Monster: The Ed Gein Story star Charlie Hunnam is a 'frustrated writer and director'
Monster: The Ed Gein Story star Charlie Hunnam says he still dreams of fulfilling his original ambition of being a writer/director, despite his long and successful acting career.
Charlie Hunnam is a “frustrated writer/director”, despite his successful acting career.
The 45-year-old British actor has had an illustrious run of roles in shows like Sons of Anarchy and Monster: The Ed Gein Story and films like Green Street, The Lost City of Z and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Hunnam's dream though was to become a director and it is an ambition he still holds.
Speaking on the Prestige Junkie podcast, Charlie reflected on how his career took an unexpected turn after an early acting role led him away from filmmaking and into acting full-time.
Talking about his early ambitions, he said: “I went to film school wanting to be a writer/director. I spent all my entire youth watching film, and thinking about film and storytelling and always thought I would be a director.”
Hunnam explained that his path shifted after he was cast in Byker Grove, the long-running children’s television series filmed in Newcastle, North East England, where he grew up.
He said: “And then I got an opportunity somewhat randomly, although I don’t think these things are random, to do an acting role in a show called Byker Grove, which was a children’s TV show where I shot in Newcastle, where I’m from. And that led me to getting an agent, that led me to getting Queer As Folk, which was my second ever audition.
"By the time I was 18, just about to turn 19, I’d already moved to America and was pursuing acting as a career. And here we are, like 27 years later, I’m still a frustrated writer-director.”
Hunnam's 2025 has been defined by him playing serial killer and body snatcher Ed Gein in Netflix drama Monster: The Ed Gein story.
Although he initially struggled to get inside the mind of the Butcher of Plainfield - whose crimes inspired characters in films such as Norman Bates in Psycho, Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs - Hunnam was eventually able to "go deeper" into Gein's psyche and ultimately found the part very rewarding.
He said: “I thought with Ed’s it felt when I had accepted the role and started getting into it, it felt utterly impossible. It just felt too great of a challenge.
"I couldn’t find who I thought this guy was, and I was really panicked and really afraid of the darkness and bleakness of the subject matter.
"And what I found was as I journeyed through that and continued to force myself to move forward and go deeper, that it ended up being one of the most rewarding processes I had.”
