See Charlie Hunnam's Playful Response to Exiting Fifty Shades

See Charlie Hunnam's Playful Response to Exiting Fifty Shades

Originally appeared on E! Online

There's no grey area when it comes to how Charlie Hunnam feels about turning down this role.

More than a decade after stepping back from playing Christian Grey in Fifty Shades Of Grey, the actor revealed whether he stands by the decision. As he joked to TMZ, "I'm not nearly as rich as I could have been."

And if you're wondering how Hunnam thinks the movie turned out, well, he can't really speak to it.

"I have not seen it," the 44-year-old admitted, "but that's not by design."

Though he's not opposed to watching the 2015 film—and its two sequels—one day, adding, "I want to see it. I've been waiting."

While it was announced in 2013 that Hunnam would star in the movie alongside Dakota Johnson, Universal Pictures and Focus Features revealed a month later that he was no longer involved in the project. Jamie Dornan ultimately took on the part for both the first film inspired by E. L. James' books and the follow-ups Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.

Fifty Shades of Grey Movie Pics

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At the time, Hunnam, who expressed his support for Dornan's casting, was grieving the loss of his father as well as juggling a busy filming schedule with Sons of Anarchy and Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.

"I've got some family stuff I have to tend to," he told E! News. "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. So I am going to go and do that and concentrate on the final seasons of Sons."

Charlie Hunnam, Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child Of Fire London Premiere
Mike Marsland/WireImage

And he made it clear exiting Fifty Shades wasn't an easy choice.

"It was the worst professional experience of my life," he recalled to VMan in 2015. "It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I've ever had to deal with professionally. It was heartbreaking."

Hunnam added he had promised del Toro that he would do Pacific Rim more than a year before, and he shot down rumors that he had backed out of Fifty Shades due to its sexual content. Still, he'll never forget calling director Sam Taylor-Johnson to reveal he couldn't portray Christian Grey.

"I called her and we both cried our eyes out on the phone for 20 minutes," the King Arthur: Legend of the Sword alum continued. "I needed to tell her that this was not going to work. I was going to finish Sons, shoot the whole sequence where Tara was brutally murdered, fly to Vancouver the next day, have 10 days of rehearsal and then start shooting. The I was going to have three days after that and I'd have to start shooting Crimson Peak and then I'd have two days to travel and go back into season seven of Sons."

"There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak," he added. "I just got myself so f--king overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing. I just didn't know what to do."

For more Fifty Shades secrets, keep reading.

1. Finding the Screenwriter

1. Finding the Screenwriter


2. Angelina Jolie as Anastasia Steele?

2. Angelina Jolie as Anastasia Steele?


3. Charlie Hunnam as Christian Grey?

3. Charlie Hunnam as Christian Grey?


4. How Dakota Johnson Got the Part

4. How Dakota Johnson Got the Part


5. Enter Jamie Dornan

5. Enter Jamie Dornan


6. Production Starts

6. Production Starts

Originally scheduled to start in November, principal photography was pushed back a month as they got their casting ducks in a row.

Cameras finally started rolling on Dec. 2, 2013, with Vancouver, British Columbia, standing in for Seattle.


7. Release Date Changes

7. Release Date Changes

"The release date is preserved and we're gonna kind of keep going," De Luca also said that October, days before the film's release date was changed from Aug. 1, 2014, to Feb. 13, 2015.


8. Laters Baby

8. Laters Baby


9. About Those Sex Scenes

9. About Those Sex Scenes


10. "Crazy in Love"

10. "Crazy in Love"


11. Ellie Goulding Has Entered the Chat

11. Ellie Goulding Has Entered the Chat


12. Feud Rumors

12. Feud Rumors


13. Reviews Are In

<p>13. Reviews Are In</p>

The reviews ranged from middling to savage to hilarious (not Cats-caliber hilarious, but still very creative), but the movie was a blockbuster, raking in $570 million worldwide on a reported $40 million budget. The sequels, both directed by James Foley, made $381 million and $372 million respectively.


14. Box Office Debut

<p>14. Box Office Debut</p>

Its $85 million opening weekend held the record for the highest U.S. opening for a female director until Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman opened with $103 million in 2017.


15. Director Exits

15. Director Exits


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