Were there any reservations in taking on such a seismic shift between characters season to season? Was there hesitation in that? Did you embrace the

challenge? Yeah, I mean, there was a sense with always playing sort of a historical character, somebody who lived, like a great sense of responsibility, and I really felt the weight of that with Ed, and there was so much written about him.

So I sort of set about trying to become one of the world's leading authorities on Ed Gein, and I just read everything.

you know, all of the books that had been written about him in the graphic novels and then all of his medical records and the court transcripts and everything.

And it was sort of liberating in this instance, and there's almost nothing known about Andrew.

So it gave us an opportunity to have, you know, invention that was tailored to make Lizzie's story and Lizzie's narrative sort of function in the most, you know, sort of clear and concise way.

Although he is rumored, it's sort of, it's conflicting information, the little that's known.

Was that exciting or alluring, like jumping back into this to see how many time jumps we would get with this?

stand out to you?

Yeah, I mean, I think Ian Brennan is one of the most talented and sort of surprising, inspired writers working in television.

And he's able to shapeshift and genre bend within, you know, seamlessly where things can feel true.

deeply tragic and incredibly earnest and then like the next scene wild and absurdist and completely irreverent and you know theatrical and so it's just a joy to be able to sort of shape shift within that and yeah and sort of lean into all those tonal shifts.

And Max is also sort of a master of being able to weave through that.

And, you know, so I really love it.

I mean, I appreciate that you say that I sort of fit into this, but to me, it's about...

Having that sort of position where you can both be your victim in this story, but you're also kind of a complicated part of it that like how how did that dance work with the lead actor and sort of in how you sort of approach how you're going to stand out, but also support them in what they're doing?

Was there an element of Ed's environment or his thinking that you wanted to kind of explore that you felt wasn't explored before that you could show?

I think, you know, definitely I spend a lot of time trying to understand mental illness.

Specifically, he was acutely schizophrenic, but also had sort of a disassociative personality thing going on.

So I spent a huge amount of time trying to understand that.

And I really feel like one of the things that is really relevant about Ed's story, that's really perilous in society at large right now, is just like the consequence of isolation.

Like I think more and more we're like isolating each other and living in an isolated society and abdicating our responsibility to our communities and to ourselves through community.

And that was the thing that really struck me about Ed is that had he not been abused as a child, obviously that had a horrible impact on him.

So what was that process like for you?

I've never been, but I've heard of it.

Gorgeous, geographically gorgeous place.

But my last day in high school in Newcastle was actually Valentine's Day, and it was the first year of going to senior school.

And I was one of the most popular kids in school.

I remember I got 15 Valentine's cards, and that was my last day.

And so I left, you know, feeling pretty full of myself, and, like, I, you know, had figured out the... you know, the flow of navigating high school and then went to this new school after this short break, this two week break, a half term break.

And my first hour of that school This guy came up to me and was like, new boy, new boy, do you want to go? Like he sort of had me cornered and he said, do you want to go? But I didn't understand the sort of local vernacular that that meant, do you want to fight? I thought he meant, do you want me to let you go? So I said, yeah, I want to go.

But how did you get to him?