http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/story/0,1259,---26728,00.html
By Daniel Fienberg September 8, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- On FOX's short-lived "Undeclared," Charlie Hunnam was generally dismissed as "the pretty British guy," overshadowed by scene-stealers like Seth Rogen, Timm Sharp and Jason Segel. So he uglied himself up and put on an accent for "Cold Mountain," but was overshadowed by movie stars like Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Rene Zellweger. He tried to step out as the lead in "Nicholas Nickleby," but was overshadowed by the fact that nobody actually saw "Nicholas Nickleby."
Hunnam's part in "Green Street Hooligans," a British film hitting theaters on Friday (Sept. 9) is an actor's dream. As Pete Dunham, leader of a firm (or gang, if you speak Yank) supporting the West Ham United football (or soccer, if you speak Yank) squad, Hunnam gets to play a gregarious, charismatic physically aggressive thug, but his character also works days as a history and gym teacher, showcasing a sensitive side. The Newcastle-born Hunnam claims to have never been to a football match before beginning his "Hooligans" research, but he now speaks like an expert in firm lore.
"No one ever uses firearms," he explains. "No one's actually trying to kill each other. You're trying to best the other guy. You're trying to prove that 'I'm bigger than you. I'm tougher than you.' There was a kind of tendency in the '80s to basically make people your bitch by scarring them and so there was a little bit of knife activity during the '80s with signature scarring and stuff like that. But that's thankfully, from what I understand, kinda dissipated to nothing at the point."
Shortly after landing the part, but before production began, Hunnam began training with fight trainer Pat Johnson. The Chuck Norris cohort choreographed the brawls for "Hooligans" and put the entire cast through a strict regiment that often ran counter to the actors' more social instincts.
"He had most of those lads throwing up he was working them so hard," laughs Hunnam. "We did basic strength and fitness training for about two hours ... and then we'd start choreographing all of the fight sequences and then we'd go into the afternoon and rehearse and then go out in the evening and start drinking, which is probably why the next morning people were throwing up."
Hunnam, currently based in Los Angeles, knows that for American audiences, the kind of passionate (or dangerous) devotion to an athletic squad seems a bit foreign. He prefers that kind of rowdy, generally alcohol-fueled passion, though, to the kind of gangs that popular the mean streets of domestic cities.
"You can go outside and have a straightener on the cobbles with your fists or you can go shoot kids," Hunnam notes. "I've encountered the direct aftermath of gang activity in Venice [Beach] with my mum, walking down the street, where we got caught for 12 hours, we couldn't get my car out, because two kids had been shot dead and one of them had landed with his head touching the tire of my car."
Occasional incidental contact with gang-related homicides aside, Hunnam is glad he made the decision to relocate.
"Just being even just like a tiny tiny player here, just people knowing who you are and figuring if they know who you are, maybe other people do, kinda helps a lot," the actor says. "I don't know if I was just some guy kind of bumbling around in obscurity in England if I would have gotten this part."
"Green Street Hooligans" goes into limited release on Friday (Sept. 9).