- 11 months ago
Charlie Hunnam, a Newcastle upon Tyne native, decides what it takes to be considered a Geordie. He touches on things such as Cheryl Cole, unfriendly "scallies", 'Geordie Shore', brown ale and football. He also recollects the surprising story of how he got his start in acting, landed his role in 'Sons of Anarchy' and prepared to play a serial killer in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story.'
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00:00Gandalf the wizard, you beardy .
00:03Maybe I could be on Geordie Shaw.
00:04If you're having your dinner, you'd definitely say,
00:06how are we pet, eat your tea.
00:15I moved out of Newcastle,
00:17which is the home place of the famous Geordies in 1993.
00:22So I'll see what I can do.
00:23Geordie Shaw.
00:25Well, I think Geordie,
00:27how many seasons of Geordie Shaw?
00:30I mean, I don't know.
00:32This would just be a wild guess.
00:34Like 10, 12, 25 seasons of Geordie Shaw.
00:40I got a lot of catching up to do.
00:42Maybe I could be on Geordie Shaw.
00:44A little cameo on Geordie Shaw,
00:46Night Out on the Toon.
00:47I'm calling my agent.
00:48It's a reality show, I believe,
00:50about the drinking culture in Newcastle.
00:54It used to be all shipbuilding and super industrial,
00:56and then all the shipbuilding closed down.
00:58And so all of those big warehouses and everything
01:01have been turned into nightclubs
01:02and bars and restaurants and stuff.
01:04That was kind of after my time,
01:06but I believe that's like a place to go out drinking
01:11and causing mischief now.
01:12So I've never seen Geordie Shaw,
01:14but I assume it's all about like people going out for nights out,
01:19drinking on the time.
01:21Being on Biker Grove.
01:23Being on Biker Grove is the most Geordie.
01:26That's where I got my start in my career.
01:29It's all laid on in this game.
01:30All we have to do is look good and cash the checks.
01:32There's a neighborhood called Biker,
01:34which is actually where my father was from.
01:36Really historically, super rough neighborhood.
01:39But there was a TV show called Biker Grove where I grew up,
01:42and it was like the only TV show in about like a,
01:45I don't know, 200 mile radius that was shot where I was from.
01:50And so it was like this tiny little emblem of hope
01:53that it was actually possible to become an actor
01:56coming from Newcastle.
01:57When I was 18, I'd already started like pursuing,
02:01hopefully a career in film by going to film school
02:04and studying film.
02:05It was Christmas Eve and I was in Newcastle
02:08doing Christmas shopping.
02:09I had like this like foolproof system
02:12of doing my Christmas shopping.
02:13I'd wait till Christmas Eve.
02:14I'd go out at about 11 a.m.
02:16to Christmas shopping and go to the pub
02:19and get really drunk until about two
02:21and all the shops closed at five.
02:23And then I would like do three hours of Christmas shopping
02:26and do all my Christmas shopping.
02:27And so I was in JD Sports at about 4.30 in the afternoon,
02:32Christmas Eve, trying on some sneaks for my brother
02:34and sort of dancing around.
02:37And this lady was looking at me, so I blew her a kiss,
02:40just being the cheeky young man that I was.
02:43And it turned out that her name was Elizabeth Binns
02:45and she was the production manager for Biker Grove.
02:48And she came over and said,
02:49you're a charming young man, aren't you?
02:51And I said, on my good days.
02:53And she said, well, have you ever thought about acting?
02:55And I went, well, yes, I have.
02:57And now here I am.
02:59Saying why I.
03:01Saying why I is very Geordie.
03:05Why I is sort of a general agreement,
03:08but usually for something that you're very excited about.
03:11So if you're like, you want to go to the football,
03:13you'd be like, why I, man?
03:14Of course I do.
03:15You hear why I at least a hundred times a day
03:19if you're in Newcastle.
03:20Favourite Geordie saying?
03:22Ooh, um...
03:25Going down the tune is like a big one.
03:27I don't know if it's my favourite,
03:28but that's the first one that comes to mind.
03:31Going down the tune to get into some mischief
03:34is like a big part of Geordie life.
03:36Calling brown ale, brune ale.
03:39Brown, brown.
03:40I would have said back in the days when I was a Geordie,
03:43I would have said brown ale.
03:44Brown ale.
03:45Brown ale is the pride of Newcastle.
03:56It's kind of like Guinness, I suppose, in a way.
03:59It's like a very punchy, strong, heavy, thick ale, you know?
04:04It's like a meal replacement.
04:07You definitely...
04:09At one point, my dad liked to drink.
04:12At one point he stopped drinking and he's like,
04:14ah, yes, son, I'm not drinking at all anymore.
04:16Only brown ale.
04:19And you say, like, have you had dinner to eat?
04:21And he's like, aye, of course I have.
04:23I've had seven brown ales.
04:26Calling everyone pet is Geordie.
04:30I never really called anyone pet.
04:31I left there when I was 13.
04:33That's something you sort of grow into
04:35in like your middle ages and old ages.
