Charlie Hunnam opens up about ‘getting roughed up’ on set of Shantaram and being human ‘punch bag’

The drama thriller series Shantaram, starring Charlie Hunnam in the lead role, premiered on Apple TV+ on October 14.

Hunnam plays Dale Conti, an Australian philosophy student and paramedic who winds up in jail after a bout with drugs that led to an armed robbery conviction. Facing accusations of being a snitch, he escapes from prison, takes on the name Lindsay ‘Linbaba’ Ford, and heads to India to hide out.

While out on the promotional trail, the actor talked about ‘getting roughed up’ while shooting the thrill ride series, and how he’s now taking on the role of ‘full-time writer’ for the next project he’s now working on.

Created by Eric Warren Singer and Steve Lightfoot, Shantaram is based on a semi-autographical novel of the same name by Gregory David Robert. 

Set in Bombay in 1982, Hunnam’s Lin ends up befriending a hustling tour guide Prabhu (Shubham Saraf), and spending time getting acquainted with a cast of characters at a local bar full of foreigners who have made their way to the Indian city for various reasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As Lin begins to soak in the culture, he finds himself drawn into a world full of saints and sinners that he may not fully understand.

And it doesn’t take long before viewers get to see the inner workings of a city of dreams and opportunities, as well as corruption and temptations.

Thrill ride: In Shantaram, Hunnan plays an honorable Australian man who breaks out of prison then takes on a new identity and heads to India to hide out

Playing a man on the run who’s now living in a foreign country, the British actor confessed to being covered in bruises after filming one particular scene where he got ‘roughed up’.

‘First of all, I was supposed to be hanging suspended from my wrists, and they were supposed to be beating me. And if you have any contact with the floor the impact is not going to behave the way it should, in terms of physics,’ Hunnam, 42, said during an interview with SiriusXM’s Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw.

After revealing how his body wasn’t moving enough for the scene, they came up with the idea to use his body ‘as a punch bag’ to get it to react the way they wanted.

‘So I said “We just have to do this, you know.” So I ended up my entire torso was black the next day because it absorbed so many punches and kicks during that sequence,’ he admitted. 

Tolls of the job: The British actor opened up about being used as a human ‘punch bag’ in order to get one particular scene to work, which resulted in him being covered in bruises; he is pictured in a scene with co-star Antonia Desplat

It appears Hunnam may have high endurance for pain, considering he confessed to secretly having thoughts about being a fighter.

‘You know, there’s a part of me that would have liked, as absurd as it is, to have been a mixed martial arts fighter,’ he told Shaw, adding, ‘I study martial arts and I’m very into that world.’

While referencing his beat down while shooting Shantaram, the former Sons Of Anarchy star added, ‘That was my one day of being in the octagon and taking a good beating.’

Along with Hunnam and Saraf, Shantaram also stars Fayssal Bazzi, Sujaya Dasgupta, Antonia Desplat, Elham Ehsas, David Field, Matthew Joseph, Rachel Kamath, Alyy Khan, Elektra Kilbey, Shiv Palekar, Luke Pasqualino, Vincent Perez, Gabrielle Scharnitzky and Alexander Siddig.

Episode six of Shantaram dropped on Apple TV+ November 4, with each additional show being added each Friday until the season finale on December 16. 

Next project: Hunnam also revealed he’s spending the next six months writing a miniseries, in which he came up with the original idea, that he recently sold

For his next project, Hunnam is working on a miniseries, in which he came up with the original idea, that he recently sold.

As a result, he took the next six months off from his schedule in order to flesh those ideas out and write the episodes.

‘It’s about value. Generally it’s about value,’ he tells  SiriusXM’s Shaw, before changing directions as to not give too much away about the story.

‘What I’m most interested in exploring is broken value structures. How we sort of put a lot of emphasis into status, wealth, beauty, as opposed to feeling,’ he explained, adding, ‘Self-determination theory, it states that human being need three basic things to be happy. To feel competent at what they do, to feel connected to others and to feel like they have basic freedom over the trajectory of their life. And those are intrinsic values that far outweigh extrinsic values of status, wealth.’

Hunnam is not only writing the miniseries, he also plans on starring in the production.

‘And so I am thinking of playing myself in a version of making the mistake of putting my value system, of inverting my value system. So that’s all I can tell you.’