After Ed Gein, why Charlie Hunnam came back to play Andrew Borden in The Lizzie Borden Story

There’s a familiar face in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. After playing the title role of Ed Gein in season three of the show, Charlie Hunnam is back as Andrew Borden, Lizzie Borden’s father. 

Andrew Borden is the coffin-making, affair-having father of Lizzie, who it’s shown share a tough relationship. By all intents and purposes, he too is portrayed as a bit of a monster himself. Now, in interviews, the creators of the Netflix anthology and Charlie Hunnam himself have spoken about the decision to come back. 

via Netflix

The creators of Monster were keen to have Charlie Hunnam back 

The showrunner of Monster has said they weren’t ready to “say goodbye” to Charlie Hunnam in the anthology just yet, so they were really keen to work with him again. They had the idea for him coming back while they were on set filming The Ed Gein Story. 

“We had such a great time working on the last season. It was just a joy,” Monster showrunner Ian Brennan told PEOPLE. “Charlie, you just can’t get enough of it. He’s so lovely and has such a great presence on set, and it just felt like, ‘Oh, this is perfect for him.’” 

He added it was “really impressive” to see Charlie be able to play such a  “vastly different” character in Andrew Borden, compared to Ed Gein, which he said was “really cool and a testament to his strengths as an actor.” 

Ian added: “I remember seeing him the first time as Ed Gein, and I couldn’t believe it. [Now,] he’s the victim, but in a way, he is playing a monster again. Andrew was a very, very troubled and troubling man himself. Charlie, he’s just so sympathetic in everything that he does. He just rounds out every character with this deep well of sympathy that really filled out what could otherwise be a stereotypical bad dad. He really filled [the character] out in such beautiful detail.”

Most Read

I went on a night out with Bonnie Blue – it was uncomfortable and she’s dead behind the eyes

Bonnie Blue’s video birthday messages to 16-year-olds are the final nail in the coffin

Meet OnlyFans’ gay ‘golden boy’ Ashton, and the thirsty clip that’s earned him 33 MILLION views

Charlie Hunnam saw the Andrew Borden role as one that offered more creative freedom

via Netflix

And of course, Charlie Hunnam was keen to return to the show. He has explained he saw the role of Andrew Borden as one that could offer him more creative freedom as an actor, because people hardly know anything about him. That’s much unlike Ed Gein, whose story a lot of people already knew. 

“[I was] liberated from the responsibility of playing a historical figure because there’s just not that much known, and so we were able to invent him to a certain degree,” he told PEOPLE. “It’s a real fertile playground for actors to come into this world.”

He added: “Max and Ian and Ryan [Murphy] all love actors and all expect us to show up with a perspective and be ready to do our work, and they create an environment and the material for us to come and shine, but it’s up to us to come and do the work and show up and give the good. Whether you’re playing the leading role or a supporting role, it’s all as creatively fulfilling when you work with these people.” 

Charlie Hunnam has already shared that one of the things he made up for the character of Andrew was his voice. Mr Borden didn’t have a stutter in real life, he said this just “came to him” as he was going through the scripts. 

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.