SONS OF ANARCHY Charlie Hunnam Interview FX

Charlie Hunnam opens up about the new season of Sons of Anarchy, what we have to look forward to from President Jax, what he thinks of Ron Perlman as a woman, and so much more in a recent chat. For those of you that have met members of the cast of Sons of Anarchy, you know exactly how incredible these men and women are. This year at Comic-Con, we were fortunate enough to have almost the entire cast available for interviews. I was hoping that Michael Ornstein would be added but hopefully Chucky will come next year. Charlie was hilarious and provided us with some thoughtful answers. There wasn’t a dry eye at the press table when he started to talk about Ron Perlman being in love with his character in his new film, Frankie Go Boom. I can assure you Charlie and Ron, no one is going to miss that film. Mark Boone Junior even came over to our press table to cause a bit of mischief and get involved in the final question. Don’t miss the season premiere of Sons Anarchy, September 11 on FX.

President Jax:

Charlie Hunnam: For people that have seen the show, you know, it’s been a process of four years of Jax trying to figure out how he’s going to extricate himself from the club and the life, and he’s now at the point where he assumed the role as president at the end of last season. I think it was a very concrete decision and that whole fantasy was now put to bed. He’s redesigned himself to the fact that he is here and staying and this is what he’s going to be doing for the rest of his life. I think a clarity and fierceness grow in him after making that decision. To begin with, he’s an excellent president. He’s been watching this and fantasizing about being the president or leaving, one of the two, for years and years. Now that he is here he has all of the skillsets to deal with it, but I think what he hadn’t anticipated was just the level of compromise that was required to be a man in charge. There is information that Jax has that he can not share with the club so now he finds himself right away in a position where he’s having to lie and manipulate his brothers, which is shit that he vilified Clay for doing for years. He’s now finding himself in that very same position. I think one of the most interesting psychological things that are going on, as a byproduct of that within Jax, is that although he absolutely hates Clay and wants to murder him, he’s actually starting to empathize a little bit about how difficult it is to sit at the head of the table and lead righteously. That is all he wants to do, be a good leader, and look after his guys and whenever possible do the right thing. I think what he is realizing, more often than not, it’s impossible to do the right thing then you have got to go to plan B. That is what I think is one of the most exiting and interesting and unexpected, like side effects, is this like feeling of empathy that starts to grow in him which is to obviously empathize and want to murder the same person, it is a complex thing to play. Hopefully, I haven’t been fucking it up too much.

Jax’s relationship with Opie:

Charlie Hunnam: It’s a heartbreaking dynamic for me to play as an actor and for the characters on-screen. Opie is the one person that Jax truly just loves and trusts in the club. When my little brother died I think that Opie and Jax truly became brothers. Ryan is such a wonderful actor, and such a soulful guy, that when we are in these scenes where he is disappointed in me and kind of a little disdainful of the way that I’m operating it really is difficult to play those scenes and be on the receiving end of that. I feel like, oh man, I wish I could be doing a better job and it is really the area that creates the most sadness for Jax, in this transition, is the fact he has lost the love and respect of his best friend.

Relationship with Ron Perlman:

Charlie Hunnam: We’ve done two movies and sixty hours of television together over the last five years. It’s a certain unlikely but quite fun partnership that has developed. Obviously, it was clear the way the Guillermo (del Toro) thing happened, I had a little bit of a relationship with Guillermo from the past and we had talked a little bit about working together and of course I wanted to work with him and I guess he wanted to work with me, which I was very happy about, that was obviously about Pacific Rim. This other film we did, Frankie Go Boom, is a tiny little independent that I did that literally we made the movie for $400,000. We shot it in L.A. for twenty days. We had to bring our own lunch to work because literally there was no food. They couldn’t find the right guy to play this transsexual who falls madly in love with the main character, which is played by me. I just said, “It’s crazy and he’s going to be the ugliest woman that we have ever seen, but can we send this to Ron and see if Ron wants to do it?” The director was like, “Oh my god that is a brilliant idea. “ I thought I was going to send it to Ron and call him and say that, “I got this roll and I’m not going to preface anything but just read it and you are going to say no but just read it.” I thought I was going to get a call a few hours later saying that I was out of my fucking mind but he called me and said, “How did you know?” I said, “How did I know what?” “That I’ve always wanted to play a woman.” That is psychotic, that stuff, we are slow dancing and it’s wrong with that giant caveman face with lipstick on, in a pearl necklace, wearing a silk kimono smoking pot and trying to blow it in my mouth and follows through with a French kiss. Oh my god, for fans of Sons of Anarchy to see that they are going to be like, “What is happening?”

Jax and his father’s vision of the club:

Charlie Hunnam: I think that John Teller, Jax’s father, has definitely been knocked off the pedestal. I think Jax now, for the first time ever in his life, has a clear idea of who his dad was and what he was all about and understands it and respects it but also thinks that his father was a little naïve in that kind of fairytale righteous collection of dudes who really just wanted to be free of the big brother element of society. It was just a dream. That’s not what this is, nor is it ever going to be. I think he’s much more realistic in a lot of ways than John Teller was but he’s definitely going to go through a process of realizing that as naïve as he thought John was, he’s still very naïve in thinking that he can turn this club and take it too far away from where it is. I was talking about this earlier, this psychological byproduct of actually realizing that all of the mistakes that Clay made weren’t all necessarily maliciously intended, it’s just that it’s very difficult to be the boss and make these decisions.

Future plans regarding Sons of Anarchy:

Charlie Hunnam: In television you sign a contract, as an actor, for seven years if you get offered a lead role and I am happily signed up for seven years and I hope that we make those seasons and beyond that. I would continue as long as all the guys are there with me and we continue to have a good creative experience on the show then I would continue making it. The prospect of already, and we are still two and a half years out, but the prospect to take that cut off for the final time and say goodbye to Jax Teller and Bobby Elvis…