Charlie Hunnam Officially Reveals His Biggest Fear Filming ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ (And It’s Not What You Think)

This interview contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.

Summary

Charlie Hunnam breaks down Andrew Borden’s tragic past.
The actor also reveals his biggest (and most hilarious) fear while filming Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.
Hunnam shares the Monster season he pitched to Ryan Murphy.

Charlie Hunnam has had a long and diverse career. Though best known for playing Jax Teller in the motorcycle club crime drama Sons of Anarchy, his television resume also includes Queer as Folk and cult favorite Undeclared, with notable film roles including action-adventure films Triple Frontier and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. He most recently starred as famous serial killer Ed Gein in the last installment of Monster, for which he was nominated for his first Emmy.

Hunnam returns to Monster in the new season, which focuses on famous female killer Lizzie Borden (Ella Beatty), who was acquitted of brutally killing her parents with an axe. Hunnam plays one of said victims, Andrew Borden, who works at a funeral home and begins an affair with the family maid (Vicky Krieps). Though more mild-mannered than his wife, Andrew has some explosive zingers (and explosive diarrhea), allowing Hunnam to flex his comedic chops.

Collider got the chance to talk to Hunnam about his work on the series. During the conversation, Hunnam discussed the character’s complex contradictions and motivations, filming that insane projective vomit scene, the Monster season he pitched to Ryan Murphy, and more.

Charlie Hunnam Dissects Andrew Borden’s Complex Persona

“He’s broken to the core.”

COLLIDER: I find your character so fascinating. He seems to sort of undermine women at every turn, but then when Bridget tells him that she’s trying to save money and get her own land, he seems very sort of supportive of that. Why do you think that is?

CHARLIE HUNNAM: My sense is that Andrew had this moment in his life where he crumbled under the level of grief and tragedy that he was having to endure, and rather than being able to process that, feel the sorrow of it, and move on, he became trapped in this negative feedback loop of self-hatred, hatred at the world, and at God. Everything that he had taken from him was the most precious to him. He undermines everybody and undermines everything around him because he’s broken to the core. But I think with Bridget, my sense was that he truly fell in love with her and found a sense of connection that had been missing in his life. When she was advocating for herself or looking for a life that would make her the happiest, he wanted that for her.

I think their power dynamic is so interesting, because she seems to sort of run the show in some ways. I’m curious if you think he’s attracted to her ambition and dominance.

HUNNAM: Interesting. You know, I don’t know. My sense was, without knowing very much about any of these people — Lizzie is very well documented, but Andrew, certainly Bridget, and Abby, there’s very little known about them — that there was maybe something in her spirit that reminded him of his first wife. Or just that she had a spirit that felt fresh and alive to him in a world that had become stagnant around him.

Charlie Hunnam Reveals His Biggest (and Funniest) Fear About Filming ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’

“I obviously didn’t want to shit myself.”

Rebecca Hall for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

He’s a relatively quiet man, but when he talks, his dialogue is crazy, to say the least. I’m curious how you approached this specific style of dialogue and dark comedy in a way, too.

HUNNAM: Ian does a lot of the work for you. He’s just so good, Ian, and it crackles on the page. Honestly, it’s really about honoring the specificity that’s on the page with Ian, but it’s sort of infectious in the way that there’s definitely room to improvise. Max really encouraged me to do that, so we improvised a lot, but it was always through the blueprints or the prism that Ian had created for us. It’s sort of the same process with everything that I work with — you just have to respect the writing, lean into it, try to hear the music of it, and then try as best you can to play that music once you get on set.

I’m curious if there was a specific line that stands out to you as a favorite or one that lives in your mind.

HUNNAM: You know what, it’s so bad — this dialogue is so important at the time, and then as soon as I finish, I forget it all. I’ve not had an opportunity to watch the show yet, but I’m sure there’s a lot that I’ll be tickled by when I watch it again. There were a lot of great lines that Andrew has.

The physical comedy is also so strong. I have to ask about the projectile vomiting and the explosive diarrhea. What was it like to shoot that scene? Especially logistically, because I imagine that is such a feat to take on.

HUNNAM: It’s a dangerous thing with acting — when you’re doing the work, you want to get it into your body. If you’re doing a very emotional scene, you have to trick your body into being consumed by sorrow so that you can cry when you need to cry. When it’s going well, you really do have a sort of out-of-body experience and surrender to the reality that your character’s going through and experiencing. But you know, I had to be very careful with that because I obviously didn’t want to shit myself. So I was really worried about that. I’m like, “We’re gonna spend an entire day having violent diarrhea. There’s potential for an accident here.” Thankfully, I made it through the day unscathed, but it was a pretty unpleasant day of filming. Having to be absolutely drenched in vomit and diarrhea for an entire day is not the ideal way to spend the day.

Charlie Hunnam Shares the ‘Monster’ Season He Pitched to Ryan Murphy

“I thought there was something interesting about exploring sanctioned murder within the mafia.”

Sarah Paulson in 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story' — Sarah Paulson in ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’

The Monster anthology obviously has covered a wide array of stories, some of which you’ve been part of. Is there a story you think would make a really good season of Monster?

HUNNAM: Yeah, I pitched it to Ryan, but he wasn’t interested. Roy DeMeo from the Gemini Lounge — in the 1970s, he was a captain of one of the five families, the Gambino family, and he became a serial killer. I thought there was something interesting about exploring sanctioned murder within the mafia and what was seen as sort of honorable and courageous, and held in high esteem if you had the goods to be able to defend the family and take care of business versus murder for pleasure or some sort of darker psychological impulse. I thought there was something interesting there to explore, and Ryan went, “Yeah, I’m not interested.”

Well, I’m interested. I’m going to look that up when I get out of here. That sounds really fascinating.

HUNNAM: Pretty well known, Roy DeMeo and the Gemini Lounge. He did a lot of hits for the mafia, but then it turned out that he was murdering for pleasure also.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is now streaming on Netflix.