Sam Claflin reflects on making a name for himself as the shirtless hunk in a new interview with GQ Hype.
The actor, who is now starring in Prime Video’s “Daisy Jones & The Six”, knows he spent years appealing to a certain audience.
The magazine points out, “If your sister fancied a blond character in a movie between 2011 and 2016, there is an approximately 40 per cent chance it was Sam Claflin.”
Claflin responds, “I think I was on the ‘upcoming hot under-30-year-olds list’ for like ten years and I was like, ‘I’m still not coming.’
“A lot of guys recognize me because their girlfriends have forced them to watch something I’m in.”
He then talks about taking on darker roles, but now recognizes that’s not for him.
Claflin tells the mag, “I went through a stage of desperately vying for an Oscar but doing things that were really not me. Physically, emotionally transforming myself. [‘The Nightingale’] was too far the other way. I think that was the turning point in my life. I don’t think I could do that again.”
Elsewhere in the chat, the star discusses having zero musical ability when going for the role of Billy Dunne in “Daisy Jones”.
He’d chosen to perform Elton John’s “Your Song” when asked to sing a ’70s rock song, before identifying The Beatles’ “Come Together” as a Michael Jackson track.
So, Claflin was somewhat grateful when the pandemic put series production on hold.
He recalls, “Having to sit in a recording studio listening to yourself over and over again was a horrifying experience. I think there’s a line in the series where [someone says that] to be a musician you have to have an ego.
“I wouldn’t say that’s me. I was one of the last they [auditioned] and the way I saw it was they’d seen everyone else and just had to make do.”
Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now.
