The Lost City of Z was always going to be a troubled production, I think. Brad Pitt and his production company Plan B were working for years to put the film together, and Brad was supposed to star at one point. At another point, Benedict Cumberbatch was cast but he eventually dropped out as the production start date kept changing. Finally, the cast was set: Robert Pattinson and Charlie Hunnam. They filmed in Colombia in 2015 for months on end. Pattinson lost a lot of weight and grew a sadness beard. And what happened with Charlie Hunnam? Well, he basically lost contact with his girlfriend Morgana for five months. Charlie told the story to Entertainment Weekly and he made it sound like he did it to be so “Method Actor.” Blah.
When Charlie Hunnam agreed to play 19th-century explorer Percy Fawcett — opposite Robert Pattinson as fellow traveler Henry Costin — in the film adaptation of David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Giving Hunnam only five days between filming on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Lost City of Z, the five-month shoot took him away from longtime girlfriend with essentially no means of contact. The solution? A letter a day — or that’s what Hunnam promised, anyway.
“We went to Colombia, and the mail system doesn’t really work very well,” Hunnam said. “It’s completely unreliable. I received a letter from her, and I realized that from the tone of it and things she was saying that she hadn’t received the two letters that I sent before.”
With timely letters not really in the cards, Hunnam decided to go even more Method in portraying the explorer-cum-absentee father Fawcett. He stopped writing altogether. “Which obviously makes me sound like a total bastard, appropriately so,” Hunnam said. “But I was very apologetic.” The separation, however, helped Hunnam understand Percival Fawcett’s obsession. “One of the things that [director James Gray] and I felt strongly that we wanted to explore in the film,” Hunnam said, “was the conflict between family life and the exterior demands that are made on us and the social and economic demands that we all need to deal with in life, being balanced or in conflict with the internal drive, to be the people we want to be and achieve the things that we want to achieve.”
But where does that leave things with Hunnam and the girlfriend he promised to write to? Well, while Colombian mail system failed him, the jewel market did not.
“I had the benefit of shooting in Colombia, where they have rather lovely and somewhat cheap emeralds,” Hunnam says. “My girlfriend is a jewelry designer, so I was able to come back with an appropriately sized gift. It didn’t remedy all of the trouble I was in, but it got me halfway there.”
If you were dating an actor and he dropped off the face of the earth for five months without calling, writing, emailing, telegramming or anything else, wouldn’t you just assume you had been dumped? Like, that sounds like he was ghosting Morgana. And then he just shows up five months later and he’s like, “We’re still cool right, I brought you some emeralds?” Lainey at LaineyGossip was complaining about the white male privilege that goes along with “Method acting” and how these dude-bros basically use their Method as an excuse to act like total a—holes. What bugs is that everyone lets them get away with it too – even Charlie’s girlfriend! How is going dark for five months acceptable in a mature, adult relationship?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
reason #849 to never date an actor.
honestly, i’m 100% convinced that actors should date each other and leave it at that. it’s the only way to understand each others’ weirdness.
i’m not saying it isn’t true, but these actors always seem to make everything bigger than it is. maybe he did not write her, but she spoke with his agent/family and they told them what was happening. or something.
it’s weird though when they go to these extremes, are you that good an actor if you need to become a character rather than play it? i do wonder.
Yeah, my bulls$it radar is going off on this story.
of course they do but i mean it still makes him look like a moron. i mean why make people believe you treat your girlfriend like crap?
Yeah I feel like hes embellishing – 5 months is insane…if he wasnt an actor I would assume he died or something. I know he’s still a relatively B actor in terms of name recognition and money but IM SURE he could have found some way to contact her for five whole months.
I bet it was just a month or so (which is still wrong) and he just exaggerated the story.
How was the production staff staying in touch with the money people back home? Do that. Problem solved.
It seems like it’s missing from the article but I think he was choosing to only write letters to Morgans to more time period “appropriate” and then when that failed he decided to cut all ties to be more method. I’m sure there was cell service and internet connection and everyone else was behaving like regular human beings
Dude just say you wanted a break from your girlfriend.
Method acting doesn’t make you a great actor. If you’re good you can turn it on and off. A great actor can be on, the director yells cut, you come out of character for a moment and soon as the director yells action, you’re right back on. This is what I think of DDL. He’s a good actor but I think he could achieve the same results without staying in character 24/7.