04:37Definitely like an old man, you know, term of endearment.
04:41Being friendly.
04:43That's like a little bit of one of them.
04:45Geordie's are known definitely as like the salt of the earth,
04:48the most friendly, sort of humble, wholesome, you know, people.
04:54But it's like I said, it's also a tough city.
04:57So, you know, you can run into trouble if you, you know,
05:00if you're out drinking and, you know, you run into someone
05:04who's not having a good night.
05:05I was working at one point, I had a really like long beard.
05:09And I was walking through Newcastle.
05:11I'd been at a casino playing a poker tournament.
05:13I actually won the poker tournament.
05:15And I won like, you know, like 1500, 2000 pounds
05:18or something like that.
05:18I was feeling pretty damn good about myself.
05:20And it finished at about three o'clock in the morning.
05:22And so I decided to, it was a really nice night.
05:25And so I decided to walk all the way back to the neighborhood
05:27where I was staying where my brother lived.
05:29And this group of young, like, Scallies, which is a,
05:35Northern English term for like rough street guys.
05:38Like you might say like a, like, like a homie.
05:40It's like a Scally, like a Scallywag.
05:43These like group of Scallies, like stop me in the street.
05:46And when it comes here, man, are you that film star?
05:50And I went, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:53And he said, I fucking knew it.
05:54Gandalf the wizard, you beardy fucking cunt.
05:58And they all like one by one walked past me
06:01and was like, wanker, knobhead, twat.
06:05And so that's also the flip side of Geordie hospitality.
06:09People from Middlesbrough.
06:10Oh, now we're getting really controversial.
06:13I am saying not Geordie.
06:15Sorry, people from Middlesbrough, but you didn't make the cut.
06:18I thought that to be a Geordie, you had to be able to live
06:21in one of the neighborhoods like Biker, Walker or Wallsend,
06:25one of the neighborhoods where you could hear the bells
06:28from the shipyards, although Google AI could not confirm
06:32that for me just now.
06:34I did get a lot of information about King George,
06:38who I guess was a king involved in the Jacobite rising
06:43that had a huge following of people from the Northeast.
06:48And in honor of King George, a lot of people started calling
06:52their first son, George.
06:54And it became so synonymous with the people of the Northeast
06:58that we started to become called Geordies,
07:01which I don't know, subconsciously maybe was in my mind
07:05because I had a cat that I was like,
07:07I was obsessed with for 20 years.
07:08He was like my best pal and my like ride or die buddy
07:12who I called George.
07:13So obviously I had an affinity for George being a Geordie also.
07:17Cheryl Cole.
07:19Cheryl Cole, Geordie or not Geordie.
07:22I'm saying, I'm saying that she is Geordie,
07:29but from your face, I'm saying,
07:32I would say not Geordie, but I'm changing my mind.
07:34And no, I was saying Geordie,
07:36but I'm changing my mind and saying not Geordie.
07:38I believe she was on, on Biker Grove or maybe not.
07:43This is terrible.
07:44I sort of know who she is.
07:46How do you think I feel when you call my name?
07:50I failed. I'm sorry, Cheryl.
07:52I failed you, but yes, turns out like very,
07:56or maybe the most Geordie of all.
07:57The Tine Bridge.
07:59The most Geordie.
08:01This is the Tine Bridge here.
08:03So I actually just looked this up because I had the idea in my mind.
08:08On the bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, there's a star in,
08:12in the center of the stars, this Tine Bridge.
08:14If you look there, you'll see it's very similar to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
08:19And I was under the assumption or like that.
08:23I just remember being told at some point that we sort of tested the design
08:27to make sure it worked here before they built it.
08:30So this is a one third replica of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
08:35I don't know if like it was true that we were testing the design,
08:38but it wouldn't surprise me.
08:39Biker gangs.
08:41Ooh, I'm saying, listen,
08:45I know that the Hells Angels definitely have a clubhouse in Newcastle.
08:51And so based on the fact that the Hells Angels are in Newcastle,
08:57I'm saying Biker Gang's Geordie, but they did not originate.
09:00Biker Gang's originated in California.
09:03I wonder if the Biker Gang's clubhouse is in Biker.
09:09It would make sense, right?
09:10If I were running that club, I would insist that it be in Biker.
09:20There was a real tipping point with Sansa Bernicke.
09:23We, we made that show for like a shoestring budget.
09:26Even as being as cheap as it was,
09:28I think it was very hard to justify giving us a second season
09:31because like nobody watched it.
09:33And we just by the skin of our teeth got picked up for a second season
09:37and then only just got picked up for a third season.
09:40And then streaming was born.
09:43And all of a sudden, everybody started watching Sons of Anarchy.
09:46And like overnight, we went from being this super obscure show
09:50to being like a huge international hit.
09:53It was always important to me.
09:55I had taken a little break from acting.
09:57I had written a screenplay and then I had this big stack of scripts to read
10:02when I came back from that little hiatus.
10:05And there was one script on like, that I saw that was thinner than all the rest
10:10because all of them were movies, like 120, 130 pages.
