{"id":188616,"date":"2025-10-04T01:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188616\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T01:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:03:13","slug":"charlie-hunnam-just-admitted-he-wasnt-thinking-clearly-when-he-accepted-the-role-of-christian-grey-in-fifty-shades-of-grey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188616\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Hunnam Just Admitted He \u201cWasn\u2019t Thinking Clearly\u201d When He Accepted The Role Of Christian Grey In \u201cFifty Shades Of Grey\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fair to say that British actor Charlie Hunnam<\/a> is almost just as renowned for walking away from the role of Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie series as he is for his actual performances, with the star reaching a global audience for his lead role as Jax Teller in the hit TV series Sons of Anarchy<\/a>.\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9FX Networks\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

After playing Jax for just over six years, Sons came to an end in 2014 \u2014 and Charlie found himself at a fork in the road in terms of his career. In 2013, it was announced that Charlie had been cast to play Christian Grey in the upcoming movie adaptation of the bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey book series. The suave billionaire with a love of BDSM was undeniably a far cry from Charlie\u2019s previous roles, and many were left surprised by the casting decision.\"<\/p>\n

Jon Kopaloff \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: Penn Badgley Just Said That Joe Goldberg Was Raping His Victims Off-Screen Throughout The Whole Of \u201cYou,\u201d And Some Fans Genuinely Had No Idea<\/a><\/p>\n

But before filming began, Charlie dropped out of the project, citing scheduling conflicts. In a statement released by Universal<\/a>, the team behind the movie said that, along with Charlie, they\u2019d \u201cagreed to find another male lead given Hunnam\u2019s immersive TV schedule, which is not allowing him time to adequately prepare for the role of Christian Grey.\u201d\"As<\/p>\n

Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

As you probably know, Jamie Dornan<\/a> ended up being cast as Christian instead, with Dakota Johnson<\/a> starring as protagonist Anastasia.<\/p>\n

Charlie didn\u2019t discuss his decision until a 2015 interview with V Man magazine<\/a>, where he reiterated how busy his work schedule was at the time. He explained that he was still working on the final season of Sons, and had signed on to Guillermo del Toro\u2019s movie Crimson Peak as well \u2014 giving Guillermo his word that he\u2019d do it.\"\u201cPeople<\/p>\n

Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were saying, \u2018Are you crazy? Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it\u2019s the fourth lead, you can go and do this [instead],\u2019\u201d Charlie said of his decision to step away from the surefire financial success of Fifty Shades. \u201cI said, \u2018I can\u2019t. He\u2019s my friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the worst professional experience of my life. It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing I\u2019ve ever had to deal with professionally,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI\u2019m pretty mercurial and a very difficult, long-winded decision-maker at the best of times. It was deeply unpleasant and challenging emotionally.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Charlie added that he was even \u201chaving panic attacks about the whole thing,\u201d explaining: \u201cI really, really pride myself on being a professional and a man of keeping my word. It means a lot to me, truly.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

Jon Kopaloff \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: Kylie Jenner Has Inadvertently Caused A Huge Stir After Joking About Picking Up Her Kids From School In An Extremely Risqu\u00e9 Dress<\/a><\/p>\n

And just last year, Charlie confessed that he still hadn\u2019t watched the Fifty Shades movies as he made light of the huge commercial success<\/a> he missed out on. For what it\u2019s worth, the franchise brought in a combined total of more than $1 billion<\/a> at the box office.\"<\/p>\n

Theo Wargo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Asked by a TMZ reporter<\/a> how the decision to drop out of the movies worked out for him in the long run, the actor quipped: \u201cI\u2019m not nearly as rich as I would\u2019ve been.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

Kristina Bumphrey \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: 53 Facts So Absurdly Random That My Brain Refuses To Accept Them As Reality<\/a><\/p>\n

But despite that, Charlie has now admitted that he does not regret his decision, as he confessed that he simply wasn\u2019t thinking straight when he accepted the role. In an interview with Variety<\/a>, the star explained that he always tries to balance commercial and passion projects, and cited 2013\u2019s Pacific Rim as an example of a commercial project.\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a great opportunity to work with a director that I really like,\u201d Charlie said of the Guillermo del Toro film. \u201cI couldn\u2019t care less about giant robots fighting giant monsters. I read the script, and I had no emotional experience with it at all.\u201d He added that it was the first time he made a film he wouldn\u2019t rush to watch in movie theaters himself, but he took it because he felt like he owed it to his team \u2014 and it was two months after Pacific Rim\u2019s release that his Fifty Shades casting was announced.\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wasn\u2019t thinking clearly,\u201d Charlie said of taking the job in the first place, insisting that once he walked away he \u201cnever looked back.\u201d He concluded: \u201cNo regrets at all.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

Raymond Hall \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Charlie also revealed that he recently bumped into the franchise\u2019s lead actor Dakota at a social event, saying: \u201cShe gave me a bit of a hard time about it in a very fun way.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

Mike Coppola \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: Kylie Jenner Just Subtly Poked Fun At Her Sex Life With Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, And It Might Be One Of The Realest Things She\u2019s Ever Done<\/a><\/p>\n

Charlie\u2019s next project is playing real-life serial killer Ed Gein<\/a> in Ryan Murphy\u2019s latest installment of his Monster series, which will land on Netflix on Friday.\"<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

Let me know your thoughts on Charlie stepping away from Fifty Shades in the comments below!More on this<\/p>\n

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Read it on BuzzFeed.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s fair to say that British actor Charlie Hunnam is almost just as renowned for walking away from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,119877,119878,30326,134,111687,528,27000,119880,119881,119879],"class_list":{"0":"post-188616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-charlie-hunnam","12":"tag-christian-grey","13":"tag-dakota-johnson","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-everett-collection","16":"tag-getty-images","17":"tag-guillermo-del-toro","18":"tag-jax-teller","19":"tag-jon-kopaloff","20":"tag-kevin-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}