Charlie Hunnam Found Lost Ed Gein Tapes For Monster Season 3

The star of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Charlie Hunnam, revealed that he discovered some shocking tapes that even the show’s researchers were unable to find. Season 3 of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series follows the Midwestern serial killer, Ed Gein, who is the inspiration behind several classic horror films such as Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.

In Monster season 3, Hunnam, who portrays the murderous grave robber, found a very dedicated and creative way to get into the mindset of a serial killer. In an interview with Screen Rant’s Liam Crowley, the actor disclosed the information that he learned after a series of endless phone calls and emails.

Hunnam “Relentlessly” Searched For The Ed Gein Tapes

Hunnam explained that he found out about the recordings through a documentary titled Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein. After listening to snippets of the tapes, he was determined to track down the full, uncut versions. He contacted everyone whom he could think of who might have access to these alleged recordings.

“Where there’s a will – and there was a will – there’s a way. Excerpts of these tapes had been in a documentary called Psycho: The Lost Tapes [of Ed Gein] on Amazon. They were only tiny little excerpts, but that’s how anybody even knew these tapes existed. So, I just started relentlessly cold calling and emailing everybody [who] was involved in that project.”

The actor said that all his hard work paid off because he managed to get a copy of the tapes from Joshua Kunau, who he described as a “really beautiful, generous producer.” He recalled having to sign an NDA before receiving an MP3 file of an interview that took place after Gein’s arrest.

“That interview was taken the night after Ed Gein was arrested, and the reason those tapes were never circulated was because they failed to read him his Miranda Rights, and he’d been beaten up by the deputy sheriff, who was the son of Bernice Worden. She was one of Ed’s victims, and her son was the deputy sheriff and had access to Gein and beat him up. They always thought that those tapes would be inadmissible, so they were just never circulated. They just stayed in a dusty drawer forever.”

Hunnam “Avoided Decompressing” In Between Takes

When it came to his actual performance as Gein, Hunnam was just as dedicated as he was while he was doing research for the role. Like all actors in similar positions, he had to completely change his physical appearance while filming, which could seem quite stressful. However, Hunnam explained that he was so busy that he didn’t really have time to stop and relax.

“I honestly avoided decompressing – not in any sort of method acting way. It’s just really hard to fully inhabit somebody that you’re not. It takes a lot of focus, and so there was just never-ending work. Obviously, I’m the lead of the show. I’m in a lot of scenes, and we shot multiple units. Even when I wasn’t working, I was still working. I was always on a unit. All that’s to say, after working 14 or 15-hour days, and then three hours of homework at night, there wasn’t really any time to not be super focused on this.”

However, Hunnam also made it clear that he was okay with his hectic schedule. He even said that he actually enjoyed how busy this role kept him: “I like a challenge. I would say it’s workaholism much more than method acting.”