Spoiler Alert: This story describes plot development for “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” currently streaming on Netflix.
Vicky Krieps’ role in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” is the result of the series’ “often fantastical storytelling.” At the season premiere, Ed (Charlie Hannham) is on display with a comic book by Adeline (Suzanna’s son), a love interest characterised by the fatal exposure of “Buffenwald bitch.” Koch is a real-life Nazi war criminal, played by Creeps here. The specialization of the disease includes peeling off the skin of Jews and making things like lampshades. However, it wasn’t an easy choice for Krieps to take on that role until co-runner Ryan Murphy explained how the stories of the two murderers were put together. Creeps spoke to Variety about her controversial role and why she came to terms with the family’s personal connection to the Holocaust.
Before you played your role, what research did you do about ILSE?
It was actually part of my journey that I embrace that role. My grandfather was in a concentration camp, so I was not prepared to play such a role. This part of history is so close to me and my family, I was very worried about doing it on TV, whether it was done with respect or not. It scared me: if I revisit this, what would I do? I was 8 years old and was reading all the Holocaust books you can find, so it was an easy part for me. What helped me was knowing it was based on cartoon characters. So Ed Gaine’s fantasy is through the comics. It was free for me and why did I feel I could do this. To me, she was like a mix of Old Hollywood stars and housewives in the 50s who wanted to be perfect. She wants to be so perfect that she doesn’t realize that what she is doing is going beyond the corpse.
My research was, “How can I accept being an actress portraying fantasy, comics?” and, obviously, knowing how her story ends, we felt there was something here. None of Hitler or any of them really understood what they did. She doesn’t really understand, and she has real regrets, but there’s definitely something and it gets crazy. She was infatuated by realizing what she had done in the end. This was something I thought was very important to be able to see a lot of people actually down. Then I just went for it.
When you are playing someone so evil, do you have to work to find a piece of humanity you can hold?
I think the last piece of the puzzle helped me get in was when I realized that she was very similar to some of the people today and that what she wants is perfect. She wants to become the perfect woman and have a perfect life, a perfect home and a perfect husband. If she has to cure it, this is what she does, perfectionism for this disease. That really helped me to the character and her evilness. It also immediately made me think about Hannah Allend. She wrote this important part about the evils of everyday life. Evil is in the kitchen, it is in the house, it is private, it is the most human kind.
I feel like I was very aware of what Ryan wanted. The question is, “What is a monster?” The monsters could be us. Because many evils in the world are being done. Because we believe we know who is the bad guy. Obviously, I think monsters and bad guys are always others, and the only way to move forward as a society is to accept that we are others, we are monsters, we are bad guys. We are all. This is how I understood it and this is how I tried to approach it. It was important to give her so much humanity. I find this whole question appealing because of my family and my background. But I didn’t expect it to be so much fun and really free to draw.
Your character is woven into the story of Ed Gaine in a complex way. Was it difficult to visualize how the first two stories mixed together?
I really had to trust Ryan. And I think this is why I ended up having three emails to say yes because I needed to trust him. Reading the script I thought, “This is so crazy. I really don’t know how this goes together.” From the donkey moment, I really, “What? I have to sit on a donkey in my underwear, really? How serious?” And what they wrote when we were filming. I hadn’t read any episodes of Ham Radio when I started it, and when it came, I had no idea. It’s not going well. We have lived for centuries, so it’s all in his mind. Ryan, (co-showrunner) Ian (Brennan) and (director) Max (Winkler) want to make something truly artistic. If you want to create something artistic, at some point you need to give up, trust everything, trust your intuition. So we really trusted it was crazy, but in the end it made sense.
Before signing on to “Monsters,” how familiar were you in Ryan Murphy’s universe?
I didn’t watch much TV. I have two small children and I have always been busy with it so I didn’t see his work. I watched “Hollywood” and didn’t know it was related to him. People said to me, “Oh, that’s Ryan Murphy.” There was a zoom call. He explained it to me and I liked the person I was talking to. I felt that there were people who were intelligent and really wanted to convey something, and there were people who really needed me to help him communicate that world. It has always been an important factor. Then I went to see his stuff and I was so surprised and happy to see the “feud” – I loved it. When it was finished, I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to keep watching all these two women, or Capote women. It’s very beautiful. That was one of the reasons I said yes. Because I felt he would take care of him, and he makes it, so this part of history is not just used to create a sense. Now I’m a fan.
You are in the upcoming season of “Monsters” Lizzie Borden. What can fans expect?
They can expect to be one of these worlds that you want to dive into these people and stay. It will become a women’s world. And I don’t think this has happened that way in Ryan Murphy’s universe yet. In his universe, this will undoubtedly become a female planet. We’re having fun playing with it and I hope the fans enjoy watching it.
This interview was compiled and condensed.
