I had nervous breakdown when faced with '50 Shades' role, says Hunnam

Charlie Hunnam suffered a nervous breakdown over his 'Fifty Shades of Grey' role.

The 34-year-old actor was originally cast in the salacious role of Christian Grey in the Hollywood adaptation of the best-selling novel, but later turned down the film due to scheduling issues.

He has now clarified that he was passionate about starring in the blockbuster but became stressed over the amount of work he had taken on.

The 'Sons of Anarchy' star told MovieFone: "I was going to finish 'Sons' at like 11 p.m. Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for 'Fifty,' missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning.

"And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on the Wednesday and the following Monday I was going to start shooting 'Crimson Peak' in Toronto.

"I just had like ... frankly, something of a nervous breakdown."

Hunnam - who was replaced in the film by 34-year-old model and actor, Jamie Dornan - explained that the pressure of assuming the dominating character at such short notice was too much and he felt unable to do the role justice.

He shared: "To fail on such a grand scale - because 'Fifty's going to be massive, it's going to be huge.

"I really didn't want to fail on such a grand scale and I just couldn't transition from Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours.

"I bit off more than I could chew and it was painful. I loved the character and I wanted to do it."

The 'Pacific Rim' actor still finds the situation regrettable but stated that he did not make the decision lightly.

He added: "I wouldn't have signed up in the first place if I didn't want to do it... It was a really, really difficult time in my life."

"I was really, really, sorry to do it. It was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations."