Charlie Hunnam says actors who covet fame and money tend to ‘crash and burn’

Actor Charlie Hunnam has said that actors who ‘come in coveting fame and money’ tend to ‘crash and burn really quickly’. “Fame should be the perfume of great deeds,” he told Hindustan Times at a recent Singapore press event for his upcoming Netflix film, Triple Frontier.

Hunnam said that young actors sometimes come to him for advice - an idea that he finds ‘preposterous’ - and that he always tells them that they must first look into their hearts and understand just how desperately they want to act. “If your life wont be fulfilled without doing it then do it, but if you’re going to do it just know you’re going to have to dedicate everything to it, and there’s going to be a certain amount of sacrifice and a certain amount of hardship,” he said.

Hunnam plays a former military veteran who gets involved in a large scale heist in Mexico, with four friends. The actor, who has been in the industry for 20 years and has appeared in everything from successful TV shows (Sons of Anarchy) to Hollywood tentpoles as a leading man (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), said that ‘almost everything about being famous is somewhat futile and irrelevant.’

Admitting that his job can’t be compared to rocket science or the military, he said that being an actor ‘is a fairly difficult job,’ and ‘it’s fairly difficult to sustain a career over many, many years.’

Hunnam has cultivated quite the impressive resume in his two-decade career. He has previously worked with filmmakers such as the Oscar-winners Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak) and Guy Ritchie (King Arthur). In Triple Frontier the actor is a part of an ensemble led by Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac. The thriller is directed by Margin Call’s JC Chandor.

He prepared for his role by reading extensively on the military - particularly the work of journalist/filmmaker Sebastian Junger, who is best known for his war documentaries Restrepo and Korengal.

He said that in his opinion, ‘the defining characteristic that determines success in this business is the desire to be a storyteller with purity and authenticity.’

This image released by Netflix shows Garrett Hedlund, from left, Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from the film, Triple Frontier. (AP)

He continued, ‘The only success is having the ability to keep moving forward and going to work. That really is the greatest success of an actor’s career.’

Triple Frontier also stars Pedro Pascal and Garrett Hedlund. The film was released in select theatres on the 6th and will begin streaming on Netflix worldwide on the 13th.

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The author tweets @RohanNaahar