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Charlie Hunnam is doing the bulk of promotion for both The Lost City of Z and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Both of those films look awful to me, by the way. The Lost City of Z looks like a boring-ass white-folks-in-the-jungle movie and King Arthur looks like “what if Guy Ritchie directed a Game of Thrones episode?” Anyway, there are lots of new Hunnam interviews, like this cover interview with Da Man. First, a word about the editorial and how Hunnam looks. I think Charlie is a good-looking guy, of course, and I actually think he’s finally found a general grooming scheme that works for him: the scruffy goatee/beard thing is hot, and his current haircut is sexy. But Hunnam is so styling-dependent and these photos are not great. Anyway, you can read the full Da Man interview here. Some highlights:

A fresh take on the King Arthur legend: “Guy’s [director Guy Ritchie] sensibility as a director is very contemporary, so the style and tone of the film is completely fresh for this genre, and the story itself is very different from any of its predecessors. Arthur has always been portrayed as the noble man, who goes on a noble quest to become a noble king. Guy said, “let’s make Arthur a motherf—-r.” We are only telling the first chapter of the story, so making Arthur conflicted, angry and scared at the beginning gives greater breadth to his journey and makes for a more interesting character.

He was up against Henry Cavill and Jai Courtney for the King Arthur role: “Are you trying to get me into a fight?…. With regards to fighting the competition … Sure, I’d take them both on. I actually didn’t know who the other dudes were but I love a good fight, and Guy kept pestering me about how skinny I was at the time. So, I said “F–k it, let me fight for the role.” All in good fun, though. I respect both those guys; I’m not trying to start any trouble. In the immortal words of RZA, “I’m vegetarian, b—h, I don’t want the beef.”

How he bulked up for the role: “In the usual way, nothing exciting. I ate enormous amounts of food and worked out like a bastard every day. I prefer calisthenic-style exercises, so the majority of my training was pull-ups, push-ups, dips and non-weighted squats. I also boxed every day and did a bit of jiu-jitsu.

Creating his Arthur: “Guy and I wanted him to be a regular lad from the streets who has carved out a nice little life for himself. He’s cocky as hell, which comes partly from the confidence that he is living by his wits and fists and doing very well, but also partly as a defense mechanism to cover the fear he lives with from his internal demons. Overcoming those demons and knowing that one’s own ego is our only real obstacle was the most exciting element in our exploration of who our Arthur is. I looked at [UFC Lightweight Champion] Conor McGregor for a lot for inspiration. He’s a cocky dude, but also clearly a great student of the laws of self-actualization. I saw an interview where he was talking about his competition and said something like, “There is no opponent; I’m fighting myself in the octagon.” That’s basically the lesson that Arthur has to learn in this film.

What he considers to be the most bad-ass line he’s ever uttered on film: “In “Cold Mountain,” right before I killed the hero of the film, played by Jude Law. We are on the cusp of having a shoot-out and I say to him: “You know what I got on my side?” Jude: “What have you got on your side?” Me: “The confidence of youth.” And then I shoot him. Boom.

[From Da Man]

There’s other stuff, about The Lost City of Z and how difficult it was for him to “reintegrate” after ghosting everybody for months at a time. I found that boring. As for King Arthur… I mean, there’s a reason why the film’s release date kept getting pushed back, and it’s not because the film is so amazing. It’s because no one gives a sh-t about a street-fighting Motherf–ker Arthur doing parkour all over Medieval London or whatever.

He looks like Spencer Pratt in this photo.

Photos courtesy of Da Man.

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