And he makes it sound like letters are the only means of communication. No phone calls? Emails? I’m sure they spoke in those five months.
Everyone has to act but to be a professional actor some research has to be done and experiences to be had in order to appear true to life and resonate with people. For example to play a doctor, an actor should at the least observe doctors in a hospital otherwise it would look just like acting and not that the actor is actually a doctor.
To be fair, he stopped writing, but does that mean he stopped calling, emailing, etc?
Good question. I think he is saying he didnt communicate with her at all, otherwise I dont see why he would mention it as a notable anecdote. Who cares if you didnt mail a letter if you wrote a couple of emails a day.
All contact, that was his point. No contact because blah blah blah character head space. But hey he bought the silly girl a shiny jewel so all good! 😒
What a jerk!
That’s just pure bullsh*t.
Totally. Made up story to make an interview interesting. Sure, he couldn’t phone, text or email. I believe he did bring back emeralds though … but not as an apology.
Awww, isn’t that cute, he thinks he’s a big boy actor! 🙄
He and Leto can start a who can be a bigger asshole in the name of “art” club. (Leto is president but he can be VP)
Nope. Back to Fimmel for me then.
Who has time for this ghosting nonsense. My partner stopped talking to me for a day, I would think he was dead. 5 months later and he comes back? He’d be dead then for sure. Morgana must be a pacifist.
I don’t always like Lainey, but she is dead on here.
Method is an excuse for untalented assholes to act out without penalty. It is incredibly selfish, putting your performance in entertainment above the living breathing people around you. Its borderline abusive to actually abusive, and to me seems like a weakness in character. Learn to act you entitled bitches. Hunnam and his ass are included in this.
I doubt he actually ghosted. I think he made her aware that he’d be out of touch, then stopped writing. I think he’s exaggerating for an interesting anecdote. If he disappeared in the Colombian jungle with no contact, and no heads up, she or his family would have sent out a search party.
A guy I was just starting dating did this to me twice (2 days the first time, more than e month the second). I didn’t think much of that at the time because I wasn’t very invested in him. He would send the odd text but otherwise nothing. Finally we got together for good and he tried the same shit with me for 3 hours. We arranged to meet, I even skipped work for that date, and he wouldn’t answer the phone and by chance- as we live in a small city- i saw him just chatting in the middle of the road with a friend. I walked past him 10 steps and sent him a “Don’t even try to call me again asshole”. And it was over for me. He was warned so I wasn’t overreacting or anything.
5 months??? Not even for Charlie. Nop. My time is the most precious thing I have. But who knows the truth of this story anyway. Or the girl is weak or used to his “Method acting” anyway.
If I were in a relationship where I wasn’t allowed to go a day without calling/texting my guy (never mind 3 hours), I would lose my shit. What have we become?
Wow what an asshole. So he stopped communicating with her for 5 months for “acting,” then has the gall to brag to a magazine that he made up for it by buying her a “cheap” emerald? I hope she dumps his ass. Also, I find it very hard to believe that a film set didn’t have a satellite phone or access to e-mail or something.
Hey now it was only “somewhat cheap” and “appropriately sized”. All better! Never mind the people exploited to mine the somewhat cheap emeralds for you.
Word. I grew up in a place where it took three months for a letter but that was *30+ years ago*. Seriously, we’re not talking about another planet here and even the most remote location in this day and age has access to digital or email or at least some way to get a message across, plus with his $$ and the film crew and connections? Please. This is some b.s. one way or another…
I got an emerald necklace from my fiancé for Christmas AND he talks to me everyday. Lucky me.
LOL lucky you indeed
Bwhahaha! 😀
I wish he would… He would come home to changed locks.
lol, you sound like the voice in my head with way less profanity.
