Although Jason Segel wrote the part of rock star Aldous Snow with him in mind, the 'Sons of Anarchy' actor admits he was 'in a dark night of the soul' in his career at the time.
- Nov 4, 2020
AceShowbiz - Charlie Hunnam is glad he turned down the role of rock star Aldous Snow in pal Jason Segel's film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", because he would never have given the performance funnyman Russell Brand did.
Segel wrote the part with Hunnam in mind after the two pals agreed it was time to make a movie together, but when he read the script and sat down for the first production meeting, he realised he wasn't in the right place to play Snow and risked his friendship with Jason by telling him he was walking away from their dream.
"I went and I did the table read and it was very successful... (but) I was in a dark night of the soul in my career, at that point, and felt as though I needed to seize the trajectory and that (film) just wasn't really aligning with, at that period of my life and career, what I wanted to be doing," Charlie tells Collider.
"Jason was one of my best friends, which is why he wrote the film for me, but I had to tell him, 'I'm so sorry, I'm not gonna do this'. It was one of those things where that wasn't very well received by the inner circle of that production. I had to stand my ground and say, 'Listen, it's nothing personal. I'm just following my North star. I'm just in a weird spot and I'm trying to define for myself what the path forward is'."
"It was really difficult for me for the few months after that."
Hunnam, who also walked away from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film franchise, admits he had no idea who Brand was when he heard he had been offered the Snow role, but quickly realised the comedian was the perfect choice for the part.
"I saw this piece of stand-up that Russell Brand did on Christmas Day with my mum," the actor recalls. "It was just this liberating moment where I said, 'Obviously, that's the dude who should have been playing that role.' Clearly, I just needed to step out of the way of the universe manifesting itself, the way that it was supposed to."
"There's no way I could have done it justice the way Russell Brand did. I think there's a rhythm to these things and you just have to really follow your instincts. It's all you can really ever do. I suppose I brought that up because it's a nice example of my instincts being proven to me that it was correct, I think (sic)."
