Charlie Hunnam has come a long way since digging ditches
CHARLIE HUNNAM HAS COME A LONG WAY SINCE DIGGING DITCHES
In the lean days before Charlie Hunnam became a household name on Sons Of Anarchy (2008-2014), he dabbled in all sorts of ways to pay the rent. Yes, he waited his share of tables, but he also proved that he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
“I grew up in a rural area,” he explained, “so I spent time in those early days as a raspberry picker. One summer I even dug ditches while trying to make it as an actor. Let me tell you, that ditch digging was some of the hardest work I will probably ever do.
“If I’m having a challenging day on a film set, I always tell myself, ‘You could be back to digging ditches’,” the young actor said with a laugh. “Ditch digging is a hard racket.”
Employers will have to look elsewhere for ditch diggers, because acting seems to be working out for the 39-year-old Hunnam. He co-stars in The Gentlemen, now in Thai cinemas. Written and directed by Guy Ritchie, the film revolves around Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American businessman who has created a highly profitable marijuana empire in London. He’s looking to cash out, though, and that triggers schemes, bribery and blackmail as assorted rivals manoeuvre to take over his business.
The film also stars Michelle Dockery, Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant and Jeremy Strong.
“It’s back to vintage Guy Ritchie,” said Hunnam, who wore a black suit over a pink, open-necked dress shirt, wheat-coloured hair swept perfectly off his chiselled face, for an interview in Las Vegas. “It’s London, gangsters, guys doing nasty things.
“I’m Matthew’s right-hand man in this tale of corruption,” he continued. “I don’t want to give away any secrets, but I can say that Raymond is hard to figure out. There is a first impression of Raymond that might not be so right on. He seems like this bookish administrator who is simply involved in the logistics of the operation. I’m the dayto-day man who seemingly keeps things running.
“As the movie progresses, you find out that I have a much darker function within this world,” Hunnam said with a laugh. “Old Raymond is not afraid to pull out the bone saw when necessary. That makes it sort of a schizophrenic role.”
It’s quite a bit different from Hunnam’s last film with Ritchie, in which he played the title character in King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017).
“I just love Guy,” Hunnam said. “He’s one of my dearest friends, and I just enjoy spending time with him. We had a lovely experience making King Arthur. When we wrapped, we always stayed in contact.
“Along the way Guy mentioned that there was a new script,” he continued, “and he said that I might want to take a look. It’s just so nice to be invited to the party by a director you respect so much.”
In other words, Hunnam didn’t have to think twice before saying yes.
“Like I said, it’s a very original story that’s so distinctly
Guy,” he said. “It reminds me of his Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) films. The main idea, which fascinates Guy, is, can one ever eloquently walk away from a life in crime? Can you get out with your bag of gold and your soul intact?”
Filming took place in late 2018 in London’s West End.
“It’s always dangerous to meet your heroes,” Hunnam said, “but this was beyond expectations in the right way. The joy was looking around the set each day and seeing those faces.
“It was extraordinary to work with Colin Farrell,” he continued. “Our careers have some parallels, partly because
IT’S BACK TO VINTAGE GUY RITCHIE
we started at the same time, and I’ve always been a big fan of his work. Obviously Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. His choices have been extraordinary.
“Matthew turned out to be as nice a guy as he is a great actor.”
Many of the actors in the cast were playing against type.
“It was an exceptional cast doing things in this movie that don’t feel familiar,” Hunnam said. “Without giving it away, there’s a scene with Hugh Grant that might shock some fans. I’m actually the recipient of these enormous monologues he gives in the film. Over the course of five days, he ripped through 35 pages of dialogue while giving the rest of us a master class or acting clinic. It was a humbling thing and quite awe-inspiring.”
One of four brothers, Hunnam was raised by his mother, a ballet dancer and business owner. By 12 he was playing rugby, but eventually he was expelled from school for fighting and had to study and take his exams from home. He was discovered at 17 at a local store called J.D. Sports.
“I was in the store on Christmas Eve and a lady was staring at me,” he recalled. “So I blew her a kiss. It turned out she was a production manager of a children’s show called Byker Grove. She walked up and said, ‘Have you ever thought of becoming an actor?.’ She gave me a part in the show, and I got an agent.”
His guest shot on Byker Grove (1998), which was shot in Newcastle, led to a starring role on the Channel 4 drama Queer As
Folk (1999-2000).
Hunnam was sold on acting and, instead of attending a traditional university, opted to study performing arts at the Cumbria College of Art and Design. He graduated with a degree in film history and, soon afterward, moved to the United States to pursue Hollywood stardom.
A recurring part on Young Americans
(2000) led to a regular role on the cult-favourite series Undeclared (2001-2002). By then, however, Hunnam’s big-screen dreams were coming true. He’d made his movie debut in Whatever Happened To
Harold Smith? (1999), and went on to such films as Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), Children Of Men (2006), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015),
The Lost City Of Z (2016) and Triple Frontier (2019).
Hunnam’s biggest break came on the small screen, however, when he was cast on Sons Of Anarchy as Jackson “Jax” Teller, the conflicted heir to the throne of a crime kingdom based in a motorcycle club in a Californian town.
Next up for Hunnam is Waldo, in which he plays a disgraced ex-cop who moves to the woods to live a minimalist life, but is drawn back into action when he is hired to investigate the murder of the wife of an eccentric television star (Mel Gibson).
He’ll also be seen in the Apple TV+ series Shantaram, playing a heroin addict who escapes an Australian prison and ends up running a free clinic in the slums of Mumbai and fending off the local gangs.
It’s a typically wide range of projects for Hunnam, who is single, lives in Los Angeles and by now has been an actor for more than half of his life.
“I’ve been in this business for over two decades now,” he said, “which seems unbelievable.”
What have those decades taught him about acting?
“Sometimes things play out, sometimes they don’t,” Hunnam said. “I’ve also learned that it’s really about the sensibility of the filmmaker. You can tell a story that has been told a million times, but you can make it memorable with the right filmmaker.
“I just want to reflect the human experience in all of its manifestations.”
When he’s not working, the actor isn’t to be found walking red carpets or dining at elegant Hollywood establishments.
“I love to be in the wilderness,” Hunnam said. “I’ll go to Oregon and hike in the mountains and camp out. I need a dose of the outdoors from time to time. What will happen out there? You never know … and that’s the point.”