Monster star Charlie Hunnam says his dad questioned his sexuality after he landed Queer As Folk role
Hunnam played Nathan Maloney on Queer As Folk when he was just 18, which debuted in 1999 and explored the lives of gay men in Manchester
By Callum Wells
Charlie Hunnam has revealed that his dad once questioned his sexuality after he landed his breakthrough role in the 90s gay drama Queer As Folk.
The actor now stars as serial killer Ed Gein in the third season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series Monster, following the grisly stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and Erik and Lyle Menendez in the first two seasons. Ahead of its Netflix debut on Friday (3 October), Hunnam told Variety about bringing the infamous killer – who inspired Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – to life.
Hunnam also reflected on his early career, including playing Nathan Maloney on Russell T Davies’ Queer As Folk when he was just 18, which debuted in 1999 and explored the lives of gay men in Manchester.
“Being on that show came with some consequences” – Charlie Hunnam on starring in Queer as Folk
In the Channel 4 series, 15-year-old schoolboy Nathan embarked on a relationship with an older man, Stuart, played by Aidan Gillen.
“Being on that show came with some consequences,” Hunnam, who is straight, told the publication. He described being hassled in public, including “one altercation at Preston station that looked like it was going to escalate into violence”.
Hunnam’s father, “an incredibly tough scrap-metal merchant” from Newcastle, “didn’t quite get” the show. The actor recalled, “He asked if I was gay and if this was representative of the life I was living,” adding his father “eventually came around”.
He added of his parent: “He was sort of a king in our city,” thanks to his role in one of Newcastle’s big industries. “He wanted me to take over his business, and I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive in that world.”
When is Monster: The Ed Gein Story available to stream on Netflix?
Hunnam described disappointing his father as “a wound I had to carry”, which he eventually healed through his work on FX crime drama, Sons of Anarchy.
Now, he takes on the role of Gein – the murderer and grave robber whose 1950s crimes in Plainfield, Wisconsin earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Plainfield”. His shocking acts of exhuming corpses and fashioning trophies from human remains went on to inspire horror classics including Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream on Netflix now.