She does. She is soooo polite. I mean I don’t even know what I could say out loud to a missing boyfriend for “method shit”
I still would.
just to be clear, while yes, mailing a letter from Colombia might not work, I’ve also mailed things in the US that didn’t arrive either. So I’m not sure why he felt that the only way to communicate was mailing things. Colombia is a very modern place. Sometimes we have no signal and it sucks, I’ve been to those locations, but they shot in Palomino and if you aren’t lazy you can find spots with signal. I would know since my partner has a place in Palomino and he does not ghost me while there, we have perfectly good communication and can talk everyday. There are phones and internet. Like all the Colombian crew I work with have iphones. And above the line who need it for work and the cast can get mifis, which is like having an internet router in your pocket. Which sure, some spots it does not work, but there have been only a couple locations where I had ZERO communication, and certainly every hotel I’ve ever stayed in had internet. So sorry do not believe he did not have internet at all for five months (plus I am pretty sure it was not that long a shoot in Colombia, maybe in total but they also filmed other places). I can ask someone who worked on it, but I really don’t buy it. Really irritates me when people act like Colombia/South America are backwards/don’t have technology.
Exactly, this dude is trying to act like going to South America is like going back to the Stone Age. In most populated areas you will find phone and internet services. I have been to even remote villages on Mountian sides with phone service. My mother-in-law lives on top of a Mountian only reached by a dirt road in Mexico and guess what I Fedexed her package and she received it in two days from me in Florida. So he needs to think of a better lie to tell.
I thought the same thing! I know that people in Columbia have cell phones. Especially on a film set. And it’s not like the actors were sleeping under the stars. I’m sure they had some nice hotels or rented a nice house (that would have had Internet). This loser acted like he filmed in the year 1920.
Thank you for posting that! No internet access in his Columbian hotel? An entire Hollywood film crew without internet access in this day and age? What’s App????? Give me a break….now if he had time traveled back to the 1982 set of Fitzcaraldo with Werner Hertzog and Klaus Kinski, I could buy into the “I couldn’t get a letter out” saga.
This story rubs the wrong way for what you just covered as well as other reasons.
I call bs. He’s telling a “big fish” story.
I just googled and it looks like the production was in Colombia for less than 2 months. Most of the 5/6 month shoot was in Ireland.
On my google search I came upon a movie fan site and there are all kinds of photos of the Colombian production where there are trailers and plenty of technology on the set. Not to mention pictures of Hunnam in Cartagena.
Why is he saying this crap?
It’s just so stupid and insulting to his girlfriend and the entire country of Colombia.
I guarantee you there will be a “clarification” coming from his camp in 3, 2, 1…
Thank you, I was sitting here baffled thinking, are we saying that if you are in Columbia that there is no was to communicate with the outside world? So you answered my question. He was just being a lazy a**hole.
Ha! I knew he was full of shit. And I agree with you, Jay, that his story was very insulting toward Colombia (and his girlfriend, for that matter).
From what I’d heard from the Pattinson fans who were following the filming in real time, they were filming and living in the jungle, no hotels. I still question CH’s story though.
No, they weren’t filming in the Amazon though. Maybe cast was in an airbnb not a hotel, but they brought a whole crew from Bogota, they weren’t roughing it in the jungle. Pretty sure I would have heard bitching about that and I am pretty sure I heard from friends during that time. Also I’ve filmed in the “jungle” three times in colombia, and while it was spotty I always managed to find ways to communicate with the outside world since my job relied on it. So, sorry but he’s just a dick for a). Ghosting his gf for two months and b). For making it seem like he was in primative land and suffered for his shitty white people savior movie. Not a good look for a white British dude…
For the record, Colombia is a beautiful awesome, safe place to live. Its embarrassing to be a gringa sometimes.
Jay – I was going by what I’ve heard from the other fan apse, it makes no difference to me either way. I know Colombia is beautiful, one of my best friend is from there, and great things to stories. 😊
Yeah, we do have technology. In Buenos Aires and other provinces we even get free public wifi! Imagine that! sitting in a park, whatsapping your partner, or face timing her, while trying to dodge pigeons.
I call BS on you, Charlie Hunnam.
The most interesting thing about this story is that he told it himself. I doubt he’s stupid so maybe he thinks in the current climate he can be honest about being a pig and that’s acceptable to his audience. I love the cheap stone detail. That’s purposeful.
That’s a good point. I dont recall him showing his as$ in an interview like this. Last I read he was a hero for defending his gf from attacks about her looks online.
