Last weekend, shortly after Pacific Rim's awesome panel in Hall H at Comic-Con, I got to sit down with Charlie Hunnam for an extended video interview.  As a huge fan of Undeclared (he played Lloyd) and Sons of Anarchy, I'll admit to being pretty excited to finally get a chance to talk with him.

During our wide ranging conversation, we talked about what's coming up on Sons of Anarchy, how long he thinks the show will last (he's signed for seven seasons), what it was like to work for Guillermo del Toro on Pacific Rim, who he plays, if the script changed a lot on set, the practical effects, how he prepares for a role, and a lot more.  In addition, Hunnam revealed he was almost a lead in Hellboy II and that he’s a giant Game of Thrones fan and he hoped to meet Khaleesi (Emilia Clarke) at Comic-Con.  Hit the jump to watch.

As usual, I've time indexed the interview so you can watch the parts that interest you.

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Charlie Hunnam Time Index:

  • :04 Talks about getting two hours of sleep the night before coming to Comic-Con because he was filming the new season of Sons of Anarchy.
  • :32 Says they’re on the sixth episode of the fifth season and it’s going to be “far and away” their best season yet.
  • :59 Talks about how the events of the last few seasons impact the upcoming episodes of the show.
  • 1:31 He thinks the show will run for seven seasons. Guillermo del Toro interrupts the interview and sits down.
  • 2:04 Hunnam talks about how he got involved with Pacific Rim. Says he was supposed to do Hellboy II but it didn’t work out, then del Toro offered him the lead in Pacific Rim.
  • 3:01 Talks about the plot for the film and who he plays.  He’s one of the elite soldiers who pilots the Jaegers.
  • 4:09 Hunnam talks about how Pacific Rim differs from most other big budget movies.  Says he finds big, commercial movies made solely to make money offensive.
  • 5:32 How much did the film they shot differ from the initial script?  Hunnam signed on before there was a finished script and there were huge changes throughout the development process, but he said he never got nervous because del Toro was at the helm.  Once they arrived on set the film didn’t change much throughout principal photography.
  • 6:54 Talks about the reliance on practical effects in favor of a ton of CGI.  Says the byproduct of shooting practically is surrounding the actors with actual environments that they can interact with.
  • 8:00 Talks about how Legendary executive Thomas Tull is a “giant nerd” for this type of stuff.  Says Tull made $100 million on Wall Street, retired at the age of 29 and went to Hollywood to make movies.  Some of the first movies he made were Batman Begins, The Hangover, and The Town.
  • 9:25 Is there something that he geeks out over at Comic-Con?  Says he’s a giant Game of Thrones fan and he hoped to meet Khaleesi.  If there was a role that he could do alongside Sons of Anarchy, he would love to be on the show.
  • 10:44 Is there a specific project he’s doing in the next hiatus?  Says he’s taking time off during the next hiatus because he filmed Pacific Rim during his entire last hiatus from Sons of Anarchy.  Says he’s written two projects, one of which he’d like to do with Legendary.
  • 11:52 How does he prepare for roles?  Says the process is the same for television and films, but he actually prefers working in television in terms of the day-to-day process.
  • 12:43 Talks about the crazy amount of physical preparation that went into getting ready for Pacific Rim.

 

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