Mario Robles
When Charlie Hunnam signed onto “50 Shades of Grey” he knew he’d likely be engaging in some pretty graphic horizontal mambo sessions with Don Johnson’s little girl. But that doesn’t bother him.
“You know what, I had such a baptism of fire with regards to sexuality on camera at the beginning of my career. I starred in the British channel Four miniseries ‘Queer As Folk’ where I played a young, gay character and there were some incredible, explicit sex scenes on that show. So I feel, and now I am 16 years older and more mature so I don’t anticipate them being too much of a problem. It’s like anything else, just an exciting challenge.”
At one point, Hunnam was reluctant to the take the part, though. “I just, there was a bit of a timing issue where I just wanted to insure that I was going to have enough time to really do the preparation so I can bring this guy to life and do him justice and when they decided to push the schedule to accommodate that then I was a no-brainer and I was in,” he said.
Though, there may have been a little more to it than the timing. Robocop himself, Peter Weller, had to step in with some advice one day on the set of “Sons of Anarchy.” Weller told the Associated Press, “One week ago or two weeks ago, he was on my set when they came back to him and they wanted him to do it because he passed on it once, you know,” said the sometimes “Anarchy” director. “They came back to him and I said, ‘Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, what do you think, this is too pulpy or something?’ He said, ‘Ah.’ ‘Well, let me give you the list of actors who did matinee idol style stuff, beginning with Cary Grant let’s go there. If you don’t do this, I’ll burn your house down.’”
Seems Hunnam’s got plenty of pressure to rise to the occasion for this project. His female co-star, Dakota Johnson, isn’t only the daughter of Don, but her mother is Melanie Griffith. And his own girlfriend, Morgana McNelis, is said to not be too keen on the love scenes.
“Of course, it’s difficult being with an actor, you know? She is required to share certain parts of me with the world that she wouldn’t necessarily choose to do, but we have a great relationship and she loves me and wants to be with me and we’ve been together a long time now, and I think she understands and has come to terms with the fact that there are certain elements of me that she is going to have to share,” Hunnam said. “This is an extreme example of that, but thankfully we do have seven and a half years of history together, so it won’t be a big problem.”
Good luck, Charlie. Wonder if he’ll have any trouble performing, knowing that James Crockett, Alex Murphy, El Mariachi, the Working Girl, and his gal are all sitting in the next room hoping it goes just right?