They just don’t look right together. Either his features are too small or hers are too big. They just look odd. And shame on you girl. You should love yourself more! Actor or not, no one deserves to treat you with such disrespect.
these pictures always get me because she’s NOT an unattractive woman, but these pictures are terrible and, yes, they do make her features look too big. the pic where you can see her feet and her toes are pointed in…her features look almost like they’ve been “wildenstein’d” (google Jocelyn Wildenstein if you don’t know who I mean.)
YES! I feel like her face looks so giant in these photos. And his face seems to be 1/2 the size of her face. It is so bizarre. I am off to search for other photos that represent her in a truer, better way.
I think she’s wicked pretty but I totally get what you guys are saying.
Part of the problem is that he’s super-pretty too lol.
really? I don’t find her attractive, but whatever. I think her features look “weird”, because she seems to have gained a bit of weigh?
She looks like Piper Perabo to me. Very pretty.
YES Piper Perabo! That’s who she looks like. Really pretty lady.
I thought Piper too.
Maybe his features are small for his face and side by side both become exponentially more noticeable? I don’t know.
Anyway, this no communication stuff sounds like garbage. He kind of bugs me.
I did some googling to get a sense of what she looked like because this picture really looks odd and turns out, she does have really really big features. She’s very tall, has a very big face (it’s wide?), big lips, and then pretty normal size eyes and nose. It looks so weird and I think that’s why when put together, she just looks… odd. Meanwhile, his features are almost disgustingly perfect. God, I love him even when he is ghosting on his wifey.
So what really happened is he got to Columbia where nobody knows who he is and went wild hooking up with women. Then he comes up with this bull exuse of his method acting. I have seen your acting Honey and isn’t that great so think of something else.Omg, his girlfriend is either dumb or desperate to marry him at all cost after waiting around for I think 11 years with him.
Pretty much what I assumed
Hmmm, sounds like I’m alone in my fandom. I think he is gorgeous. Loved him in SOA. The GF’s shoes are hilarious.
Actually people here loved him before this story came out. He sounds like a complete dick here.
I love him still. This story sounds dubious and exaggerated to me.
So did the other cast members and crew also “ghost” their loved ones as well? I would rather sporadic letters or contact and explaining the communications may not be reliable than nothing at all. Sounds like things may not exactly have been rosy in their relationship when Charlie left for the movie shoot
Method acting. In the words of Olivier to Dustin Hoffman on ‘Marathan Man’, “Just act dear boy!” anything else is total wankery.
Wow. I can’t remember the actor and I want to say it was Bogart (maybe Clark Gable?) but he would come in tell everyone he was going home at 5 and so was everyone else because this was just a job and everyone deserved to go home at a reasonable hour. Sure they had their issues but they knew where to draw the line. None of this precious actor method stuff. Id be an ex gf really quickly if I was just purposefully forgotten about for months.
As a director at least, that is Clint Eastwood’s rule. Out by 6. Although if they were literally in the middle of the jungle and outside civilization as some posts suggest then it’s a little different. I can understand why you would shoot longer hours to minimize the number days you were out there.
Yes absolutely. Longer hours for a jungle shoot have to be necessary. I was more drawing the parallel (badly!) between being the acting-est actor that ever acted and acting on set and then going home or back to your hotel and sending an email or making a phone call to your family because you recognize that this is a job.
It’s a weird life style for sure.
Right except Colombia is near the equator so if you are shooting all day or all night exteriors – and you don’t go to the jungle to shoot inside – then you have from approx 6am to maybe 5:45pm of daylight every day, year round. And the opposite for night. Plus in Colombia the average shooting hours are 12 hours including lunch. Even if you do splits and go over a little, there is little chance to maximize your hours since they are SAG actors, DGA director, union DP and therefore have turnaround. I doubt an indie could pay the penalties all the time.
Yikes, that’s one hell of a red flag he’s waving.
Charlie Hunnam, don’t do Method Acting. PLEASE. Seriously, have you watch what happened to Heath Ledger and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (ok, he died of an overdose) but that is besides the point. Don’t do it.
He does do it actually, when he was set of SOA he would go months without speaking to Ron Pearlmans character but honestly don’t think he helps his acting one bit. I mean Daniel Day Lewis doing it, we see the results, Charlie, welll…not so much. Do think the people doing it are often odd birds.
