There’s no need to rehash the past — at least that’s how Charlie Hunnam feels.
“Aw man, can’t talk about this,” Hunnam, 44, told TMZ on Monday, May 20, when asked about dropping out of the Fifty Shades of Grey film franchise in 2013. However, the Sons of Anarchy alum did say he had one major regret from not playing the titular role.
“I’m not nearly as rich as I would have been,” Hunnam joked.
In 2013, it was announced that Hunnam had been cast in the lead role, Christian Grey, in the Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation. Later that same year, the actor dropped out of the three-film series due to his “immersive TV schedule.” (Hunnam played the lead role of Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy for seven seasons from 2008 to 2014.)
At the time, a source told Us that the Fifty Shades of Grey series was “a massive time commitment” and Hunnam’s “loyalty will always be to Sons of Anarchy.”
Jamie Dornan was later tapped to take his place and starred in all three movies — Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.
Years later, Hunnam reflected on his decision to leave the film franchise, calling it “the worst professional experience of my life” during a 2015 interview with V Man.
“It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally,” he added. “It was heartbreaking.”
The biggest conflict for Hunnam was starring in director Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak film.
“I’d given Guillermo my word, over a year before, that I was going to do this film,” the British star recalled. “People were saying, ‘Are you crazy? Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it’s the fourth lead, you can go and do this [instead].’ I said, ‘I can’t. He’s my friend, I’ve done a film with him, I gave him my word.’”
Making the decision to drop out of Fifty Shades was “deeply unpleasant and challenging emotionally,” Hunnam added.
“I really, really pride myself on being a professional and a man of keeping my word. It means a lot to me, truly,” he continued, saying that he and Fifty Shades director Sam Taylor-Johnson “cried our eyes out” on the phone.
“I needed to tell her that this was not going to work,” he concluded. “There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak. I just got myself so f–king overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing.”
