Sons of Anarchy Season 7: Charlie Hunnam (Jax) Says He Decided to Drop Out of Fifty Shades of Grey

Sons of Anarchy Season 7: Charlie Hunnam (Jax) Says He Decided to Drop Out of Fifty Shades of Grey
Charlie Hunnam arrives at the Huading Film Awards held at the Ricardo Montalban Theater on Sunday, June 1, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Zachary Stieber
6/5/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Charlie Hunnam, who plays Jax in Sons of Anarchy, says that it was his decision to drop out of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie.

Hunnam was slated to play the lead male role of Christian Grey.

“I felt like I had an interesting take on that character and felt like I could have done a good job of playing Christian Grey, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it on in the first place,” he told Life & Style.

“When you put the time into something like that and a character comes alive in your mind, it’s heartbreaking not to be able to play him […] It was definitely kind of heartbreaking having to say goodbye to that character and not bring it to life.”

EL James, author of 50 Shades, announced that Hunnam and actress Dakota Johnson had snagged the lead roles in September 2013.

But just one month later Universal Pictures said that Hunnam left because of the filming schedule for the last season of Sons of Anarchy, season 7. Filming started recently.

Jamie Dornan ended up replacing Hunnam as Grey.

Hunnam said there’s no hard feelings and that he will likely see the movie.

“If they invite me to the premiere, I will go and see it there,” he said. “If not, I’ll go and buy some tickets on opening night.”