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Months after his exit from Fifty Shades of Grey, actor Charlie Hunnam is still reeling.

The Sons of Anarchy actor claims he had a “nervous breakdown” after realizing how packed his schedule was between shooting the final season of his hit show and filming the racy movie. Hunnam’s only option was to drop the film, which is based off E.L. James’ best-selling novel, just weeks before filming was slated to begin.

“I wouldn’t have signed up in the first place if I didn’t want to do it,” he told Moviefone.

Last year, rumors circulated suggesting that the actor left the project after he began garnering extra attention from fans due to his role as Christian Grey. He claims those reports were far from true.

“I was going to finish ‘Sons’ at like 11 pm Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for ‘Fifty,’ missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning,” he told the site. “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,” he revealed. “I just had…frankly something of a nervous breakdown.”

Charlie’s abrupt exit from the film left producers scrambling to find a replacement. In the end, they wound up picking the equally sexy model-turned-actor Jamie Dornan.

According to Hunnam, he was swayed on taking the role because of director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s spin on the character. After he realized the grand scale of the movie, he felt it was unfair to fans of the novel to give the role less than his all.

“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,” he said. “I bit off more than I could chew and it was painful. I loved the character and I wanted to do it.”

We’re equally bummed, but can’t wait to see what Jamie brings to the role. Fifty Shades of Grey hits theaters February 14, 2015.

SOURCE: NY Daily News | PHOTO CREDIT: WENN.