MAN
ELLE.COM.AU / @ELLEAUS 47
Words: Mickey Rapkin. Photography: Brian Bowen Smith
ELLE: A few stories we’ve read described your dad as
a “gangster”. True?
CHARLIE HUNNAM: No, he was a scrap-metal man. If,
say, a coal mine or a shipyard goes down, there’s an
opportunity to go and strip scrap metal and melt it
down. It’s incredibly valuable, completely untraceable
and very desirable to steal. Everybody understands
that if you fuck around, there will be serious
consequences. That’s where his reputation came into
play. He was very well-known, even feared. But he
wasn’t into making money illegally, which is my
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ELLE: How did your home town react when you
became the face of a Calvin Klein cologne?
CH: I don’t know, because I left there when I was 12.
I go back occasionally to see my dad. I think everybody
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salty Newcastle dudes or young dudes or whatever.
ELLE: You’re often shirtless in movies. Do you ever
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CH: Not at all. I don’t view myself that way. I obviously
am cognisant of the fact that being handsome gives
me a greater breadth of opportunity. But I would
hope that what I bring to the table far surpasses
just being handsome.
ELLE: Actors often describe sex scenes as awkward.
What’s the truth?
CH: I try to be sensitive to the fact that we’re doing
something intimate, but also keep a clear
boundary, because I’m in a very
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cognisant that it’s not my girlfriend’s
favourite part of my job. It’s a delicate
balance – to be emotionally open enough
to have an experience that feels honest
between two people but also maintain
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favourite thing. I’m also a germophobe.
ELLE: Wait, seriously?
CH: Yeah. I’ve been profoundly
germophobic since I was a young child.
I don’t want to kiss anyone but my
girlfriend for my whole life.
ELLE: Do you remember how it started?
CH: When I was eight or nine, there was
a parasite from dogs in the north of
England that could turn you blind. We
had a thing in schools to educate the
kids about the importance of hygiene,
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kids went ǯȱ ȱ ęȱ ǯȱ
Everyone thinks it’s great to be an actor
and to get to kiss a bunch of beautiful
actresses, but I actually hate it. @KING
OF THE
ROAD
Whether running a motorcycle
gang or ruling medieval
empires, Charlie Hunnam
does it all with rugged swagger- and poetry at the ready
I
n this month’s slick, Guy Ritchie-directed King
Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, Charlie Hunnam
plays the titular character, whose circumstances
are upended when he pulls a sword from a stone.
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of the classic legend, but the story resonates with the
37-year-old, who was raised in rough-and-tumble
Newcastle, England. His parents split when he was
young and Hunnam, who was discovered in a shoe
store, moved to the US at age 18, married a woman he
met at an audition for Dawson’s Creek, struggled to
ęȱ ǰȱ ȱ ǰȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ
¢ȱ DZȱ ȱ ȱ Ĵ¢ȱ ȱ ȱSons Of
Anarchy. The show was positively Shakespearean in
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last year, the actor was forced to make a public plea
for fans to stop harassing his long-time girlfriend,
jewellery designer Morgana McNelis. Imagine
how intense things could have become if he hadn’t
backed out of starring in 2015’s Fifty Shades Of Grey.
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revealed in our conversation here makes us think there
could have been another reason...SHADES OF
CHARLIEAs the crown prince of
a motorcycle gang on seven
seasons of Sons Of Anarchy.As a scheming street rat
in King Arthur: Legend
Of The Sword.As a British explorer
in The Lost City Of Z
(out August 17).