Charlie Hunnam’s five favourite movies
English actor Charlie Hunnam started his career in his late teens after being scouted by a Byker Grove crew member in a JD Sports shop. The actor swiftly landed a role in three episodes of the popular coming-of-age drama series before landing a prominent role in Queer as Folk.
However, with bigger opportunities in mind, Hunnam moved to the United States, where he landed roles in both film and television, such as Young Americans and Cold Mountain. In 2005, the rising star risked tarnishing his career after delivering a terrible Cockney accent in the British football hooligan film Green Street. Yet this didn’t seem to prevent Hunnam from landing more roles, and within three years, he bagged the leading gig in the FX crime drama Sons of Anarchy.
Looking at his career so far, in 2012, he sat down with Rotten Tomatoes to discuss some of his favourite films, expressing a particular love for Nicolas Winding Refn and Martin Scorsese. Alongside Refn’s Valhalla Rising, calling Mads Mikkelsen’s performance “spectacular,” he chose Pusher III, referring to it as a “masterpiece.”
He explained: “I really like the struggle of that character through Pusher III. Unlike the other films, he’s really, really trying to do the right thing with his life over the course of that film. And you just see that, because of the environment he’s in and the forces that surround him, that he keeps getting pulled down over and over and over until he descends into total darkness at the end.”
Choosing his favourite Scorsese, Hunnam selected Casino, also referring to it as a “masterpiece”, citing his love for its “non-linear storytelling”. Detailing further, he added: “Casino, I think, is probably up there with Chinatown in the best screenplays ever written. I love the film itself, but if you look at the sophistication of that screenplay and how they effortlessly move between time periods and geographic locations with no problem whatsoever — and of course they use narration but still, I feel it’s a truly spectacular display of storytelling.”
Another film Hunnam admires for similar reasons is Steve McQueen’s 2008 drama Hunger, as he explained: “The device with which they bring the audience into the world in that first act through a character that’s not seen in the film again, it’s just something I’ve never seen done before.”
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet is another favourite of Hunnam’s, citing the “powerhouse performances” as one of the reasons he frequently returns to it. Discussing the movie alongside Michael R. Roskam’s Bullhead, he said: “I’ve really been studying are single-perspective narratives of grand character journeys.”
For Hunnam, these films “achieve that in a wondrous way”, as he explained: “What I’ve been trying to figure out is how to stay, as authentically as possible, within the single narrative of just the one character while bringing an entire world to life through that.”
Discover his list of favourite films below.
Charlie Hunnam’s five favourite movies:
- Pusher III (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2005)
- Valhalla Rising (Refn, 2009)
- Bullhead (Michael R. Roskam, 2011)
- A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
- Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
- Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008)
