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Chad Michael Murray, Dawson’s Creek, TV, 1998-2003. Before his breakout role Nathan in the UK’s Queer As Folk, 1999-200, Charlie auditioned for another Charlie In creator Kevin Williamson’s view of US jeanagers. The role led CMM into 131 chapters of One Tree Hill, 2003-2011, Chosen, Texas Rising and playing Sam Phillips, the first guy to record Elvis, Sam Phillips, in Sun Records, 20017-2018. (Elvis was Drake Milligan). It was at the Creek auditions where b Hunnam met his first wife, Katharine Towne, daughter of top Hollywood screenwriter, Robert (China) Towne. They met and wed within weeks – and divorced inside three years. Meanwhile, Charlie had worked with Dawson star Katie Holmes, after all, in Abandon.
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Hayden Christensen, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, 2000.
- Mike Vogel, Rumour Has It…, 2004. When auteur Ted Griffiin was dumped from his own project after a few “incredibly slow” days, new helmer, Rob Reiner scratched as s many as four actors from the Griffin line-up. Including Vogel, first cast as the son of Kevin Costner, aka the Inspiration for Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate book and film.
- Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 2007. Actor-writer Jason Segel created randy rocker Aldous Snow for Charlie… the UK star of producer Judd Apatow’s TV series, Undeclared. Brand stole the entire movie. And won a sequel: Get Him To The Greek, 2009.
- Peter Facinelli, Twilight, 2008. Hit novelist Stephenie Meyer cast the film version her way- and very well. Including the Queer As Folk (and Nicholas Nickleby) TV star as Dr Carlisle Cullen. Then, Hollywood got intothe vampiric franchise.
- Chris Hemsworth, Thor, 2010. After Brad Pitt passed, 007’s Daniel Craig was first choice for the disabled medical student Dr Donald Blake with the mighty Thor as his alter ego. Liam Hemsworth (Chris’ younger brother) was among others in contention, such as the future Loki, RoboCop, Tarzan and Magic Mike: Tom Hiddleston, Joel Kinnaman, Alexander Skarsgård, Channing Tatum. Plus the brother Liam Hemsworthj, Hunnam, Paul Levesque, Tyler Mane.
- Casey Affleck, Triple Nine, 2013. Shia LaBoeuf had to leave. Hunnam stepped in. Then, he had to go. So, Affleck joined the corrupt cops blackmailed into an “impossible” heist… which involved killing one of their own.
- Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades of Grey, 2013.
“The worst professional experience of my life. It was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally,” Hunnam told VMan magazine in 2015. “It was heartbreaking.” Hunnam ran hot and cold about tackling Christian Grey from the year’s most scandalous novel – a dullard slice of BDSM porno. He refused. Nothing, he said, to do with th sexual content. (Hardly after all he did in his breakthrough Queer As Folk TV series). Next, he changed his mind, falling for the book and for Grey. “I started seeing him and becoming intoxicated, which is the way I work: I find a character I love and I start thinking about it all the time.” Once he started reading with Dakota Johnson (as Grey’s prey, Anastasia Steele), he definitely wanted to do it. ” Two months later, he quit. Again. And blamed his Sons of Anarchy series. “I was going to finish Sons at like 11pm Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for Fifty, missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning. And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on the Wednesday and the following Monday I was going to start shooting Crimson Peak in Toronto. I just had like… frankly, something of a nervous breakdown. I just said: ‘I can’t… I can’t… There was a lot of personal stuff going on… that left me on real emotional shaky ground – and mentally. Fifty was going to be massive. I really didn’t want to fail on such a grand scale. I just couldn’t transition from Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours. I bit off more than I could chew.”
Mark Wahlberg tried to buy the novel. Social networks suggested everyone from Robert Pattinson, Matt Smith to Henry Cavill (well, S/M also stands for Superman) and Captain America Chris Evans (as if Marvel would allow that). The suits had eyes only for Ryan Gosling. No way, said he. Most wise. Next targets were Luke Bracey (the inevitable Aussie), Patrick J Adams, Stephen Amell, François Arnaud (well versed in jiggery-pokery in The Borgias series), Christian Cooke, Dominic Cooper (perfect, surely?), Scott Eastwood, ex-UK model David Gandy, Theo James, another Aussie Daniel McPherson, Billy Magnussen, Ryan Paevey – and Alexander Skarsgård, playing Tarzan by then with an Anastasia Steele hopeful, Margot Robbie. (Hunnam had also been in the ape-man mix). As for the Belgian hunk, Matthias Schoenaerts – he fell asleep reading the scenario. Oh, and author EL James vetoed any idea of of Dornan’s pal, Eddie Redmayne! They were all lucky to escape the turgid, totally un-erotic enterprise. Only 14 minutes and 17 seconds of sex, no orgasms – and pubes added digitally to actors’ genital patches!! And poor Dornan was a zero without his beard. - Alexander Skarsgård, The Legend of Tarzan, 2014. Warner Bros was keen. Charlie, not so much. Next? Fellow Brits Henry Cavill, already the studio’s Superman and Napoleon Solo (and a lot of good that did him!) and Tom Hardy. Plus, in the hallowed Johnny Weissmuller tradition, US Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian, with 23 gold medals from five Games, during 2000-2016. The other American in the jungle mix was Matt Barr, a Hunnam lookalike from Texas – and Kevin Costner’s Hatfields & McCoys minii-series. The ape-man is a Skarsgård family hero. Poppa Stellan showed the Weissmuller films to his seven sons. Alexander is the oldest and hoped the youngest, Kolbjörn, would not consider him “a shit Tarzan”! He had to wait until the delayed 2016 summer release to find out.
- Casey Affleck, Triple 9,2015. Title is US PD code for: officer down. Chris Pine was the young cop forever chewing gum who turned into LasBeouf, then Charlie Hunnam, and finally, Affleck, in this Kosher Nostraheist, stuffed with A-listers but listing in the wrong direction. Tighter, faster, it could have been something better than Rerservoir Puppies.
- Ewan McGregor, Zoe, 2017. Despite a nine-year age difference, McGregor took over from a busy Hunnam as Léa Seydoux’s colleague, designing technology to perfect romantic relationships, something more profound than either ever imagined possible.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 11