Inside Hocus Pocus star's mass murderer transformation as Monster's Richard Speck: 'Antichrist' i...

Tobias Jelinek exclusively tells EW how he prepared for the part — including being &34;catcalled&34; as he sashayed through prison before a wild sex scene. Insi

Tobias Jelinek exclusively tells EW how he prepared for the part — including being "cat-called" as he sashayed through prison before a wild sex scene.

Inside Hocus Pocus star's mass murderer transformation as Monster's Richard Speck: 'Antichrist' in stilettos

Tobias Jelinek exclusively tells EW how he prepared for the part — including being "cat-called" as he sashayed through prison before a wild sex scene.

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October 16, 2025 5:45 p.m. ET

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Tobias Jelinek as Richard Speck in 'Monster' ; Jelinek in 'Hocus Pocus'. Credit:

netflix; disney

- Tobias Jelinek tells EW about transforming into serial killer Richard Speck in *Monster*.

- The *Hocus Pocus* star calls the character "the antichrist" in stilettos.

- Jelinek recalls the difficulty of walking in high heels across prison grates.

If, while watching Netflix's disturbing drama *Monster: The Ed Gein Story*, you thought to yourself, "Hey, that serial killer looks like Jay from *Hocus Pocus*," well, you're onto something!

A far cry from his family-friendly part in the Disney Halloween classic, Tobias Jelinek's portrayal of mass murderer Richard Speck in episode 8 of the *Monster* anthology series marks a major transformation for the performer.

Though he only appears in a few scenes in the season finale, they're markedly different from anything he's done before. Filmed on location at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois, where Speck (who died in 1991) was incarcerated after he was convicted of killing eight student nurses in Chicago, Jelinek tells* * he channeled the more disturbing elements of Speck's personality through aesthetic enhancement.

'Hocus Pocus' star Tobias Jelinek as Richard Speck in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

"I worked with a wonderful effects team to transform physically. I played a lot, I walked the line in terms of how deep I'd go into the true story of Richard Speck and his true physicality and where I wanted to go in my imagination," Jelinek tells EW of playing the part, which sees Speck idolizing the titular body snatcher and killer, Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam), while serving time at Stateville.

Jelinek calls Speck "a very troubling, complex character," but that "the writing allowed me to go in without any hesitation and push it" to limits he hadn't yet scaled as an actor.

"And of course, the clothes," he says with a laugh, referencing a scene that sees him sashaying through prison in high heels and a bra. "Being in that prison and putting on those heels, it was phenomenal! I was in there, you have all of the inmates, they open the door, and they're all cat-calling. It was on grated metal, and I'm trying to walk in these stilettos. It was quite a feat!"

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Thematically, Jelinek says that Speck's essence — in addition to just his clothes — were an eye-opening element for him to dive into as a performer.

He calls Gein "a God" to Speck in the story at large, but that Speck is "like the antichrist. There's no redemption for him, but for Ed Gein, it's begging the question. And I see a lot of interesting conversations coming up because of it. I think that's the point — you have people talking about it."

Jelinek also says that the show's presentation of Gein's inner turmoil surrounding his confessed killings (which occurred in the 1950s) challenges audiences to consider an alternative way of thinking about darkness manifesting inside the human spirit.

Tobias Jelinek filming 'Monster' as Richard Speck.

"The writing was very good and did a lot for me in terms of dropping into the world of Ed Gein. Ed Gein, in the story, you end up having empathy in a certain respect," Jelinek adds. "When the show ends, it's seeing, in part, *why* he did what he did. The biggest question is mental health. If he sought help earlier, would it have been a different story?"

In a separate interview, Hunnam echoed the sentiment.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

"If people are compelled to talk about it and think about it, hopefully they'll actually be compelled to watch the show," the actor said to *The Hollywood Reporter*. "What I would hope and feel really confident in is that it was a very sincere exploration of the human condition and why this boy did what he did."

*Monster: The Ed Gein Story* is now streaming on Netflix. *Hocus Pocus* is streaming on Disney+ and airing throughout the month of October on Freeform.

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