Sarah Paulson in final talks to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Netflix and Ryan Murphy’s Monster season 4
The ten-episode series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (read our review HERE) was such a huge success for the Netflix streaming service back in 2022 that Netflix ordered two more seasons of the show from its creators, Ian Brennan and American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was released a year ago, and shook up the real lives of the title characters. Right before that season premiered last September, it was announced that Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam had signed on to play murderer and graverobber Ed Gein in Monster season 3, The Ed Gein Story. That season just made its premiere last month – and right around the same time as its release, season 4 started filming. This one is going to tell the story of Lizzie Borden – but Variety reports that it’s also going to feature serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who was convicted of killing seven men in 1989-1990. Murphy regular Sarah Paulson is in final talks to play the show’s version of Wuornos.
Paulson joins a cast includes Ella Beatty (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans), who landed the role of Lizzie Borden; Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs. Kong), who’s playing her stepmother Abby; Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), who is set to play the Borden family maid, Bridget Sullivan; Charlie Hunnam as her father, Andrew Borden; Billie Lourd (Scream Queens) as Lizzie’s older sister Emma Borden; and Jessica Barden (American Horror Stories), who will portray Nance O’Neill, a stage actress whose close friendship with Lizzie created a rift between her and her sister Emma. Max Winkler, who is married to Barden, directed the first episode of the season.
As Variety recently reminded us, “Borden lived in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. In 1892, she was accused of murdering both her father and her stepmother with an axe at their shared home. Borden was eventually acquitted of the crimes, but the brutal nature of the murders attracted nationwide attention and contributed to Borden’s place in popular culture.” She has had such an enduring place in pop culture that Christina Ricci starred in a Lifetime TV movie back in 2014 that was called Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, and that was followed by the 2015 eight-episode limited series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, a fictionalized look at Borden’s post-trial life. In 2018, Chloë Sevigny starred in the feature film Lizzie, with Kristen Stewart as her lover Bridget Sullivan.
As for how Aileen Wuornos will fit into the season, Variety expects that the show “will examine Borden’s impact on the perception of and connection to other female killers, much like how season 3 explored the impact of Ed Gein’s crimes on popular culture.” After watching how season 3 fumbled the Ed Gein story, I can’t say I’m excited to see where the series goes from here. Although JoBlo’s own Alex Maidy said in his review that he thought Ed Gein was the best season of Monster yet, I mostly hated it.
Murphy previously included Wuornos in the fifth season of American Horror Story, where she was played by Lily Rabe.
What do you think of Sarah Paulson being brought in to play Aileen Wuornos in season 4 of Monster? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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