Despite his star-making turn on "Sons of Anarchy" and other film projects, Charlie Hunnam has yet to make his mark on the silver screen in a major studio blockbuster. He gets his first big chance to do just that when "Pacific Rim" opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 12.
The English actor talked to the press about his experiences on the set of "Pacific Rim" during a press tour in San Francisco on June 30. Latinos Post reporter David Salazar was in attendance.
In "Pacific Rim," Hunnam plays Raleigh Becket, a broken man who looks to save humanity by overcoming past traumas and difficulties. The actor caught director Guillermo del Toro's attention back in 2007 when the two met for screen and makeup tests for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." Hunnam ultimately did not fit the part but del Toro told him that the two would work together at some point.
"I thought he was an actor with a lot of freshness and good nature and a pure heart. When I met him he was like a big kid," del Toro said of his first impressions of the Aussie actor. "When the time came to cast 'Pacific Rim,' my conversation with Legendary [Pictures] was very short. They said 'Who do you see as Raleigh Becket?' I said 'Charlie Hunnam.' [Legendary President] Thomas [Tull] said 'Charlie's cool.' That was it."
Working on "Pacific Rim" presented Hunnam with a number of challenges that were new to him. Among those was engaging in martial arts. In one sequence, Becket must engage in hand to hand combat with a list of candidates to see who will be his pilot-partner inside the gargantuan Jaeger robots. The sequence climaxes with a battle between Becket and Rinko Kikuchi's Mako.
"Rinko and I did the vast majority of [the stunts in that scene]," he revealed. However, Hunnam was scared of hurting his co-star and often asked to work with her stunt double. "Sometimes when it was my coverage I would ask to do it with her double because I was just so nervous of hurting Rinko. We were really fighting. We were really going for it."
Hunnam revealed that Kikuchi's stand-in was a world champion in seven different techniques of fighting and was also extremely agile.
"She was faster than a rattlesnake," he stated.
However, asking the double to stand-in for Kikuchi proved to be a costly mistake.
"She was getting married three days after... doing this fight scene. There's a moment when I throw like a spear stick and she's supposed to duck it and after 10 hours (of shooting) she just didn't duck it fast enough and I slammed the stick right into her cheekbone," he revealed. "She then went back to L.A. and got married with a huge black eye! I said, 'It's appropriate. You're a world champion in seven different fighting styles. Of course you should get married with a black eye!'"
Another interesting challenge on set was working with actor Idris Elba. Hunnam noted that the thespian would constantly test his colleagues on set to get emotional reactions from his colleagues.
"Idris is great. As Raleigh Becket did, I found off-screen dynamic was very similar to the onscreen dynamic," Hunnam said. "Sometimes I would just love Idris and have so much respect and admiration for him. And then other times I just wanted to punch him in the face.
"He's a big energy. He plays these dynamics off of set as well as on-set. He was a little bit condescending towards me at times... He's pushing buttons. I don't mind that but just get prepared to get punched in the face if you do it," he asserted.
However, the greatest challenge onset proved to be the armor that the pilots must wear before entering the Jaegers. Hunnam noted that the suits were not only bulky and heavy, but it also took a ton of time to put on and take off.
"It created traction on my shoulders. It was like someone pushing down on me for 14 hours a day," Hunnam said. "It was a wetsuit. It's a rubber wetsuit that had the fortified plastic stuff to represent the carbon and armor and each piece of it would get clipped on. It was a 30 min process to put it on and about 15 min to take it off," he said. However, the suits greatest problem had nothing to do with the aforementioned issues.
"They didn't ever think to put in a 'pee flap,'" he revealed. "You don't want to really want to be taking it on and off all day. But it's really hot so you [have to] drink a lot of water."
Fortunately, the problem was eventually resolved. "After a couple of weeks they gave me a 'pee flap,'" he said.
Read the Review for Pacific Rim HERE.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
