Charlie Hunnam had to starve himself for role after taking off shirt and making director cry

Actors will go to all sorts of extremes to play a role, from taking on the voice of their character in everyday life to not communicating with anyone else on set.

Many also undergo a real physical transformation, like Christian Bale dropping a mega eight stone for The Machinist. And watch here as Charlie Hunnam reveals he was ‘forced’ to starve himself:

The British actor ended up taking the decision for dramatics after making the film’s director cry.

Hunnam had not long since finished on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, where he’d absolutely bulked up to play Arthur.

The bloke was ripped. But this didn’t exactly work well with his next role in The Lost City of Z.

He was playing British archaeologist Percy Fawcett but when the film director saw his muscly physique, he was apparently reduced to tears.

James Gray basically said Hunnam was simply ‘too hench’ to play the lead character.

"I was in a costume fitting and I took my shirt off and revealed my physique, and he started to cry," he explained to Vanity Fair.

Will Cozens/YouTube

"Something tells me these aren't tears of joy, and he said 'I think you just ruined my film. You look like a pugilist. We need a Victorian gentleman'.

"And I said, 'don't worry. I got 10 days'. So I didn't eat anything for 10 days and I lost 10 lbs."

FYI, as a disclaimer, this isn't something anybody should do to shred the pounds.

In his more recent role in 2022’s Shantaram, Hunnam plays an Australian fugitive named Lin Ford who lives in 1980s Bombay.

Speaking candidly about having to change accents for the role, Hunnam told 7 News Australia: "I had a wonderful dialect coach and a lot of Australian friends who helped me, but honestly I think I probably got about 75 percent of the way there.

Amazon Studios

"I have a strange accent myself, it’s half English, half American, and everybody, my entire life, has thought I was Australian.

"I have a lot of family in Melbourne.

"I came to Melbourne the first time when I was two years old and spent six weeks there, so I’ve been coming to Australia all my life."

The synopsis for Shantaram reads: "Escaped convict Lin Ford flees to the teeming streets of 1980s Bombay, looking to disappear.

"Working as a medic for the city's poor and neglected, Lin finds unexpected love, connection, and courage on the long road to redemption."

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_