Brock Powell on Playing Leatherface & Honoring Horror History

He’s Netflix’s Leatherface AND Disney’s Santa. Brock Powell talks Monster: The Ed Gein Story, paying homage to horror, and his acting duality.

Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story has captivated audiences, climbing to the #1 spot as one of the platform’s most-watched true crime horror dramas. The series dives into the chilling true story that inspired some of horror’s most enduring characters, including Leatherface, who is brought to life by actor Brock Powell.

Brock Powell‘s career is a masterclass in range, spanning nearly 100 animated series, blockbuster video games, and, now, this deeply unnerving role. We sat down with Brock Powell to discuss the cultural impact of Monster, the challenges of stepping into an iconic role, and the surprising parallels between horror and holiday cheer.

On the Cultural Commentary of Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Mama’s Geeky: What is it like for you being a part of something like that?

Brock Powell: Well, my wife and my partner, Cameron, is a big true crime girly. So we watch a lot of true crime podcasts. And then prior to being involved in the show, I’d watched Dahmer and the Menendez brothers. And I think what I love about strictly from the audience perspective first, what I love about the shows is each iteration is so unique, not just in the story they’re telling, but how they tell the story. And I think season three, the Ed Gein story, Ian Brennan, who wrote the season, he just had such a specific vision and I love it. And I also love that it’s kind of pointed back at the audience. And I love that it’s provocative in the way that was, it’s not provocative. like horror sometimes is just for the sake of being provocative. It takes you back and forth going, this is what maybe happened. This is what happened around the same time. Here’s what was inspired by it. But none of this would be something that you would even know about if the audience wasn’t there. So before you start judging us for telling this story, before you judge on how we tell the story, we just want to, and every couple episodes, another Tom Holland or as Hitchcock says it, the monster is us, right? He’s so good. And it basically is like, well, look, say what you will about the content and say what you will about the stories we’re telling. You’re watching it. Ed Gein literally says, David Perkins, you’re the one who can’t look away, right? And it’s like directly to the audience. So being a fan of this stuff, and I am, I’m much more on the horror side than the true crime side, but it’s a dream to be part of something that is not just in the genre, but also I think making such a commentary on where we are right now as a culture and the way we consume stories and the way we watch these narratives. I think that it’s really interesting and clearly audiences have really responded to this season. So it’s been really cool.

Stepping Into an Icon: Playing Leatherface and Gunnar Hansen

Mama’s Geeky: How did you get involved in this? Did you ever expect you’d play like Leatherface? He is such an iconic character.

Brock Powell: You can’t go out and like dream something like this, right? You can’t be like, hey, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna be in a show that’s the third season of a show and they’re gonna include one of the most iconic horror movies and I’m gonna be in that playing the original guy. So it came across my desk and my agent was like, hey do you wanna read on this? What I will say, and I have shared a little bit, it is technically my third time playing Leatherface. I’ve played Leatherface in other projects, small projects. One of which was at Universal Studios, Halloween Horror Nights. Okay. Everyone could do the math there. The last time Leatherface was there. Right now that Texas Chainsaw Maze is in Vegas at their Horror Unleashed pop-up at Area 15. And I think we’re gonna be getting out there to check that out, which will be crazy. But I was in the Leatherface maze in the Terror Tram section many years ago, playing Leatherface. And that was the first time. Second time was my friend Zoran, who works at Dead Meat, did a music video called Social Media Assassins 2, which was sort of like a take on the iconic horror characters working in an office environment and trying to sort of like Freddy versus Jason, trying to fall in love with Carrie. Really, really super fun. I played Leatherface in that.

