You know the old saying: pressure can bust pipes.
Charlie Hunnam‘s plumbing didn’t explode, of course, but the anxiety of bringing Christian Grey to life in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie nearly made him burst from the seams. So the “Sons of Anarchy” star bowed out of the role, gracefully.
“I wouldn’t have signed up in the first place if I didn’t want to do it,” Hunnam told Us Weekly recently. “It was a really, really difficult time in my life. I had already been attached to ‘Crimson Peak’ for about 14 months, which I said, I was going to do with [director] Guillermo del Toro.”
Related: ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Trailer Reveals 15 Steamy Secrets
The 34-year-old actor signed on to play the sexually charged business mogul after his meeting with director Sam Taylor-Johnson confirmed that the two had the same vision for the steamy adaptation.
“Sam and I just fell in love, creatively,” Hunnam said. “We started talking about this thing and I just felt so excited. I fell in love with the character and started seeing him and becoming intoxicated, which is the way I work: I find a character I love and I start thinking about it all the time.”
The collaboration was not meant to be, though, because of Hunnam’s scheduling conflicts, so two months after he was cast, he dropped out.
“I just said, ‘I can’t … I can’t …,’” Hunnam said. “To fail on such a grand scale — because ‘Fifty”s going to be massive, it’s going to be huge. I really didn’t want to fail on such a grand scale, and I just couldn’t transition from [my ‘Sons of Anarchy’ character] Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours. It’s painful because I loved the character and I wanted to do it. I’m also a man of my word.”
While many believe Jamie Dornan (“Once Upon a Time”) will fare well in Christian Grey’s shoes, fans can’t help but wonder what Hunnam would have brought to the role.
“It was just a situation,” he said. “I was really, really sorry to do it. It was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations.”
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