Charlie Hunnam defends controversial new season of Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Arguing the Netflix series does not sensationalise or glorify the crimes of its subject, actor Charlie Hunnam has defended the controversial new season of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
Charlie Hunnam has defended the controversial new season of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, arguing the Netflix series does not sensationalise or glorify the crimes of its subject.
The 45-year-old actor, best known for Sons of Anarchy, plays the notorious murderer and grave robber in the latest instalment of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix true-crime anthology – a dark reimagining that explores how Gein’s traumatic past and fractured psyche led to a string of grisly crimes in 1950s rural America.
He has now hit out at criticism it glamourises or sensationalises its source material, telling The Hollywood Reporter following backlash from viewers and critics over the show’s graphic depiction of Gein’s life and murders: “I never felt like we were sensationalizing it. I never felt on set that we did anything gratuitous or for shock impact. It was all in order to try to tell this story as honestly as we could.”
The show explores the story of Wisconsin farmer Gein, who became infamous in the 1950s for grave robbing and creating macabre items from human remains.
Like the two preceding instalments in Ryan Murphy’s Monster franchise, the latest season has faced accusations of exploiting true crime stories for entertainment value.
Critics have pointed to what they described as the “glamorisation” of Gein’s crimes and questioned whether the show respects the real-life victims and their families.
Charlie also reflected on the broader question of who the “monster” in the story truly is.
He said: “Is it Ed Gein who was abused and left in isolation and suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and went and that manifested in some pretty horrendous ways?
“Or was the monster the legion of filmmakers that took inspiration from his life and sensationalised it to make entertainment and darken the American psyche in the process?”
He continued: “Is Ed Gein the monster of this show, or is Hitchcock the monster of the show? Or are we the monster of the show because we’re watching it?”
Ryan Murphy serves as creator and executive producer of the Monster series, which previously focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy.
The first instalment, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, became one of Netflix’s most-watched shows of all time upon release in 2022.
