Overview
- Hunnam told The Hollywood Reporter that during the second half of shooting in Chicago he adopted two stray kittens, kept them in his Four Seasons room, and paid a catsitter because he worked 14- to 15-hour days.
- He said returning from long, intense workdays to play with the kittens for hours helped him step out of the dark role and manage the mental strain of portraying a real-life killer.
- To prepare for the part he spent months reading police files and records about Ed Gein, changed his voice for the role, and lost roughly 30 pounds in about three to four weeks to match Gein’s look.
- The series Monster: The Ed Gein Story received seven Emmy nominations and Hunnam earned his first individual Emmy nod, a milestone he has discussed alongside his wider ambitions to write and direct.
- Reporters note that Gein’s real crimes are unusually disturbing, which helps explain the extreme research and mental-health steps Hunnam described and why grounding routines were central to his process.