And so ironically, when it came up, it was like, yeah, I could do that again. I had no idea how involved it would be and what a different experience it would be because I wasn’t just playing Leatherface. I was also playing Gunnar Hansen. And so that was nothing short of an honor, which is like, you get to play these iconic characters, but sort of the conversation that we started here was like, we’re in a moment where audiences are craving this content and they’re craving these stories and these shows and movies. But we’re also in a moment where a lot of these franchises, like Texas just turned 50 last year. It’s crazy, right? And so to be able to point back to the source material and also those original actors and artists and everyone involved in that project. So that was what was really, really powerful to me as an artist was being able to step in and pay homage and bring Toby Hooper back into conversation, bring Gunnar Hansen back into conversation, Bob Burns who designed the masks back into conversation. Because I think we where our industry is right now, I think there has been a lot, the artists have lost a lot of power in conversation. I think that it’s been very intentional to kind of disrupt the connection between the people who created the franchise and the people who own the franchise.

And I think what, for me just personally, I love that it’s not about, obviously Texas Chainsaw, the feature film rights are up for bid and they may have landed somewhere and that’ll be exciting to see that in that next iteration. But in this moment, to be able to talk about the people who made this movie happen and specifically Gunnar, connecting this back in this moment. And I’ve also said, we’re in this moment where AI can so easily be used and right, and to have the intentionality where a production is really invested in getting it right and paying tribute to these moments, it just wasn’t lost on me. And I feel like that’s also something I was really excited about this, which was, no, it’s not just Leatherface, it’s talking about Gunnar, it’s talking about the actors 50 years ago who made this movie iconic and yeah, credit where credit’s due, I think.

Working Inside the Mask and the Prosthetics

Mama’s Geeky: What is it acting in a mask like that, because it’s covering your eyes and everything.

Brock Powell: Yeah, I mean, it’s not supposed to fit. Right. Nicely on the face. It’s someone else’s face on a head frame that’s much bigger. So it’s supposed to bow out, there’s supposed to be places where it doesn’t fit quite right. There were three versions of the mask, two from the film, and then an alt version of the killing mask, which is the traditional Leatherface mask, where our mask designer for this project was Noah Rivers, incredibly talented artist. And there are moments where the Leatherface mask actually has, when you look in some of the photos of the original, when Gunnar’s in the frame, after he’s like, just hit someone and dragged them in, they actually have a little bit of like black darkening fabric or some sort of thing covering the eye holes. So you can’t actually see his eyes until the big reveal with like- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, when he chops Franklin. And that was so scary because that was like the moment that you see, oh my God, there’s a person behind this mask. Yeah.

So we had some moments where, yeah, the eyes were blacked out with fabric. And so that obviously created a little bit of a vision thing. And then wearing the killing mask at night with a chainsaw running through the woods, which was all, that was all me. That was all real. That was all, we really did that. And so that, we had to have our stunt coordinator and then one of the directors like run the path for me because I needed to know exactly. So I would, I’d stand and everyone was amazing because safety is obviously first on these sets. Yeah, yeah, of course. But yeah, our stunt coordinator, she ran down and made sure there were like some moments, but it’s gravel. And I was really running after the actors who play Marilyn, like we were just doing the thing. So yeah, it was super fun. The masks were great and they do most of the work. I will say Gunnar built an amazing character, but once I was in the mask, it didn’t really matter what I did because the mask really takes over, moves your head forward. You have to gawk a little bit. And so that also is where Leatherface gets a little of that, like the puppy with the cock head, so when they cock their head like that. So yeah, I mean, the mask does a ton of work. It was as comfortable as it could have been to wear, but it obviously was like there’s little bits of metal and stuff like that, so.

Mama’s Geeky: Oh my God, there’s metal?

Brock Powell: Around the mouth, there is some sort of Leatherface used some sort of like hunting wiring to keep the, cause it’s a real person’s face, right? It was supposed to be. Yeah, right. So there’s like metal stitching around the mouth that actually was like, I had never asked Noah what it was, but basically the consistency of like a straightened paper clip around your mouth like this. So, and that’s what caused the teeth to come out and that sort of stuff. So that’s pressed against your face. And then you have the prosthetic teeth that AFX created that, were the Bubba teeth that he has under the mask. So talking through that, so the one scene where I’m talking as Gunner getting into the Leatherface, that was with under the mask with the prosthetic teeth in, and again, those elements help because those were really the things they really did have to wear those all day. They had to wear that all day. Yeah.

