Charlie Hunnam on Becoming Ed Gein for Netflix's 'Monster'

In “ Monster: The Ed Gein Story ,” you see the titular serial killer long before you hear him. Silently, Ed Gein — whose on-screen avatars have haunted American pop culture since his pattern of murder and grave-robbing became public in 1957 — does chores on the family farm. Then he peeps on a neighbor before pleasuring himself while wearing his mother’s undergarments. Ryan Murphy’s “Monster” franchise provocations have rarely begun quite so startlingly. It’s only after Mom catches him in the act that he finally speaks. “S’pose I was trying to be funny,” he says in a voice that’s ethereal, a bit flutelike — Elmer Fudd with half a hit of helium. Gein’s body, nude, is that of a frighteningly well-developed man; his voice is that of a child.

“The voice needed to be really specific,” Hunnam