Laurie Metcalf on Her 'Bolder' New Approach After a No-Script Gamble on 'Monster'

For Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Emmy-winning actress Laurie Metcalf made a career-first move: she agreed to star in the project without having read a single script. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Metcalf admitted this isn't her “preferred way” of doing things, but she was captivated by series co-creator Ryan Murphy’s vision for her character, Augusta.

Metcalf plays the domineering, hyper-religious, and psychologically abusive mother of the infamous killer Ed Gein, portrayed by Charlie Hunnam. Once on board, she said her and Hunnam's challenge was to create a mother-son dynamic that “wasn’t totally lopsided.” Their mission, she explained, was to find the “little seeds of, even tenderness” that stemmed from Augusta's twisted sense of protecting her son and guiding him down the “right path.”

Despite the grim subject matter, Metcalf described the set as a “collaborative and weirdly fun environment.” She pointed to an unscripted scene improvised by director Max Winkler near the end of the shoot as a perfect example.

"It was me, my character, chasing Charlie around the house, and we were giggling and laughing, just playing tag inside the house," she recalled. "If he had come up with that idea during the first week... I wouldn't have known what to make of it, but by the end, it made so much weird sense to me that these two in their dysfunctional relationship would have a moment like that."

Metcalf said she "ended up falling in love" with the seemingly ridiculous scene, calling the director's request to do it "ballsy" and admiring its creative insight into the characters.

Ultimately, the experience of signing on without a script had a lasting impact on the veteran actress. “I learned that it’s okay to take a leap of faith like that,” Metcalf shared. “I think it made me a little bolder. It made me a little less risk-averse. I wanted to explore whatever this was going to be, starting from scratch, with everybody else.”