‘True History of the Kelly Gang’: Charlie Hunnam’s foul-mouthed sledge to Russell Crowe

Charlie Hunnam has revealed the shocking line he improvised and hurled at Russell Crowe during their first ever scene together.

Charlie Hunnam has revealed the stunning unscripted sledge he bravely hurled at Russell Crowe during their first scene together for The True History of the Kelly Gang.

Hunnam, who is best known for playing Jax in Sons of Anarchy (which streams on Stan and Foxtel Now) told news.com.au he met Crowe for the first time the night before they had to film their first scene together.

“He (Crowe) arrived in Wangaratta where we were shooting and I got a message that Russell had just arrived and he’d love me to go to his room,” Hunnam said. “I thought that was very warm and kind.

“I went and we talked through a little bit of the work and got to know each other for a couple of hours. It took a little bit of the pressure off the next day.”

Charlie Hunnam as Sergeant O’Neill. Picture: Stan Originals

Russell Crowe as bushranger Harry Power.

RELATED: Director Justin Kurzel on Russell Crowe and the Ned Kelly legend

Hunnam plays Sergeant O’Neill in the film, which is available to stream on Stan. Crowe plays bushranger Harry Power who took on a young Ned Kelly as an apprentice.

The morning after their hotel room meeting, Crowe and Hunnam had to film their first scenes together, and Hunnam told news.com.au he was feeling a tad intimidated by the Oscar winner.

“Russell’s a pretty intimidating dude,” Hunnam told news.com.au. “I grew up not only a fan of him, so he was intimidating from that perspective, but he was also just a very, very big presence as a human being.”

Hunnam said that the film’s director, Justin Kurzel, urged him to test the boundaries with Crowe from the outset.

“Justin likes to improvise a lot and he was definitely encouraging me to push my comfort threshold in how much I was going to f**k with Russell,” he said.

So during the first take, Hunnam went “completely off book”.

“It’s actually in the film,” the actor said about that first take. “He (Crowe) says, ‘Good to see you, Sergeant O’Neill.’ And I said, ‘Good to see you too. You’ve put on some weight, you fat c**t!’

“That was not scripted at all,” Hunnam laughed. “That was, by the way, something that Justin had asked me to say. I would not have gone that deep.”

So how did Crowe react?

“He was a little caught off guard,” Hunnam said. “Russell looked at me as if it was a dangerous situation for me for a second … then there was just a glint in his eye where I could tell he thought, ‘Alright, f**ker, let’s play!’ Then I got as good as I gave.”

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Charlie Hunnam and director Justin Kurzel on the set of the True History of the Kelly Gang. Picture: Stan

Crowe was able to get some revenge on Hunnam in a later scene that required the British actor to be completely naked.

In the scene, Crowe’s character bursts in on Hunnam’s character when he’s in bed with a woman. Crowe’s character then hands a gun to a 12-year-old Ned Kelly (played by Orlando Schwerdt) and tells the youngster to “shoot his c**k off”.

“It’s always slightly embarrassing for the first 20 or 30 minutes of being completely naked in a scene in front of multiple co-stars,” Hunnam said about the scene. “But it’s kind of amazing how quickly you adapt. A scene like that took all day, so by the time we were an hour into the day, it was just business as usual.”

Hunnam said Crowe went “off script” quite a few times himself during the revealing scene.

“I’ve only seen the film once, so I’m not 100 per cent sure, but I would imagine quite a bit of his banter in that scene was ad libbed,” he chuckled.

Hunnam was full of praise for his co-stars, describing Crowe as “a true gent” and Schwerdt as “spellbinding”.

Orlando Schwerdt plays young Ned Kelly. Picture: Stan. Photo by Matthew Thorne

George MacKay plays older Ned Kelly. Picture: Stan

“He’s absolutely incredible,” he said about the young actor. “He’s definitely very precocious.

“He would watch everybody and just absorb things like a sponge. I had to do an emotional scene quite early on in the process and I went off and just sat on a log and just focused and got my emotional energy where it needed to be. A couple of days later, he (Schwerdt) had to do an emotional scene and he just went out there to the same log and just sat with his heads in his hands for 30 minutes. Justin went up to check if he was OK and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m just preparing for the scene.’ Justin said, ‘How did you develop this process?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I saw Charlie do it’.

“It was very sweet to watch him be so open to the process and eager to learn,” Hunnam said. “I thought he was exceptional in pretty much every take of every scene he did.”

Crowe, Hunnam and Schwerdt are joined in the film by a brilliant cast that includes George MacKay as the grown up Ned Kelly, Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis and Claudia Karvan.

George MacKay as Ned Kelly in True History of the Kelly Gang. Picture: Stan

True History of The Kelly Gang is available to watch now on Stan