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The Lost City of Z: Charlie Hunnam on the day a beetle bit a hole in his ear drum


The Lost City of Z‘ (in cinemas 24 March) tells the incredible true story of Colonel Percy Fawcett, a pioneering explorer who spent his life obsessively searching for Z, a lost civilisation he believed lay hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest.

‘Sons of Anarchy’ star Charlie Hunnam plays the fabled adventurer whose final mission into the jungle, accompanied by his son Jack (‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ star Tom Holland), ended mysteriously in 1925. In order to achieve authenticity director James Gray insisted on shooting the exploration scenes deep amongst the lush nature of the Columbian rainforest and, as its star (and Fawcett himself) found out, nature has a habit of fighting back.

“A little beetle burrowed its way into my ear and got stuck,” Hunnam tells Yahoo Movies.

Charlie Hunnam relives his beetle encounter
Charlie Hunnam relives his beetle encounter

“It couldn’t get back out so [it] decided to try to get through, so it bit a little hole in my ear drum which wasn’t particularly pleasant, and the process of getting the beetle out of my ear wasn’t a particularly nice process either, but these things happen.”

Other stories from the set that rivals even ‘The Revenant’ for tales of hardship and stoic suffering include a crew member being bitten on the neck by snake, Tom Holland accidentally swimming in a caiman crocodile-filled lagoon, flooded sets, and even bouts of dengue fever. It’s all totally worth it though, as the scenes of Percy and his loyal aide-de-camp Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson) hacking their way through the jungle while battling the elements are fantastically realised.

It also helps that Gray insisted on shooting on 35mm film which in itself presented a whole new series of problems including a 7-day turnaround for processing the film into dailies. Hunnam agrees it was worth it, calling the finished product “exquisite”, explaining that the days of films being made like this are numbered.

Fawcett and Costin on their ill-fated mission with Arctic explorer James Murray (Studio Canal)
Fawcett and Costin on their ill-fated mission with Arctic explorer James Murray (Studio Canal)

“It was a great challenge [to shoot on film]. It’s unfortunate that’s becoming a lost art in filmmaking now. Even the cameras themselves, nobody’s making new film camera so we just have the existing cameras that have been used for many, many years.”

“Even just getting film stock [is difficult]. The type of film we wanted to use on this film was just given to us because no-one is using it any more. We thought it was going to be enough but by two-thirds of the film we’d burnt through all of that film.”

“It was a real benefit [to shoot on film], it was exciting to shoot particularly with the challenges of this environment, but I think the look of it speaks for itself. Films just don’t look like this does any more.”

‘The Lost City of Z’ starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, and Tom Holland arrives in cinemas on 24 March. Watch a trailer below.


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