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.
Charlie HunnamIn the early part of your career you are always compared with somebody until you can stand on your own two feet
Charlie HunnamI 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
Charlie HunnamIf I'd seen a grown man beating a crippled boy, of course I'd intervene. If my father died and left my mother destitute, it's your instinct to take care of her. So when I started to think about it in those terms, it started to make sense to me
Charlie HunnamThey 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.
Charlie HunnamYou have to keep people engaged until you get them through the next commercial. I'm not complaining about working in TV, at all, but just as an artistic reaction, I find myself being so drawn to moments of silence where things are allowed to breathe.
Charlie HunnamI mean Iโm 16 and 17 years wiser now. So if I could do it when I was 18 with a guy, I can certainly do it at 33 with a lady.
Charlie HunnamThe landscape of cinema is not original. Not to say there aren't great movies being made, but it's much easier for studios to make movies that have built-in audiences. So it's all remakes, adaptations, a lot of remakes of adaptations.
Charlie HunnamI'm happy being an actor, it's what I have always wanted to do. I'm just lucky I got to do it so early.
Charlie HunnamI 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.
Charlie HunnamNo, I do a bunch of things to entertain myself. I paint, I make music, I take photographs.
Charlie HunnamI'm currently doing Undeclared an American TV show set in a college. It just got aired and got massive ratings so hopefully that'll screen in the UK soon
Charlie HunnamIt always seemed to me like it was a significant thing to do with one's life to be an actor 'cause I love movies and I felt like, not to be grandiose about it, but there is something important about film with the function it provides to general society.
Charlie HunnamMy philosophy about the whole thing is that awards are like gifts: it's lovely to receive them, and it is very bad form to covet them.
Charlie HunnamRight before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didnt 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.
Charlie HunnamI think the work is always going to be much better when it's important and personal to you.
Charlie HunnamI think when you live your destiny, you allow yourself to get in touch with your inner essence. What's difficult in life is the economic and social requirements that distract us from bringing forth our true passion.
Charlie HunnamThe truth of the matter is the real industry is in LA and the cream of the talent is there.
Charlie HunnamI don't just look at things as an actor. I've also written several films, so I look at it as a storyteller and I know if something worked and should have been in there for the benefit of the story and the benefit of the character.
Charlie HunnamIt could be my downfall, but I don't think it is - Hollywood is run on perception, and if you stray off the path of what you want to do with your career, it's suicide.
Charlie HunnamIf 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.
Charlie HunnamI have too many control issues, so it just is not good for me to go and watch a film, too soon after I make it.
Charlie HunnamI've been profoundly germophobic since I was a young child. I don't want to kiss anyone but my girlfriend for my whole life.
Charlie HunnamI obviously am cognizant of the fact that being handsome gives me greater breadth of opportunity. I'd hope that what I bring to the table far surpasses just being handsome.
Charlie HunnamI 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.
Charlie HunnamActing is never really effortless, at least not for me. It requires a massive amount of work. But, there's definitely an added level of having to just create the whole thing again, every time. It's also a very exciting thing, to do that.
Charlie HunnamEverybody, 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.
Charlie HunnamSo 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
Charlie HunnamI think we can affect our own fates, but there's also a powerful energy that's the universe or God or whatever your unconscious recognizes that helps along your way.
Charlie HunnamI 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.
Charlie HunnamMost people that work in [show] business, if they're not gypsies by nature, become gypsies, just because of the reality of this business.
Charlie HunnamFor me, obviously anything that reduces the amount of acting required and makes the process more of an experience, rather than having to synthesize, is incredibly helpful. There were definitely some hardships and some challenges, but eventually all of those hardships and challenges had a positive effect on the work.
Charlie HunnamGood roles are hard to come by, and whether they're a few lines or a lead, you snap 'em up when they come along
Charlie HunnamIt's hard to smoke a pipe, and it's actually kind of brutal. It burns your mouth and your throat, and to keep it lit.
Charlie HunnamA 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.
Charlie HunnamTelevision is all about sound. You'll never get a moment of silence unless there's something really extraordinary going on, on screen, visually. They never let a moment of silence pass without being filled in television because it's a very sound-driven medium.
Charlie Hunnam