On the surface, Ed Gein and Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) have very little in common. One lived with his domineering mother on the plains of snowy Wisconsin, while the other, a creation of director Tobe Hooper, keeps a house full of unruly men in the brutal heat of the Texas heartland. Gein was a shy and sensitive man with a habit of digging up women’s bodies, while Leatherface wields a roaring chainsaw and slaughters humans to sell their meat. But savvy horror and true crime fans know that these men are intrinsically connected by one of history’s most celebrated films. Hooper grew up hearing stories about “The Woman Skinner of Wisconsin” and based his 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the more grisly aspects of Gein’s documented crimes. In the fifty years since the film’s release, its true crime roots have largely fallen into shadow, but the third season of Ryan Murphy’s Monster pulls the strange link between these disparate men back into the spotlight.
Episodes three and four of Monster: The Ed Gein Story seamlessly weave between a fantastical version of Plainfield, Wisconsin, and Hooper’s chaotic Texas set. Meticulously recreated in loving detail, these vignettes explore the impact Gein (Charlie Hunnam) continues to have on the genre landscape while delighting fans of Hooper’s film with exciting glimpses behind the scenes.
Bringing the iconic Leatherface back to life is Brock Powell, an actor and voice artist known for a host of roles, including Mickey Mouse Funhouse, Baymax Dreams, and video games such as God of War: Ragnarök. Bloody Disgusting sat down with the latest man to hold the saw for an inside scoop on what it was like to replicate one of the most disturbing films of all time.
‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’
Bloody Disgusting: So right off the bat, are you a fan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?
Brock Powell: I am. I don’t think you could play this part and not be. Anytime there was a Halloween event or a Halloween fan project, I got cast to be Leatherface, and I actually played him for Universal Studios at one of their Halloween Horror Nights.
BD: You picked up the chainsaw again in the new season of Monster: The Ed Gein Story. How did you approach embodying this iconic figure for the screen? Did you want to put your own stamp on the character?
BP: No, I wanted to be as close to Gunnar Hansen’s performance as humanly possible. Everyone behind the scenes was looking for someone to fill the apron, so to speak, who was as close to Gunnar as possible. And they found me within the height, to the inch, and probably down to the pound. It was just fated, two large, tall Icelandic dudes. [Laughs] When Noah Rivers, who recreated the mask, was pulling it over my head, he goes, “Oh my god, it not only fits, but Gunnar had the same little chin waddle that you have!” So the way it sat on my face was just perfect. It was absolutely meant to be.
The attention to detail was really important as a fan and a performer, especially in this time of AI. I kept thinking to myself, these segments could have been done a different way, but Ian Brennan, Ryan Murphy, and Max Winkler were committed to paying the artists their due, tying the making of the film to Ed Gein’s legacy by including Gunnar and Tobe in all these segments. I think as an actor and an artist, to be able to say that I was not just portraying Leatherface, but Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface. That’s really what I’ll walk away from this role with. It wasn’t my first time playing Leatherface, but it is my first time playing Gunnar Hansen.
BD: The first time we see your character, you take the mask off, and we’re seeing you as Gunnar, who is so beloved in the horror community.
BP: Oh, absolutely. Just a legend.
BD: How did you distinguish between Leatherface and Gunnar?
The segments in the show are vignettes, but we filmed a lot of stuff, which really allowed me to make those distinguishing moments. I just leaned into how I would have felt. You probably know some of the apocryphal stories that come out about Texas Chain Saw. I did a ton of research. I read Chain Saw Confidential. I read every book I could get my hands on, trying to suss out if my research was true or not. The shoot was hot. It was miserable. It took a long time. The experience I had with Ryan Murphy Productions couldn’t have been further from that. So there was some acting involved to try to make it look like I was upset anytime the mask was off.
Gunnar really did not intend to be an actor. He was a poet and a kind soul. This was just a series of events, and he was the right person for it. Essentially, he stepped into the role when the original Leatherface that they had cast was too drunk to do the part. So you have this gentle soul who’s under begrudging circumstances on a job he didn’t want, on a shoot that’s taking too long. While filming the Gunnar stuff, I would go back to some of the worst jobs I’ve had as an actor to put myself in the mental space of, “I don’t want to be here. Let’s get this over with. Let me run with the chainsaw.”
