The lead role in raunchy film "Fifty Shades Of Grey" gave actor Charlie Hunnam a "nervous breakdown". It was so bad that he passed on his role to Jamie Dornan, who now plays Christian Grey in the upcoming movie.

Humman had realised he couldn't cope with the demands of the part in the movie adaptation of the eponymous book, reports dailystar.co.uk.

He cited "scheduling and family issues" for pulling out of "Fifty Shades..." as he had prior work commitments surrounding "Sons Of Anarchy" and new film "Crimson".

"I was going to finish 'Sons Of Anarchy' at like 11 p.m. on Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for 'Fifty Shades...', missing the whole week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning. And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on Monday, (and) I was going to start shooting 'Crimson' in Toronto.

"I just had like... frankly, something of a nervous breakdown," said Hunnam.

But he loved the part.

He said: "It was a really, really difficult part of my life. I just fell in love, creatively. I started talking about this thing and I just got so excited.

"I fell in love with the character and started seeing him becoming intoxicated, which is the way I work."

"Fifty Shades Of Grey" is due to hit cinemas on Valentine's Day 2015.