Charlie Hunnam couldn't take the pressure of playing Christian Grey
The 34-year-old "Sons of Anarchy" star explained that he dropped out of "Fifty Shades of Grey" after suffering from a "nervous breakdown" - revealing that he was going through a "really difficult time" in his life, according to MovieFone.com
Hunnam blamed his departure on his extremely packed scheduled, explaining that he did not have time to transition from his role as a thug on "Sons of Anarchy" to playing S&M-loving billionaire Christian Grey.
At the time, the actor had also signed up to work on Guillermo del Toro's "Crimson Peak."
"I was going to finish "Sons" at like 11 p.m. Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for "Fifty," missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning," Hunnam explained. "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."
Hunnam admitted dropping the role was "painful," but he did not want to fail at doing the "Fifty Shades" character justice.
He added: "I just said, 'I can't ... I can't .... To fail on such a grand scale - because Fifty's going to be massive, it's going to be huge. 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 just a s**t situation. I was really, really, sorry to do it. It was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations."
The role of Christian Grey eventually went to actor Jamie Dornan, who will star opposite actress Dakota Johnson, who plays Anastasia Steele.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" hits theaters Feb. 13, 2015.
