At the moment, he’s not in character but rather marveling at a hobby he picked up before filming “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.” In it, he plays Lizzie’s father, an undertaker who is fine chopping a client’s legs off if they are too tall for the coffin. Hunnam himself says that in the months leading up to filming, he’d been noticing felled trees on the side of the road while driving through Los Angeles. He took to chopping them up and throwing them into the back of his pickup truck.
When I got this, because Andrew Borden’s an ax collector, I said, ‘Well, it’s for the work. I’ve got to have these axes.’” The conversation mirrors the surprising, irreverent tone of this season of “Monster.” A complete turn from the darkness of “The Ed Gein Story,” in which Hunnam starred as the titular killer, there is a lightness, beauty and levity to Lizzie’s story — even when she grabs an ax and takes some whacks. This fourth season stars Ella Beatty as the naive, curious title character, whose world brightens when a new housemaid, Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps), arrives and introduces Lizzie to daring literature and kinky sex.
Yet her awakening is dampened by her depressed father and cruel stepmother Abby (Rebecca Hall). Despite Lizzie committing such a legendary crime, Beatty was able to find a kindred spirit in the character, a very complicated young woman. I felt a huge responsibility to the part, to the anthology, to the real person.
I think immediately I just wanted to start working on it. How does she blink?” Hall, whose character says some jaw-droppingly mean things to her stepdaughter, was thrilled to unwrap a deliciously cruel antagonist. It just felt like such an opportunity to be both funny and scary at the same time, which is an interesting tonal challenge.
I loved [writer] Ian Brennan’s take on this character, which felt like it was a creation of Ian Brennan and [executive producer] Ryan Murphy and had nothing to do with history really, as much as it gave me license to create this unique character.” Despite Abby’s savagery, Hall saw a unique reflection of the character and the title killers in the series. So even Abby Borden has that as well. There’s reason behind it.
She’s also in a pressure cooker, and she’s become an alcoholic over time. I sort of loved the character. There’s a lot of fun to be had, and there’s something very interesting about playing someone who’s keeping up appearances, who wants to appear posh and together and is just a complete and utter mess — and a sadistic one to boot.” This season is a star-making moment for Beatty, whose parents, Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, are legends in their own right.
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