He bursts onto the scene in Britain’s Queer as Folk, then captured our hearts in Nicholas Nickleby. Now Charlie Hunnam is roaring across American screens every week as motorcycle gang member Jax Teller on the second season of FX’s hit Sons of Anarchy. Starring with an amazing cast that includes Ron Perlman, the 29-year-old Newcastle, UK, native says, “There’s a lot of testosterone on set and a lot of really big personalities, but we all genuinely adore each other.”
Playing Teller—who Hunnam describes as a “guy with a moral compass that doesn’t always feel comfortable with the day-to-day reality of his world”—may not be much of a stretch for the actor. “My dad operated his whole life outside the law,” says Hunnam. “He was an underworld character and a pretty famous gangster from the north of England.”
Hunnam admits he’s a bit intimidated by the scope of the commitment to the series but is excited to be part of such an innovative show. “I was really impressed that [creator Kurt Sutter] actually wanted to do something original, tell unique stories and create real characters,” he says. “The vast majority of stuff I’d been reading was the same old recycled crap.”
Currently living in Hollywood, Hunnam is focusing on his acting right now, but screenwriting is also a major interest. (Hunnam’s script for a historically accurate epic based on Vlad the Impaler was recently picked up by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment.) But no matter what the hunky Hunnam’s got in the works, we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on him—it’s too hard not to.
