14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been almost two weeks since Charlie Hunnam decided to get out of his contract for the role of Christian Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey” and, for the first time since the shocking announcement, he offers a faint explanation for it.
The official line is that he and producers agreed that he could not prepare for the role as he would have wanted because of his schedule on “Sons of Anarchy,” but Charlie is now hinting that family issues might have also played a part.
“I am doing good. I am just really concentrating on work. It’s been a really busy time,” the actor tells E! News at a recent charity event, on the topic of how he’s been doing lately.
“I have had some family stuff going on so just trying to stay focused and stay positive and keep trying to do a good job at work and be with my family and stay positive,” he adds.
Hunnam’s father passed away this spring and it could be that this is what he’s referring to when he’s talking about the “family stuff,” the publication speculates.
“Like I said, I’ve got some family stuff I have to tend to. So when I wrap the show, I am going to go to England and see my people and then I have a film that I am doing with Guillermo [del Toro]. So I am going to go and do that and concentrate on the final seasons of Sons,” Hunnam adds.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that the family issues are just an excuse for him trying to get away from all this for a little while. One theory about why he exited the movie is that he was overwhelmed and even spooked a bit by the attention he started to get once he was cast as Christian, so it would make sense.
With Hunnam out of the picture, producers are now looking for a replacement but it’s a difficult task because, as Michael De Luca sees it, casting Grey is “like casting Superman or James Bond.”