person behind the crimes. “There was a human being in there, a mixed-up, mentally ill, abused, isolated man inside there that was driving all of that,” he said. “So it took a while to get past what he did, to be able to find who he was inside and why he was doing what he was doing.”
A Complex Character, A Challenging Performance
Hunnam’s journey in portraying Ed Gein highlights the complexity of the character and the emotional toll of such a role. While the project was challenging, it also offered a unique opportunity to explore the psychology of a criminal in a way that goes beyond surface-level horror.
For Hunnam, the experience was both daunting and enlightening. It pushed him to confront the darker aspects of human behavior and to find the humanity within a figure often seen only as a monster.