The Hollywood Reporter has written up a piece on the reasons Charlie Hunnam bailed on playing Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie adaptation. Among those include the script (which is now being rewritten by Patrick Marber) for which he apparently supplied “very detailed script notes” and that he began butting heads with the creative team, including director Sam Taylor-Johnson.
However, among all this the one item I can’t seem to overlook is the idea he was only going to be paid $125,000 for his part in the film. Granted, Hunnam isn’t a major movie star at the moment, but he is the star of FX’s hit television show “Sons of Anarchy“, a show that in 2011 reportedly carried “a budget of $2 million to $2.5 million per episode” according to the Los Angeles Times. I couldn’t find specific details on Hunnam’s contract, but to think he’d only be paid $125,000 for everything he’d have to put up with by participating in Fifty Shades seems ridiculous.
While the THR article makes no mention of it, I have to assume Hunnam was going to get some portion of the backend and had he decided to stick around and play the character for the sequels he would have commanded a much higher pay day. In this day and age, however, after seeing what actors such as Twilight performers Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have to go through to play these high-profile, yet throwaway roles, if I was a talent agent I’m not sure I could suggest my client say “yes” to any of these projects. It just doesn’t seem worth it.
