Charlie Stops by The K&B Show
There are not too many actors that come through the halls of KROQ that both men and women alike will swoon over. Charlie Hunnam is one of them. As Jackson “Jax” Teller on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, Hunnam is the perfect mix of charm and grit, family man and bad ass, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes and with an accent either.
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Hunnam had been going to college in England and was studying film with aspirations of being a writer/director, but got an invitation to audition for an acting job (on Queer As Folk), and began acting from there. He figured that he’d learn more about the film making process if he was able to get on a set, and learn things that college wasn’t able to teach him.
Despite there being a lot of acting opportunities in England, he’d always dreamed of himself moving to the States to pursue his career. Quality over quantity has always been an important factor in choosing projects and admits to some “giant periods of unemployment” in between some of the films he’d been in (including Cold Mountain and Children of Men). “At the beginning of an actor’s career, establishing oneself with integrity and building a foundation that will last is most important.”
Sons of Anarchy came after one of those periods of unemployment, but when it came across his desk, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play Jax Teller. “The originality of the idea and the story that Kurt [Sutter] was trying to tell was so much more unique and colorful and vivid than the film work I was looking at, so I just jumped at the chance.”
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Rather than being just about a motorcycle club/gang, Sons of Anarchy is more like a family drama. It’s easy to compare it to the Sopranos in the sense that that’s more a family drama than just a show about the mafia. It deals with relationships between a close knit group of friends and relatives who are really a solid family unit, and it’s the only lifestyle they’ve really ever known. Even though Hunnam’s the one on the posters, he credited Katey Sagal (who plays his mother and is the wife of writer/creator, Kurt Sutter), as being the heart and soul of the show.
There’s a few things that Hunnam isn’t a fan of. Having to wear a black hoodie under a leather jacket in 100° weather is one of them. A plus side was definitely learning to ride a motorcycle, which is sometimes the only way to avoid the terrible LA traffic! He even got here this morning on his motorcycle, and pulled off the dangerous move of driving between two Prius cars.
Lastly, there’s been talk of David Hasslehoff being on the show this season. Is there any truth to that? Um… yep. Later in the season we can see him plays an aging porn star. But is he good? “Um… he’s great.” That was Hunnam’s only response to that. It’s ok Charlie. We can read between the lines.