Weasely. Like there are no sat phones? Lol.
What’s “white” about his privilege here, I don’t see it. This partic line of thought is used for everything, every situation. Just because one has a hammer doesnt mean everything is a nail. He’s a general purpose self centered jerk.
Yes, I didn’t get that part either. Is he a liar and ass, yes. But what does that have to do with “White Privilege”, I don’t get it.
I think there’s a fair point here about the kind of garbage behavior white men are allowed compared to others. You never hear about “method actresses” or see these kinds of articles about non-white performers because, frankly, they can’t afford it. They don’t get to be difficult or aloof because their limitations are more strictly enforced. A white man can casually discuss this kind of behavior because he’s been trained by society to feel entitled to the forgiveness and understanding for shitty behavior.
Thank you for this explanation. Makes perfect sense, as grievous as it is.
WTH Colombia has Internet, Charlie. Send her an EMAIL next time.
Douche.
considering how many people hate them together and call her all kinds of con artist and thieving family I am sure that 5 month hiatus was on purpose and she came crawling back promising to change.
LOL! She won’t.
How is she a con artist when Charlie said she’s been a part of his life long before he became an actor? She was with him before the “fame” when he had nothing. Leave this poor woman alone.
She wasn’t with him before he started acting, what he said was that she was with him before he got SOA famous. But yes, people need to back off. They’ve been together for a long time and they’re relationship works for them.
so because his fans, who he told in no uncertain terms to “leave her alone” when they harassed her, don’t like her, he dumped her for five months?
that makes no sense.
Don’t get his appeal AT ALL.
This is a straight up d**k move. If he wanted to get in contact with her, he would have.
He is a terrible actor, perhaps this “method acting” will help. Lol.
He is really cute though.
I think this is all some made up BS dont believe everything
He is a gorgeous gorgeous hollywood bimbo – so of course I’d believe in this bs story. I bet he flashed a smile once he came back and the gf was over it in a second.
Having said that, there is more than cheap emeralds in Colombia. There is f-ing internet in Colombia and it’s called a f-ing email.
‘Method’ actors are so full of it. If you cannot differentiate real life from make belief, then you are not a real actor. You’re a dumbass and you lack talent and professionalism. It is pretentiousness like no other.
Acting is pretending for money. That’s it.
He’s hardly a bimbo he is also a writer and has sold scripts. She has been with him for 10 years and knows his quirks. She is in it for the long haul.
Oh ok then. That makes it ok for him to not communicate her for 6 f-ing months. That he will put a ring on it…
I am sure she forgave him all, but for the “somewhat cheap” emeralds.
What an ass.
She is not just his girlfriend… they are together for more than 10 years and they live together. So I don’t think he was ghosting her per se…
That being said, I cannot understand method actors…Please, Hunnam, stop!
While he said he stopped writing, it doesn’t state at what point he quit. So he may not have quit writing until a week before the shoot was over, for all we know. Personally, I love me some Charlie (my friend’s co-worker just was at his house yesterday and got a pic with him!) and think this is just an anecdotal embellishment to make it sound more interesting.
worst part: mentioning how cheap the jewellery he gave her was.
What an awful story to share with the public..lol. He’s still hot though.
Is he wearing a signet ring on is pinkie?
I dont understand this type of actors. Do they think by saying method acting, everyone will have star swoony eyes on them? Method acting is for the weak. Learn to act, that is your job anyway.
Method acting is complete bullshit. If you need to experience things to access “authentic” emotions in order to perform you’re not much of an actor. I had to do some method acting (for what it’s worth, I’m female) at the request of my agent and it was such a hindrance. It had me second guessing everything that normally came naturally to me, and I just lied and said I was using method techniques instead of actually doing it in the end.
My husband is able to email me from the farthest reaches of the earth. Desolate places. Sat phones and stuff.
I would’ve taken the emeralds and dumped his ass.
I am somewhat of a Charlie/Jax fangirl, but that’s just wrong!! I would have been moved out of our house when he returned.
Charlie’s a dick his excuse is bullshit. It’s sounds like this whole “method acting” technique is sn excuse for actors to behave like little shits. That being said Morgana should’ve told him to take those emeralds and shove them up his pretentious ass