In particular, the film 'Excalibur' was definitely one of those films that was instrumental in me realizing that I wanted to become an actor.
— Charlie Hunnam
I actually just bought a ranch, and I'm going grow as much of my own foods - I've got thirty chickens, and I'm going to try to live as sustainably as possible.
If I have a long period of time away from acting, I tend to write.
I grew up in an environment where it was permittable to use violence to solve a problem. But it was not permittable ever to call the police under any circumstances. That was the kind of doctrine of my household. My dad was a career-long criminal, and you weren't calling the police for any reason.
Being an actor is fantastic because you get to live your dreams and all of that, but I always think it's slightly irritating when you hear from the outside world, and people are like, 'Yeah, well, if I was an actor, and all I had to do was look good, I could be that ripped, too.'
I think world creation and monster creation and all of that stuff is exciting as a secondary element of storytelling. When it becomes more important than storytelling, I get very nervous, and you sort of lose me a little bit.
Good-quality travel and good-quality food are the two luxuries that I never have any guilt indulging in.
Since I was young, I've been aware that I need time to myself to process everything.
I tend to go to bed really early on New Year's Eve. Then I wake up early, drive up while it's still dark, and hike out somewhere beautiful to watch the sunrise. I just take a couple hours and have a post-mortem of the year.
I ride the same bike that I rode on 'Sons,' a Harley Dyna Super Glide. You know, I wish I wasn't the guy who rode the same bike he rode on his show, but the problem is there's no better bike out there.
When I was a kid, probably 16 or 17, I got spotted by a model scout that wanted to represent me, and they sent me one modeling job, for Wall's ice cream. I did one job for them, and then a catwalk shoot for Kangol caps, and decided modeling was not for me.
A lot of my friends are gangsters. Not like gangsters - well, yeah, all sorts of levels of criminality - but not the types that are preying on innocent people. I have no interest in the type of criminality that has no respect for collateral damage.
Everybody, at some point in their life, has fallen down and not felt like getting back up, but you have to, no matter how difficult it is.
Being at the mercy of the acting profession, in the early days of one's career, is really brutal and feels like you have no control over your life, at all.
They say that theater is the actor's medium, television is the writer's medium and film is the director's medium, and it's really true.
In the early part of your career you are always compared with somebody until you can stand on your own two feet.
I watch these actors who when you go to buy a pint of milk you see them smiling on the cover of 20 magazines. Then when you see them in a film it's hard to believe the character because you just see them everywhere.
It's been many years that I've been in this business. All of a sudden, I'm getting all of these wonderful people approaching me and asking me to work with them. It's very hard to say no when you love and respect people.
I try desperately to never drink bottled water.
I don't tend to watch TV. I'm like a Netflix junkie. I watch a lot of documentaries and movies on Netflix. I like 'Downton Abbey.'
I always think that the ability to fight and defend oneself is a skill that every man should have but endeavour never to use, you know?
English people are always surprised I'm English.
I really, really pride myself on being a professional and a man of keeping my word. It means a lot to me, truly.
I go into the gym and do 75 pullups, 75 dips, 150 squats, 150 pushups, and then 20 minutes of ab work. Done. It takes an hour; I'm in and out. I sweat the whole time.
I think, most of the time, fame is just an inconvenience that needs to be negotiated around to get done what you're actually trying to do.
I don't think I even have a clear perspective of how I'm depicted in the media.
After all the work I've done, I feel like I'm something of an emotion-smith. We have to tap into places on a daily basis that usually people only go in a rare occasion.
I'm starting to get old. I want to eat some hamburgers and just relax.
I was playing pretty boys and these angelic roles like Nicholas Nickleby and all that stuff. And I was like, 'What am I doing? This isn't who I am, as a man or an artist.' I had to overcome people's belief that I was too pretty to be a badass.
I realise few people get to live the life they always wanted, but I'm so neurotic, I don't really think about it. I'm too busy thinking, 'I hope I don't screw up my next scene.'
Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didn't read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.
If I went to them all dressed up and flashed a nice smile for the cameras it would probably be easier for me to get work. But I just can't tolerate it.
There are definitely worse people to be compared with. I think Brad Pitt makes interesting decisions.
I find aspects of the industry tedious and hard to manage.
There's nothing ever monetarily or fame-seeking or any of the other motivations that sometimes go hand-in-hand with this profession. To me, it's just not like that. I'm on a journey of self-discovery and trying to avoid total existential crisis. That's the kind of operating zone that I'm approaching this business from.
I collect... for a long time, I collected Nike Air Max 90s, this specific shoe. And it really is nerdy, because collecting sneakers is not that nerdy, but if you don't wear them, and you keep the box fresh, if you're that fanatical about it, then you leap several categories into super-dork, and that's the way I was.
I think my favorite show of all time was 'Deadwood.'
I work 15 hours a day and still go to the gym. Most people work eight hours a day and say, 'I haven't got time to work out.'
My favorite days are at home. Spend some time in the garden, cook a couple of nice meals, watch a couple of movies. I'm pretty boring.
I'm pretty mercurial and a very difficult, long-winded decision-maker at the best of times.
There's a tendency in this Hollywood machinery to take on too much. You end up not being able to give everything you want.
You step in with the Seth Rogens of the world, you better have some jokes.
I do try not to dwell on the past too much, because I have a tendency to do that, and as I've gotten older, I've gotten very good at distancing myself from shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Back when I was a kid, I used to tear pages out of magazines and stick them on my bedroom wall - I had the Eternity ads on my wall and the CK One ads. My whole childhood, those were on my wall, and cut to 20 years later, being asked to be the face of one of Calvin Klein's new fragrances is kind of surreal.
I always think it's better to take a smaller role in a great film rather than a leading role in something that you don't have complete faith in.
You go through this business and you meet people that you bond with, and you get to go make movies with them. It's wonderful. What I've always dreamt of, in my career, is to have a brotherhood of collaborators, and go in and out of working with them. I'm just starting to get that, and it's really lovely.
I was a slightly melancholy child and I think films were a way of escaping for me.
I got expelled from high school, and then did my exams from home. I decided, through that experience, that I was going to expediate my plan and didn't go to university. Instead, I went to a community college and studied the theory and history of film with the idea that I wanted to write and direct.
I get invited to literally every single movie premiere that's going on.
So I try not to do press and if you can keep the balance of keeping a certain degree of anonymity and do interesting work then you can hope for a degree of career longevity.
