Charlie Hunnam Needed A Body Double For This 'Sons Of Anarchy' Scene

Charlie Hunnam has played several iconic shows and films, and he was so good that many still call the actor by the names of his characters. Whether it was a smooth and sophisticated bodyguard/assistant in "The Gentlemen," King Arthur in "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword," or any of his countless roles, Hunnam has always delivered.

However, one particular show made Hunnam a household name: "Sons of Anarchy", a popular crime drama series where Hunnam played motorcycle gang president Jax Teller. The show ran from 2008 to 2014, and by the time it ended, Hunnam had built an impressive following.

During his time on the series, Hunnam delved entirely into his role and did all he could to embody Jax Teller fully. He also hardly ever used a body double except for one iconic scene that no fans of the show would have ever expected. Read on to find out what scene it was.

Hunnam's role as Jax Teller on "Sons of Anarchy" was the first time he was the lead in an American series, and he immersed himself into the job. A born Brit, Hunnam adopted and perfected an American accent, changed his wardrobe to mainly flannel shirts like Jax, and only rode motorcycles.

He did everything he could to become Jax and even bought the same motorcycle model that Jax uses in the show. However, one significant aspect about Jax that he couldn't copy was the tattoos. In the show, Jax had several tattoos, including tributes to his father and brother on his arms, his son's name on his chest, and a massive logo on his back that read, "Sons of Anarchy".

The ink on Hunnam's body looked very real on-screen, but they were all temporary. The one tattoo that posed a problem was the back tattoo. In a 2013 interview with Atlantic City Blog, he said, "I have a tattoo actually on my back which is a huge pain in the ass because every time I need to take my shirt off in the show, they need to cover my tattoo and lay the other tattoo on top of it which is a really time-consuming process."

In "Sons of Anarchy", Hunnam hardly ever used a body double as he preferred to act out all his scenes himself. However, shortly after the show ended, his body double was finally revealed. The body double was a man named Tyson Sullivan, and he spoke about his experience in an interview with International Business Times.

He revealed the iconic scene that he played, a scene that fans of the show thought was Hunnam. The scene was the famous tattooed back scene that featured in the opening credits of "Sons of Anarchy".

Sullivan said, "I got booked as the body double of the guy on the show who is Charlie Hunnam, but at the time, it was this show that nobody really knew about. I just went in, there were like five or six of us, and they're like, 'Take off your shirts, let us look at your backs,' and that was like the main part."

It wasn't just Sullivan's back that featured in the opening credits of "Sons of Anarchy", a clip of his hands opening the knife and revving the bike's engine was also used. The body double reveal was shocking to Hunnam's fans and the show's fans as they had all thought that it was the actor the whole time.

However, that was the only scene where Hunnam used a body double. All those heated sex and intimacy scenes that Jax appeared in several times were all acted out by Hunnam, and his fans got plenty of time to see not only his back but various other parts of him.

When "Sons of Anarchy" was finally approaching its end, and it became time for Hunnam to say goodbye to Jax and the show, the actor admitted that he found it very difficult to let go. According to a post by Looper, Hunnam revealed that he returned to the show's set after it ended to get closure.

He said, "It was actually quite emotional for me, living and loving that guy for eight years, to have to finally put him to bed. I found myself going back to set a lot. I knew the security guards and for a couple of days said, 'Oh, I forgot something,' so they'd let me onto the set, and I'd just walk around at night because I wanted to be in that environment and go through a personal process of saying goodbye."