14 DAY TRIAL // Before Jamie Dornan was cast as Christian Grey in Universal Pictures’ critically derided but commercially successful “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Charlie Hunnam, of the then-“Sons of Anarchy” fame, had been signed for the part.
He dropped out of the project after a few months, citing scheduling issues, but trade publications believed he had understood how being part of this film franchise could ruin his career.
This was happening in October 2013, just to be clear. Hunnam is featured in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly to promote “Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur,” from Guy Ritchie, and either because he has nothing else interesting to talk about or EW didn’t know to ask the right questions, he ended up talking about “Grey” again.
Hunnam says he’s no longer dwelling on his abrupt exit, which he could find no way to avoid. Still, the memory remains painful to him and he wishes he could have gone about it differently.
“It was very, very painful for me, that whole process, just very unpleasant. I felt like I let myself down. I let those people down on Fifty Shades that I’d grown to really love and respect. It’s just a really unpleasant period of time for me,” he says.
His fans argue that it was best for him to drop out, because he finally landed a franchise worthy of his acting chops: Ritchie plans to turn “King Arthur” into a proper Hollywood franchise, with Hunnam as its main star.
So maybe now the media can stop asking him about “Grey,” so he wouldn’t have to issue the same apology over and over again.