It’s a very different headspace. You have this character who, for all intents and purposes, is going through his own personal Home Alone movie in which teenagers have broken into his house. He’s made a lovely dinner, and now there are all these strangers here. For me, there really is no malintent in Leatherface. As a dad, I can now compare some of the attributes my toddler was showing with some of the things Leatherface expresses. And obviously, there’s some developmental nonverbal stuff there. Which as an actor with autism, I was also sensitive to. I wanted to make sure I was finding ways to inform those elements that didn’t feel trivial, just like Gunnar did. He also did a ton of research, and at that time, the autism spectrum was not understood the way it is now.
There are a lot of people, myself included, who speculate that Leatherface might have been neurodivergent, maybe on the autism spectrum. We just didn’t have that language at the time. You’ve also done a lot of work in the autism community, so how did this inform how you approached this character?
Well, obviously, it’s still horror, and there were moments where I knew I had to be scary. As part of my experience with autism, I have sensory issues. Either I don’t always know how loud I am, or something that seems quiet to other people is really startling to me. That’s there, too, in the original film. Leatherface is making little chicken sounds and cow sounds. He’s communicating through farm sounds because he’s on a farm and he doesn’t talk to people. I just tried to keep it down to this primal question of, “Who are you? What are you doing? I’m scared. I’m hungry. I’m in trouble.” Obviously, Gunnar got to showcase the entire arc, and we’re just showing a little. I think the show really does have a lot to say about how mental health and neurodivergency have been demonized in our society, not just from the Leatherface perspective, but also with Ed Gein. As much as it’s about the horrible stuff that happened, it also opens a conversation about how we handle these things. Even to this day, there are parallels. I mean, autism is a conversation that’s constantly happening in every sphere.
‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’
What was the filming process like? Were you constantly referring to the original scenes?
I worked over several shoot days, and the first couple were filmed by Ian Brennan, who wrote this season. It was really special because he had a particular vision in his mind, but he also had full trust in us. There were a lot of times when we would have really quick conversations, trying to figure out the logistics of moments like when I’m throwing the chainsaw or I’m screaming. There was a lot of intention behind it. For the chainsaw dance, both Charlie [Hunnam] and I watched the end sequence with the truck bed. I filmed mine first, and then Charlie had to reference mine and Gunnar’s and make it his own.
We also built the house so the hallway and the killing floor and the ice chest, the weird lampshade with the shrunken head that looks like a blowfish. It was all there. The first time you see us at the end of episode three, we’re doing the hammer and the bucket. It was so incredible. David [LeRoy Anderson] applied the makeup to grandpa. We had two grandpas. And they were both awesome. Our Marilyn (Sabrina Haskett) was incredible. It was just a lot of fun. We must have dropped that hammer in the bucket like…Oh my gosh, maybe a hundred times because it needed to land right. And, you know, the Leatherface mask, the peripheral vision is not the best. We kept that consistent because that was a big complaint Gunnar had.
Ian was there the first couple of days, and the last few I shot were with director Max Winkler. They very much had the vision of what we were filming. Everything we did, we were referencing the picture and bringing very, very big energy, like, “Brock, you got this. Let her rip.“ It was really cool to get there as an actor because you want to be respectful. You want to be mindful. Also, knowing the total shape of the show and how some of our scenes are light compared to the really heavy stuff the series covers. I think that also lent to the energy of the days we were there. The crew knew we were doing Texas Chainsaw. These are horror fans. People were excited about it.
How would you describe the legacy of Ed Gein and Leatherface?
I don’t conflate the two. I keep them very much separate. In my personal opinion, the legacy of Ed Gein is about these mental health issues. And obviously horrific acts. There’s no cleaning that up. There were some horrific things that happened. The show does serve up all the details while speculating about some cold cases that happened around the same time. It’s really clear to me that this was a story that needed to be told, not as a redemption arc, but as an examination of what happened in America after World War II, after all these atrocities and the domino effect of collective trauma. So to me, that’s the legacy of Ed Gein, the importance of talking about trauma and looking out for those who are traumatized, dealing with it as a society.
As for the legacy of Leatherface? I mean, 50 years and going strong, right? This character, wherever he lands, is going to scare a whole new generation. And I’m so excited because I love Leatherface, and I know I’m not the only one. Whether I’m behind the chainsaw or in the audience, I’ll be there.
For more on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Monster: The Ed Gein Story, check out recent episodes of Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction Podcast.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in episode 304 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2025
