Charlie Hunnam Was More ‘Nervous’ to Shoot This ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Scene Than Any Other In His ‘Whole Career’

Charlie Hunnam has tackled some juicy TV and film roles during his career. But for most fans, nothing beats his turn as Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy. Nearly a decade after Kurt Sutter’s biker drama came to an end, Hunnam sat down to rewatch moments from his most notable projects for Vanity Fair’s Scene Selection. That’s when Hunnam revealed the one Sons of Anarchy scene that he was more “nervous” to shoot than any other in his “whole career.”

Charlie Hunnam doesn’t like to watch himself on screen

Hunnam’s acting career began in the late 1990s, and he has starred in numerous TV shows and movies in both America and the United Kingdom. Despite all of the successful projects on his lengthy resume, Hunnam says he doesn’t enjoy watching himself on screen.

“I never watch myself. The idea of watching these clips now is terrifying,” Hunnam said before rolling the clips from his career for Vanity Fair’s Scene Selection. “But I’m willing to do it for my love of Vanity Fair. Let’s watch.”

The first scene that popped up for Hunnam to review was from Sons of Anarchy Season 7, Episode 11 “Suits of Woe.” It’s one of the series’ final episodes, which included one of Jax’s most memorable moments.

He was nervous to shoot this ‘Sons of Anarchy’ scene more than any other in his ‘whole career’

In the specific scene that Hunnam rewatched, Juice (Theo Rossi) tells Jax the truth about Tara’s (Maggie Siff) death. It was the most horrific reveal of the entire series, and Hunnam confessed that he was nervous to shoot it.

“Holy moly, this is a great scene. The scene that I think I’ve been most nervous about in my whole career…I confront my best friend, who knew that my mother had killed my wife and failed to tell me that,” Hunnam explained. “It’s about nine pages of dialogue, and I said ‘I’m not rehearsing it, I just need to go away and prepare and we’re just gonna do it.”

Hunnam revealed that once they started filming, “something happened” during the scene where “life became what was happening.”

“Like we were actually in that room, this was actually happening to us. And I just broke down and started wailing inconsolably. And sort of being violent with my guy, and it was really good. It was better than I could have ever hoped it was gonna be,” Hunnam explained.

Charlie Hunnam had to shoot that memorable ‘Sons of Anarchy’ scene twice

After that “really good” first take from Hunnam, director Peter Weller came into the room and told Hunnam, “I don’t know what that was, but it was the greatest single thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a wrap, we’re not shooting this again.” 

However, that first take was not what fans actually saw in the episode. Hunnam says that cinematographer Paul Maibaum came into the room with all the color drained from his face and explained, “actually we are shooting that again, the camera didn’t roll.”

“And [the second take] wasn’t as good, but them’s the breaks, you know? It’s still pretty good!” Hunnam noted.

As for Weller, before Hunnam’s magnificent first take he actually went into the scene expecting two takes. The reason being — he needed to shoot from two different angles. 

“I talked to Charlie, and I said, ‘Do you got two takes in you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘You gotta do it for Theo.’ As an actor, you don’t have many more than that in you for that kind of thing: To find out that? The rest of it’s sorta bulls–t after two takes,” Weller told Entertainment Weekly.

All seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy are now playing on Hulu.