Charlie Hunnam has undergone a serious evolution since first arriving in Hollywood. The star of Sons of Anarchy and The Gentlemen is known for his good looks and tough-guy persona.
But there’s a lot more to Charlie than simply what you see on the screen. Here are 10+ interesting things fans didn’t know about Charlie Hunnam,
He has an incredible amount of knowledge regarding infamous Hollywood landmarks.
While out on assignment with Men’s Health , Hunnam noticed a familiar bathhouse in Beverly Hills:
“That’s the bathroom where George Clinton got caught masturbating,” Hunnam stated bluntly. I bet Charlie slays at Trivial Pursuit.
Charlie’s first big break came to him while he was Christmas shopping in a shoe store. Oh, and he was drunk too!
Unbeknownst to Charlie at the time, he blew a kiss to the casting director for a show called Byker Grove .
“She ended up giving me three episodes ,” according to Charlie.
He’s looking to pursue more serious roles and distance himself from comedy.
“That’s a whole different skillset that I neither enjoy nor feel compelled to do more of,” Hunnam stated flatly.
Too bad, Charlie. You’ve got some serious comedic potential to work with!
Charlie and *Sons Of Anarchy* creator, Kurt Sutter, are extremely close off set.
“He’s kind of my Hollywood dad . And I’m kind of like the son he never had. That’s the depth of our relationship. I feel like it’s reached that significance. We just truly love and respect each other.”
He couldn’t care less about his fame.
“I think most of the time fame is just an inconvenience that needs to be negotiated around to get done what you’re actually trying to do.”
What an incredibly thoughtful statement!
Charlie has a very unique New Year’s Eve tradition.
“I wake up early, drive up while it’s still dark, and hike out somewhere beautiful to watch the sunrise. I just take a couple hours and have a post-mortem of the year.”
Charlie is totally obsessed with sneakers.
At one point the actor claims to have owned 85 pairs of Nike Airmax 90s:
“That was poor-boy syndrome of not being able to afford the sneakers that I wanted that all the other kids had [at] school, and then getting to 25 years old and being like, ‘You know what? I can buy all the [expletive] sneakers I want.’”
He’s developed a bad habit of stealing wardrobe items from movie sets.
“I seem to have developed a really big wardrobe recently, but that’s more because I’ve been stealing clothes off of movie sets and off of Sons.”
Perks of the job, I guess.
Charlie is quite the domesticated animal. He gardens, cooks, and even makes his own ice cream.
Is there anything this guy can’t do? How about passing us a scoop, Charlie?
You know what they say: We all scream for ice cream (and Charlie Hunnam!). I’d watch him garden all day!
He met his first wife while he was auditioning for a role on *Dawson’s Creek*.
Thanks to a chance encounter, Charlie and Katherine Towne were married just a few short weeks after they had first met. Which is a pretty big deal.
The couple divorced in 2002.
Charlie has been rumored to portray the character Green Arrow in an upcoming DC Universe film.
Fingers crossed, fellow comic book nerds! I think it goes without saying that Charlie would make an incredible Oliver Queen .
No disrespect to Stephen Amell.
He tells a harrowing story that involves defending himself with a machete!
“It’s not a friendly maneuver, hitting someone (with a machete ). I was thinking that if I turned it sideways I could kind of spank him with it. … Thankfully, he saw the machete and he said, ‘OK, I’m gonna get out of here’.”
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Charlie has been known to puff on the occasional joint before his workouts.
“I can smoke a joint and go straight to the gym.”
Are you kidding me? That sounds like the worst combination of things that I could ever imagine. Why would someone willingly do that?
Charlie was a troubled teen and was even expelled from school.
“I grew up fighting and losing my temper, really kind of taking care of business. I would always kind of regret what I did afterwards, and be troubled by it for ages.”
As fit as Charlie is, he doesn’t actually work out with a trainer.
“That’s an hour that I can carve out to just have by myself and just listen to some music and zone out.”
