Rebecca Hall explains how she invented Abby Borden’s personality for Netflix’s Monster

Ryan Murphy’s Monster is back on Netflix, and this time the anthology series has gone all the way back to 1892 for the story of Lizzie Borden.

The new season, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, dramatises the infamous case of Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her father Andrew and stepmother Abby with an axe. 

Via Netflix

Obviously, a series about a 130-year-old murder case was never going to stick entirely to the historical record. And while Monster has kept some of the key details of the case, plenty of the characters and relationships have been fleshed out for TV.

One character in particular gave Rebecca Hall plenty of room to get creative: Abby Borden.

Hall plays Lizzie’s stepmother in the series, with Abby portrayed as a deeply unhappy woman who is frustrated with her marriage and increasingly cruel towards Lizzie. Netflix describes her as being trapped by the life she has inherited as Andrew Borden’s second wife.

But Hall has now explained that there simply wasn’t enough historical information about the real Abby for her to base the entire performance on.

Via Netflix

Speaking to Collider about taking on the role, Hall explained: “There’s very little about her out there, and I could already tell from reading the script that Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy had taken liberties and created a character that they were interested in for this show, so I felt like the only thing I could do was do the same thing.”

Basically, when the history books stopped giving her answers, she had to fill in the blanks herself.

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

Monster’s lead star explains why Aileen Wuornos was clumsily shoved into Lizzie Borden show

Hall also admitted that she wanted her version of Abby to feel like a fully formed character rather than simply playing her as the stereotypical evil stepmother.

“[Abby’s] an archetypal stepmother figure, but she’s also really wounded and hurt […] She’s the kind of character who feels like she wanted a lot more from life and hasn’t had it, so now she’s turned to alcohol and cruelty,” she told Collider.

And Hall didn’t just invent parts of Abby’s personality, she also came up with a very specific voice for her.

Via Netflix

“When I was thinking about the accent, which I wanted to be not really from anywhere as much as just Abby, I kept thinking about those mid-Atlantic accents that actors created in the 1930s that didn’t actually exist but had this sort of affect of like, ‘I’m extremely posh and elitist,’” she explained.

“I listened to a lot of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.”

Hall said the lack of information about Abby ultimately gave her the freedom to create something that felt “unique and specific”, rather than attempting to recreate a woman about whom very little is actually known.

The real Abby was murdered alongside her husband in 1892, and Lizzie was charged with both killings before being acquitted the following year. Beyond those established facts, the series has plenty of room to imagine the people and relationships behind the case.

For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Featured image via Netflix