‘I regret almost all of it’: meet the gun-toting hippie behind Shantaram

msn.com:

the British actor Charlie Hunnam, best known as Jax in the crime drama Sons of Anarchy. When the rights were originally sold to Warner Brothers in 2004, following a $2m bidding war, Roberts’s protagonist, Lin, was to be played by Johnny Depp, who the author personally chose because of Depp’s love of the book. (The pair remain friends. )But Hunnam is a more-than-adequate replacement.

Not only does the actor resemble Roberts in looks – the pair were mistaken for father and son when Hunnam visited Jamaica ahead of filming – he possesses a similar otherworldliness, too. “He’s a profoundly spiritual young man,” says the writer.

Roberts was particularly impressed that Hunnam takes fortnight-long trips into the wilderness, setting up camp and living off his own supplies.

Hunnam, like Roberts, also has a penchant for meditation and ruminating about philosophy. Recalling his trip to Jamaica, he says, “[We] slept about two hours a night, and [Roberts] talked for 22 hours a day.