Rebecca Hall says playing Abby Borden in Netflix’s “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” required balancing comedy and menace. She sees pain behind Abby’s cruelty but does not excuse it. The season debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s English TV list with 12.1 million views.
Hall traced Abby’s cruelty to childhood grief, a disappointing marriage, childlessness and a lack of creative outlet. She said Abby felt powerless and took it out on Lizzie and the maids; Hall also described her as constantly drunk and using paint thinner.
The series revisits the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts, on Aug. 4, 1892. Lizzie, then 32, was arrested and charged. A jury acquitted her after a 1893 trial, following 90 minutes of deliberation. The evidence was largely circumstantial, and no one else was convicted, leaving the case officially unsolved.
