Charlie Hunnam owes his girlfriend big time. The actor, 36, told Entertainment Weekly during a recent interview that he ignored his longtime love, Morgana McNelis, for months while filming The Lost City of Z in Colombia last year.
“We went to Colombia, and the mail system doesn’t really work very well,” Hunnam told EW. “It’s completely unreliable. I received a letter from her, and I realized that from the tone of it and things she was saying that she hadn’t received the two letters that I sent before.” (Hunnam didn’t elaborate if they had Wi-Fi or phone service while on vacation.)
Instead of attempting to reach his girlfriend of 11 years, the Sons of Anarchy hunk decided that the separation and lack of communication would help him tap into his character, so he stopped writing altogether, “which obviously makes me sound like a total bastard, appropriately so,” Hunnam admitted.
In the movie, Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett, a real-life British explorer who disappeared in search of an ancient lost city in the 1920s.
To make it up to McNelis, Hunnam said he was “very apologetic” and purchased McNelis a fat rock.
“I had the benefit of shooting in Colombia, where they have rather lovely and somewhat cheap emeralds,” Hunnam said. “My girlfriend is a jewelry designer, so I was able to come back with an appropriately sized gift. It didn’t remedy all of the trouble I was in, but it got me halfway there.”
The Lost City of Z hits theaters April 21. And, for the record, the two are still together.