Researching Gunnar Hansen

Mama’s Geeky: When you are approaching a character that’s a real person, like Gunner, for example, how does that differentiate when you’re playing fictional characters?

Brock Powell: There’s a little more research involved in like who the person was. Obviously it’s just, it was a few moments that we needed to cover, but I think it was important to know the headspace of like, hey, he was not the original actor. All the accounts would say he was not the original actor to play Leatherface. There was someone else that was cast and some accounts seemed to vary, but something happened and he had to come in and step in. And I think he was Icelandic. He was a poet. He was a big guy like me. He was a gentle giant and he took the role really seriously. He went and did a lot of research and spent time with folks that might’ve been having some really severe spectrum-related nonverbal episodes. He studied some folks that had some developmental considerations that allowed him to kind of inform where Leatherface may have been and kind of try to explain like what’s going on with Leatherface, outside of just the trauma of being in that family. So I think the way he created the character, he informed it in a way that was so intentional. I read his book, Chainsaw Confidential, which talks all about his process and how he got into the project and also like his experience on it.

So I just was really trying to think of those things and try to figure out like how you interchange, like maybe the little dynamics where he’s not really super getting along with Toby Hooper sometimes, or just like any actor or artist that is having a really tough job, you know? And I think that’s the thing is that it was a project that I don’t know that everyone involved knew it was going to be a phenomenon. And I don’t know that the experience was quite up to par of what you think this should have been. There was a lot of blood, blood, sweat, and tears put into making this happen. And so I think that was what you tried to embody was being in it and activated when you’re Leatherface and the character’s primal drive to like protect and also provide and the fear. And then Gunner, which is like, I’m over it. So there’s one moment in episode three where the mask comes off and you can kind of see the frustration a little bit and the shift between the character and the guy, just again, as an actor, like, oh my God, my neck. So, and they gave Will a great line. Toby Hooper’s got a great line. You wanna hear an actor complain? Give him a job. And I think that’s really true to life.

The Ultimate Character Duality: Leatherface and Santa Claus

Mama’s Geeky: Well, speaking of voices, it’s so funny to me that like you’re Santa… and your Leatherface.

Brock Powell: It’s gonna be a rude awakening because I had a lot of people follow me from this project that are Texas Chainsaw fans. Obviously I’m so excited about this role and this project and it’s very Halloween centric. So I’m curious to see what happens when we get back to the switch of like, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Yeah. And so, yeah, I do. I step in for Santa. Santa’s really busy. So sometimes I’ve got to come in and do Santa’s voice for him and go, ho, ho, ho, ho.

And that’s been amazing because again, there’s a lot of weird like mirroring in my career where like, oh, this happens. And then five years later, this happens. So I was a theme park performer. As I mentioned, I played Leatherface and I also was an in park Santa at a certain theme park in Anaheim. Uh-huh. Yeah. And so it was really kind of wild when Disney was like, hey, do you want to voice Santa? And I was like, well, I have a little bit of experience. So it’s so fun. And every Christmas they find a new way to utilize the Santa character. I think I can say there, we’ve been doing these really fun stop motion shorts, which they just evoke Christmas, like Rankin Bass and Nightmare Before Christmas. And we have been doing some really cool collaborations with Stupid Buddy. And there might be some cool holiday songs coming out that are Christmas based.

They both have workshops. They both make things. And both might break into your house at some point in the cover of darkness. These are the things I think about all the time. But I think it just speaks to one, obviously I love the holidays. I love the season and not just Halloween, but the whole season is just a blast. It’s fun to be a part of that. It’s fun now to have something that every Halloween, I know we’re going to rewatch. And probably not the last time I’ll get to participate in an on-camera horror role. So that’s really cool, too. Because I’ve been a fan of horror for so long, but most of my career has been in the animated kid space.

Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story is streaming now on Netflix.

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