The One Sons of Anarchy Scene That Broke Charlie Hunnam Completely
Charlie Hunnam, an English actor best known for his role as Jax Teller on the FX Sons of Anarchy action crime drama TV series has opened up on one scene in the show, which he was "most nervous about" in his whole career.
The actor shared some curious tidbits with Vanity Fair's Scene Selection as he re-watched some of his scenes almost a decade after the show ended. Sons of Anarchy was created by Kurt Sutter and aired from 2008 to 2014. The series follows Jax Teller, a man in his 30s who struggles to find a balance in his life between being a new dad and a member of a motorcycle gang.
In the scene that Hunnam re-watched, Jax learns the truth about his wife Tara's (Maggie Siff) death from his best friend Juice (Theo Rossi). Hunnam said it was the most shocking reveal of the entire show.
"Holy moly, this is a great scene. The scene that I think I've been most nervous about in my whole career…I confront my best friend, who knew that my mother had killed my wife and failed to tell me that," The King Arthur actor admitted. "It's about nine pages of dialogue, and I said 'I'm not rehearsing it, I just need to go away and prepare and we're just gonna do it'."
Hunnam, who was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor for his role in Sons of Anarchy, said that once they started filming, "something happened" during the scene where "life became what was happening."
"I just broke down and started wailing inconsolably. And sort of being violent with my guy, and it was really good. It was better than I could have ever hoped it was gonna be," Hunnam said.
It was a success and when director Peter Weller entered the room he told Hunnam that it was "the greatest single thing I've ever seen" and that he was not going to shoot the scene again.
But it was cinematographer Paul Maibaum who was the party pooper. Hunnam recalls how he came into the room "white". "Actually, we are shooting that again, the camera didn't roll," he said. Period. So, that first take didn't actually make it to the episode but the one, which did is no less emotional – although Hunnam admitted the second take was not as good.
All seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy are now available on subscription streaming service Hulu.
Ten years after starring in Sons of Anarchy, Charlie Hunnam's recently appeared in Shantaram, the adaptation of the 2003 international best-selling novel by Australian author Gregory David Roberts. The TV series by Apple TV+ follows fugitive Lin Ford's adventures in Bombay in the 1980s after he escapes jail and meets a woman he falls in love with.