Charlie Hunnam still whinging about Fifty Shades of Grey

CHARLIE Hunnam accepted the lead role in Fifty Shades of Grey and then walked away, a decision he considers ‘the worst professional experience of my life’.

European premiere of Pacific Rim at the IMAX cinema in South Bank, London. Pictured: Charlie Hunnam Ref: SPL569839 040713 Picture by: Reimschuessel / Splash News Splash News and Pictures Los Angeles: 310-821-2666 New York: 212-619-2666 London: 870-934-2666 [e-mail]

IT TOOK a while, but Charlie Hunnam is finally ready to open up about just how disappointed he was to drop out of Fifty Shades of Grey.

In fact, calling it a disappointment might be underselling the anguish the actor went through while making the decision. As he explains in the new issue of V Man, it was one of the hardest things, professionally speaking, he’s ever had to do.

“Oh, it was the worst professional experience of my life,” he tells the magazine.

“It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally. It was heartbreaking.”

As he’s discussed before, the decision to turn down the role of Christian Grey came down to scheduling. In addition to finishing up his TV show Sons of Anarchy, he’d also promised director Guillermo del Toro, whom he worked with on Pacific Rim, that he’d appear in his new movie Crimson Peak.

English actor Jamie Dornan starred in Fifty Shades of Grey with Dakota Fanning.

“I’m pretty mercurial and a very difficult, longwinded decision-maker at the best of times,” he said.

“It was deeply unpleasant and challenging emotionally. I really, really pride myself on being a professional and a man of keeping my word. It means a lot to me, truly.”

But, as tends to be the case, there was more to it than just work stuff. Hunnam was also going through a rough time emotionally.

“There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak,” he told the magazine.

“I just got myself so fu*king overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing. I just didn’t know what to do.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post.

Originally published as Charlie Hunnam still whinging about Fifty Shades of Grey