Charlie Hunnam Quit Fifty Shades Of Grey Due To A Nervous Breakdown

While I’m sure we’re all just incredibly, overwhelmingly excited for the release of Fifty Shades of Grey on Valentine’s Day, it has been a long and tormenting journey to bring E.L. James’ so-called “S&M” tome to the big screen. One of the more surprising switches occurred when Charlie Hunnam dropped out of the film not long after signing on for it. While Jamie Dornan has stepped in to fill the Hunnam-shaped void, the truth is that Charlie still feels pretty bad about the whole thing.

In a discussion with Moviefone (via Cinema Blend), Hunnam explained that his dropping out of Fifty Shades of Grey was the result of work-related stress and a near nervous breakdown. When the filming of the sixth season of Sons of Anarchy went long, troubles began to arise in terms of Hunnam’s schedule.

Here’s what he said:

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. 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.

So he didn’t think that playing Christian Grey would ruin his career? Nope, apparently not. In fact, Hunnam really liked the role and was looking forward to playing it, saying that he “fell in love with the character and started seeing him and becoming intoxicated.”

Hunnam’s departure was welcomed by at least some fans of Fifty Shades, of course, who petitioned to have the actor removed from the role, lest he mar their vision of the perfect dominating boyfriend. Fifty Shades of Grey fans can rest easy, though. Jamie Dornan filled the role and Hunnam has moved on, though he still thinks that the movie is going to be just great. He was “really, really sorry” to abandon the part, but, as he says, “it was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations.”

Fifty Shades of Grey will tie up the box office come February, but poor Charlie Hunnam won’t be doing the tying.