10:13And this little script was like 45 pages.
10:16And I said, all right, well, I'll start with that one.
10:18And, uh, read Sons and it was Sons of Anarchy pilot and went,
10:23Oh, I've made such a mistake.
10:25Like, cause they, I realized it had been sent to me like two and a half months ago,
10:28three months ago or something like that.
10:30And I just loved it and thought it was so original and kind of badass and daring.
10:35And just like an amazing, obviously an amazing lead character.
10:38So I called my agent and said, like, have I like screwed the pooch here?
10:43Like, is this like a disaster that I didn't respond?
10:46Have they already cast this?
10:47And they said, I think they probably have.
10:49They like sent it to you two and a half months ago, you weirdo.
10:51Like, why didn't you read it?
10:53So they called and they hadn't cast it.
10:55I go the next day to the screencast at 9am at the ICM building.
10:59And I don't look at the address because I know where the ICM building is.
11:02I go into the ICM building and it's really quiet. The doors locked.
11:05I'm like, wow, they're really like not running this office right now.
11:08At this point, I'm like 15 minutes late.
11:10Cause I'm trying to get into this building and I get into the building
11:14and it's literally nobody there.
11:15And the security guard kind of like, what's up?
11:18He's like, yo bro, what's up?
11:20Like, I'm like, I'm just, I'm sorry.
11:22I'm here to audition.
11:23He's like audition.
11:24Like this building is empty.
11:27And I mean, they know I'm here at the ICM.
11:28Like, yeah, ICM moved out of here two months ago.
11:31They're at a different building.
11:32It was all the way across town.
11:34So then I show up like an hour and 15 minutes late to the audition.
11:38And just go in and do a terrible audition.
11:40I'm like literally wet with sweat.
11:42I'm like having a nervous breakdown.
11:44I totally spoon the audition.
11:46And then they took pity on me and gave it to me anyway.
11:50Peas pudding.
11:51I don't know if it's Geordie or not.
11:54So I'll give it one of those ones.
11:55But it's certainly something that I grew up eating.
11:58I've never even thought about peace pudding in years.
12:01I guess it's kind of like Newcastle's version of hummus.
12:04But instead of chickpeas, you would use peas.
12:07And you kind of like whip it up into like a mush and often have it on sandwiches.
12:13I think it's most often paired with like a pulled pork sandwich.
12:19You'd have like a pork and peas pudding on a stutty, which I think is also...
12:25Am I predicting a question here?
12:28I think a stutty is also a Newcastle invention, which is kind of quite a light, round loaf of bread.
12:38I turned vegetarian when I was 12 and I think they cook piece pudding with like pork fat or whatever.
12:43So I have not had it since I was 12, but I remember loving it.
12:47Alan Shearer.
12:49Alan Shearer.
12:50I know a hero of Newcastle Football Club.
12:55I do know that.
12:56I don't know if he's from Newcastle or not.
12:59I think he is.
13:00This is terrible.
13:02I'm going to say yes.
13:04This is the least Geordie thing not to know if Alan Shearer was a Geordie or not.
13:09Like this is stripped.
13:10I was doing so well and this is just stripped all my Geordie credentials.
13:15Greg's.
13:16Greg's.
13:18Top three of all Geordie's.
13:19Greg's is an incredible bakery, like pasties particularly.
13:24Sausage rolls are a huge staple of Greg's.
13:27Mince pies, but not like the mince pies you get at Christmas, like sweet mince pies,
13:32but like a mince pie or a mince pasty.
13:35They got a lot of delights, Greg's.
13:36Ed Gein.
13:39Not Geordie.
13:40Not Geordie.
13:41Is this okay?
13:46Ed Gein is a character that I just played in the third segment of the Monster anthology show,
13:53Ryan Murphy's Monster.
13:54The third season is Ed Gein, who was known as the Butcher of Plainfields, Wisconsin.
14:00And he was probably one of the more influential characters of the 20th century that very few
14:06people know about.
14:07He was the direct inspiration for several films, specifically Psycho initially was very
14:15directly based on Ed Gein and then Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill and Silence of the Lambs.
14:21Prior to the films that Ed inspired, the monsters of society or like the monsters of culture and
14:27filmmaking and the way we thought about monsters was really like Frankenstein and Dracula and
14:32werewolves and stuff like that.
14:33And after Ed Gein, like the monsters became us.
14:36Referring to dinner as tea.
14:38Referring to dinner as tea is definitely Geordie.
14:43You have your breakfast, lunch and tea.
14:46If you're having your dinner, you definitely say, how are we pet, eat your tea?
14:50Which is, you know, often confused with like afternoon tea, which is not Geordie because we're too busy
14:58working and being tough to drink tea and eat cakes and scones.
15:03And I don't know if that's true, but I had always believed that the Geordies, the people of the
15:10Northeast invented the tea cake.
15:12And there's also something in Newcastle called a biker tea cake, which is if you, you know,
15:21get lippy with the wrong fella, they will headbutt you and break your nose.
15:27So your nose looks like a tea cake and that's a biker tea cake.
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