Charlie Hunnam shares eerie thing he did to cope after playing Ed Gein in ‘Monster’: ‘I went to his...’
Charlie Hunnam is revealing the unsettling method he used to let go of Ed Gein's disturbing life story after filming wrapped up on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story.' While appearing on a September 30 episode of 'The Today' show, Hunnam, who plays the role of the infamous murderer in the latest installment of Ryan Murphy's 'Monster' anthology series, described Gein as "a very culturally influential person who you've never really heard of." The filming of the third season of the series kicked off last fall, and Hunnam stated that his girlfriend, Morgana McNelis, told him, "Take some time after you finish, because when you come home, you should be ready to see me."
Elsewhere in the interview, when Hunnam was asked how he managed to decompress after playing such an evil character, the 45-year-old actor mentioned that it takes time. According to PEOPLE, Hunnam shared, "I'd been shooting in Chicago, I decided to stay for a week and sort of decompress so I was ready to see her when I got home. When Hunnam was questioned if he paid a visit to Gein's grave, he replied, "Yeah, I went to visit the grave... And it was about an 8-hour drive up to Wisconsin from where I was to where Ed grew up and where he's buried."
Hunnam thought that it would be a "good conclusion to go visit his grave and say what I wanted to say to him" as a means to bid goodbye to the role and the story. At his grave, Hunnam told Gein, who passed away in 1984, that he "hoped we had told his story honestly at the very least, and [I] didn't invite him to come on the journey with me moving forward." In the interview, Hunnam confessed, "I was ready to say goodbye to him and that be the end."
While shedding light on the main goal of the crime drama series, Hunnam said, "That's one of the primary questions we ask in the show is, who is the monster? This boy who did terrible things but had been abused and left in isolation with untreated mental health issues, or this legion of filmmakers that took inspiration from his life and sensationalized it for entertainment, and arguably darkened the American psyche in the process?" In case you're wondering, 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' premieres on Friday, October 3, on Netflix.