Den of Geek: How familiar were you with the story of Percy Fawcett?
He was sort of a celebrity a century ago.
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Charlie Hunnam:Yeah.
He really isnt (now).
I think he really captured the worlds imagination.
He was widely credited as the inspiration for Indiana Jones.
I felt an enormous sense of empathy and admiration for what hed done in his life.
And yet he kept on going.
What is the purpose of it?
I thought he was a really extraordinary man.
Im also curious, are there any living descendants of his still around?
I was actually really nervous for her to see the film.
There were some really thrilling moments.
I saw the actual telegram that she had received.
It just created a much more tangible connection to the material.
Yeah, and I tried to encourage that as much as possible, even from the outset.
We started off going to these locations.
We didnt have a lot of money, and because of the environment, there were no creature comforts.
I read that your ear had a very violent argument with a bug.
That ironically just happened in my hotel room.
Do you think that we still have that exploratory nature now in the present?
Yeah, I suppose in the ocean and space to a lesser degree.
That period of time, the whole world was captivated by the sense of exploration.
Royal Geographic were determined to map every square inch of the earth.
There was a real interest, a universal interest.
Its hard to have that same sense of excitement and exploration because the whole world has been mapped now.
There are very few hidden corners.
I have the sense that I would prefer those whatever tiny hidden corners we have left to stay hidden.
This is a story that has been told many times.
How did you and Guy Ritchie collaborate to make it different from what weve seen before?
I think its a more irreverent, young, hip, and ignoble.
I suppose the ignoble element of it was what we were most excited about.
But its been impossible to distill that down to a two-hour segment.
We decided just to tell the origin story.
He has no real aspiration to do anything else than what hes doing.
We follow him on his difficult journey to taking his rightful place on the throne.
I think its a bit cheekier, younger, fresher.
Potentially, hopefully, more exciting for a young audience.
I got it right away.
Guy Ritchies just got such a specific sensibility as a filmmaker.
You announced early last year that you werent going to doPacific Rim: Uprisingdue to scheduling conflicts.
Listen, there was a huge scheduling conflict.
I had to do the film whether I liked it or not.
Its not that my heart is not in this.
But thats just the throw in of man he is.
