Charlie Hunnam Calls ‘Fifty Shades’ Exit His ‘Worst Professional Experience’ | Variety 

Charlie Hunnam is finally giving the “heartbreaking” details on what happened behind-the-scenes when he dropped out of Universal’s “Fifty Shades of Grey,” maintaining that it wasn’t the film’s sexual content that caused him to bow out, but scheduling issues.

The “Sons of Anarchy” star opened up about the ordeal in a new interview with V Man, speaking out on the toll leaving Christian Grey took on him.

“Oh, it was the worst professional experience of my life. It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally,” Hunnam told the magazine. “It was heartbreaking.”

Hunnam was announced to play billionaire BDSM heartthrob Grey in 2013, and dropped out shortly after. Irish actor Jamie Dornan was tapped to take his place just a couple of weeks after.

Hunnam said he previously committed to Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak,” which debuts this October, in addition to shooting the final season of FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.”

“I’d given Guillermo my word, over a year before, that I was going to do this film,” the actor explained. “People were saying, ‘Are you crazy? Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it’s the fourth lead, you can go and do this [instead].’ I said, ‘I can’t. He’s my friend, I’ve done a film with him, I gave him my word.\'”

“I’m pretty mercurial and a very difficult, long-winded decision-maker at the best of times. It was deeply unpleasant and challenging emotionally,” he went on. “I really, really pride myself on being a professional and a man of keeping my word. It means a lot to me, truly.”

Hunnam said he just “didn’t know what to do” in the situation. Out of respect for “Fifty Shades” director Sam Taylor-Johnson, he called her personally to break the news.

“I called her and we both cried our eyes out on the phone for 20 minutes,” he said. “I needed to tell her that this was not going to work… There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak. I just got myself so f–king overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing.”

Hunnam also denied that he was intimated by the sexual nature of the movie, pointing to his early work on Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” as an example of the contrary. “When I was 18 I was getting f–ked in the ass, completely naked on national TV, you know?” he said.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” got mixed reviews but became a box office hit after its release in February, pulling in more than $569 million worldwide. Sequels “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed” are set for February 2017 and February 2018, respectively.

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Why would he think that. The movie sank like a stone — was laughed at in theaters.

OH CHARLIE – HOW I WISH YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PLAY CHRISTIAN! ( ME AND MILLIONS OF OTHERS!!!!)

So, he doesn’t make the huge payday that would require breaking a promise and keeping his “integrity” , then resents making a movie with his friend for whom he was not going to break a promise.

I don’t know if this interview was some how pulled out of him but….

A sign of “integrity” would have been not to speak of it.

Um, proofreader? Anyone? He denies being “intimated’?!! Wow, Variety, I expected better of your writers.

Likely all a part of ongoing digital disruption and budgets slashed by free online distribution that any editor, let alone proofreader (what’s THAT?!) ever gives more than a passing glance at Variety’s increasingly sloppy content.

What a concept! A Hollywood actor with some integrity.

50 Shades was the worst cast and worst dialogue of any modern movie. Charlie would have been a fabulous Christian Grey, much better than Dornan, the wooden manequin. But he lucked out not being in it. It was a real dog.

fifty shades did not have a good ending. so it is a good thing he didn’t bother with it.

It’s OK, Charlie. It was a mediocre movie at best. Your career will not be hurt in any way, believe me.

OK. I understand he was upset because he couldn’t honour his commitment. But for God’s sake, it is a shitty movie based on fanfiction. Keep talking about FSOG only makes him sound greedy for all the fame and money that come from it. People are shaking theirs heads. Let it goooooooooooo.

Love Charlie Hunnam and have much respect that he kept his integrity. Another great successful movie will come his way.

In hindsight this was the best decision he has made. It shows that at least he’s got some integrity left, which these days is a rather rare commodity. The whole “Fifty Shades” franchise is pure shlock, a pretentious pile of dog shit…whose selling point is mommy porn, a problem that a double headed dildo could solve quite rapidly.

The fact that he chose to honour his commitments to both “Sons Of Anarchy” and Guillermo Del Toro will bode well for him. Del Toro does not forget, and I’d rather establish a relationship with a director like del Toro, just ask Ron Perlman, than pine away for some pseudo-erotic series of “fan-fiction’ level novels and the equally creatively bankrupt movies.

In the long run, he as an actor will gain a lot more credibility and I hope the accompanying work and career will show that.

People seem to assume that because the first movie made money that that somehow equals substance and creativity….

So what if the film is crap. It was fun crap. And, although I like Jamie Dornan from seeing him in Marie Antoinette, I think Charlie would have been the perfect Christian.

Alex Stedman apparently never watched Showtime’s Queer as Folk. Charlie Hunnam was not in the Showtime version but in the original British version upon which the America one was based.

Soooo glad he didn’t do that shit movie…could have been a career ender and THAT would be a shame. You dodged a bullet Charlie!

A career ender? A movie that grossed over half a billion dollars and spawned a franchise… Yeah, right.

And where are both of these actors? Irrelevant until the next films and thwn they’ll be irrelevant when it’s over, a career ender indeed

You are correct Gustavo .. that movie would have proved his worth. Good things will surely happen for him .. he is a great actor.

Hunnam was in UK Channel 4’s “Queer as Folk”, the one that US Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” was based on.

Charlie has never had a problem with sex & nudity. He did plenty of it on SONS OF ANARCHY. I sure he’d have no problem showing everybody his dick. Why does Variety imply that he would?