14 DAY TRIAL // Either Charlie Hunnam is the most polite and soft-spoken actor in all Hollywood, or he’s landed some sort of deal and he’s paid to speak in defense of the upcoming movie “Fifty Shades of Grey,” aka that film in which he was supposed to play lead but dropped out of, and was replaced by Jamie Dornan.
Hunnam is gearing up for a new season of his hit series “Sons of Anarchy,” and at the Television Critics Association press tour the other day, he was asked again how he felt about dropping out of “Fifty Shades” after initially saying he was up for playing the part of Christian Grey.
The Telegraph says he called the decision to not do the film “heartbreaking,” which he did on a previous occasion too. He also said he was looking forward to seeing the film and that he was feeling “really excited and really curious” about the trailer, which drops this week.
But here’s where things really got interesting: when one reporter called E.L. James novels, on which the film is based, nothing short of adult literature for housewives, Hunnam went on the defensive.
“I think people really do that book a disservice when they reduce it to that type of talk. What [E.L. James] actually created is a really sophisticated dynamic and presented it in a package which was accessible to people who normally would be terrified of that subject. Actually what she did was pretty brilliant,” Hunnam said.
*Editor’s note: I read the books, which makes me think Hunnam didn’t. The idea for the novels might be what he says it is, but the execution is less than amateurish, which is why so many people find it easy to mock them. The novels are anything but “brilliant”: they’re catchy and thrilling in places, but they’re not brilliant. Immense popularity doesn’t make them “brilliant,” just popular.
So why is he being this nice? It could be that the first casting announcement was just a PR stunt, to which he agreed and that ensures constant media coverage for the film.
Or maybe Charlie really is that incredibly polite.
In the same interview, Hunnam expressed his belief that Jamie Dornan, who eventually signed on the dotted line for the role of Christian Grey, would do a “fine job” at it, even though many fans online have already expressed their doubts about that.
He added that he would have brought a certain “rugged charm” to the role, which Dornan can’t do, but other than that, he would be fine.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” also stars Dakota Johnson and is directed by Sam-Taylor Johnson. E.L. James acts as producer on it and she’s been keeping fans up to speed with all the on-set developments as well.
Embedded below is a first teaser trailer for the film, which Beyonce posted on her Instagram over the weekend. Apparently, she will be featured on the OST too.
