Guy Ritchie has confessed he never wanted Charlie Hunnam for ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ role.
The 48-year-old filmmaker is getting ready to release his adventure film which based on the British legend which describes how King Arthur drew the sword Excalibur from a stone and became the country’s protector in the 5th century and early 6th century.
The movie has a stellar cast that also includes Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana and Annabelle Wallis and even a cameo from soccer superstar David Beckham but Ritchie wasn’t initially sure that Hunnam was his Arthur but the 36-year-old British actor wouldn’t take no for an answer and even paid for his own flight from Los Angeles to London so he could audition for the role.
Ritchie said: "I had hundreds of actors, Charlie wasn’t on my list. But Charlie was so insistent that he was going to be King Arthur that he became King Arthur, in spite of my reticence."
But he admitted that just because Hunnam was hungry for the role wasn’t the reason he beat off competition from others that auditioned.
The ‘Sherlock Holmes’ filmmaker said: "The only guy that could sustain my interest was Charlie. So he won it fair and square, in spite of my prejudice."
Hunnam recently revealed that Ritchie taught him the basics of the Japanese martial art whilst on set for the feature.
He said: "Guy is a black belt in jiu-jujitsu so I got into doing a little bit of jiu-jits with ol’ Ritchie. That’s right my friend. He likes to stay active on set and you know, just keep things fun, so we’d have ourselves a little roll around."
Guy Ritchie had doubts about Charlie Hunnam as King Arthur