You’re telling me you get a body like that by only working out an hour a day?
He never reads any tabloid stories or reviews about himself.
“I don’t think I even have a clear perspective of how I’m depicted in the media. I don’t ever read anything. Sometimes fans will say, ‘I heard you’re such a nice guy.’ And I’m like, ‘From where? Where are you getting your information?’”
Charlie couldn’t care less about his status as a sex symbol.
“To what end? I have a girlfriend . If you were like 25 and a [expletive] hound, being famous would be awesome. But it’s not like I’m spending too much time in Vegas or in the Hollywood clubs or anything like that. So it really doesn’t benefit me much.”
He was deeply affected by the documentary *End Of The Line*.
Charlie said during an interview that “It’s on Netflix—oh my god. Only check it out if you want to contemplate suicide for 36 hours and then not eat fish for 18 months.”
Thanks but no thanks, Charlie.
While Charlie was filming *Sons Of Anarchy*, he would bring his own raw eggs to the set to eat.
“They’re like, ‘Why are you bringing your own eggs ?’ I’m like, ‘Cause your eggs are from Monsanto. Mine are from a farm down the road.’”
Charlie is actually a Brit!
Don’t let the accent fool you. Charlie is originally from Newcastle, England in the United Kingdom. He does a great American accent, but you can hear his natural dialect break through every now and again.
His father was a well respected “tough guy.”
When asked about his father, Charlie replied “My father had a big reputation in his home town Newcastle . He was well respected among the community of tough guys but certainly was never involved in any illegal business.”
What’s the first rule of Fight Club again? Oh yeah, now I remember…
In fact, Charlie says that his dad was his number one source of inspiration while playing the character of Jax Teller.
“I think about my dad a tremendous amount while filming Jax,” Hunnam admitted during an interview.
No wonder Charlie was so believable as Jax!
Charlie gave up life in Tinsel Town for a private ranch.
“We’ve got 30 chickens and a couple of donkeys, a couple of ducks and we’ve got a big, organic garden. We are going to try to live a bit more sustainably.”
He resigned from playing Christian Grey in *50 Shades Of Grey*.
“I really didn’t want to fail on such a grand scale and I just couldn’t transition from Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours. I bit off more than I could chew and it was painful. I loved the character and I wanted to do it.”
Charlie was at one time being considered for the role of Thor in the MCU.
“I auditioned and I met with the director and the guys at Marvel several times, four of five times, and it was sort of this awkward dance that we were having. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I wanted to do it and they weren’t 100 percent sure they wanted me to do it.”
Charlie auditioned to play Anakin Skywalker in *Star Wars: Episode II – The Clone Wars* too.
Unfortunately, Charlie lost out and the role instead went to Hayden Christensen .
I think it’s safe to say that this was a blessing in disguise for Charlie.
He thinks about having kids (one day).
“I hope to have kids. I mean, I’m not sure if I will. I would just hope to have a similar legacy that my father left me: that they think I was a good man who did it his way and lived the life that he had imagined. I guess that’s it.”
Charlie has taken himself off of the social media grid.
At this time, he has no Twitter, Instagram, or even a Facebook profile. Charlie prefers the quiet solitude that accompanies a “normal” life.
Respect to you, Charlie. I can’t go more than five minutes without checking my phone.
Charlie has a very odd phobia.
“I’ve been profoundly germaphobic since I was a young child. I don’t want to kiss anyone but my girlfriend for my whole life.”
I never really gave it much thought but the idea of kissing a “stranger” on camera is kind of disconcerting.
He used to know how to break dance.
Charlie admitted that his secret talent is a special breakdancing move that’s known as ” threading the needle .”
This entails holding one leg with your hand and jumping through it with the other.
Even though he eats healthy naturally, Charlie still has a favorite “cheat meal.”
“I have a wicked sweet tooth, so I eat a lot of chocolate and a lot of ice cream; like every day. But I stay active and that’s the key.”
