Actor has cited anxiety issues as the reason behind him quiting Fifty Shades of Grey.
The 34-year-old Sons of Anarchy star was once attached to play Christian Grey in the highly-anticipated film adaptation of EL James' erotic novel but he disappointed many fans when he quit due to scheduling conflicts, reported Us magazine.
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"I wouldn't have signed up in the first place if I didn't want to do it. It was a really, really difficult time in my life," Hunnam said.
He actually had a pleasant meeting with director Sam Taylor-Johnson.
"Sam and I just fell in love, creatively. We started talking about this thing and I just felt so excited. I fell in love with the character and started seeing him and becoming intoxicated, which is the way I work: I find a character I love and I start thinking about it all the time," he said.
Also read: Meet Fifty Shades of Grey's Christian Grey
Also read: Meet Fifty Shades of Grey's Christian Grey
However, he also had TV drama Sons of Anarchy and Guillermo del Toro’s film Crimson Peak. “I was going to finish Sons at like 11pm Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for Fifty, missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning. And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on the Wednesday, and the following Monday I was going to start shooting Crimson Peak in Toronto. I just had like … frankly, something of a nervous breakdown."
He said he just couldn't transition so soon. "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 … It was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations.”
Hunnam was replaced by Jamie Dornan. One of the most anticipated films of 2015, it releases on Valentine's Day.