Charlie Hunnam has never watched a Fifty Shades Of Grey film because he is still "traumatized" by his decision to turn down the chance to play Christian Grey.

The British actor was handpicked to play the role in the erotic thrillers but scheduling conflicts forced him to walk away.

Charlie developed a close friendship with director Sam Taylor-Johnson as they started working on the first film, and he still can't bring himself to watch the movies because he is still wrestling with his decision.

"That was a somewhat traumatic experience for me," he tells Elle magazine. "I didn't want to open that wound."

The Sons of Anarchy star felt awful when he had to give up the role, because he thought he was letting the director down.

"(It was) the worst professional experience of my life," he told V Man magazine in 2015. "(It) was the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I've ever had to deal with professionally. It was heartbreaking."

"I called (Sam) and we both cried our eyes out on the phone for 20 minutes," he added. "I needed to tell her that this was not going to work."

The actor had already committed to starring in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak and was filming his hit show Sons of Anarchy and he knew he wouldn't have time to prepare for the role.

"I'd given Guillermo my word, over a year before, that I was going to do Crimson Peak," he said. "People were saying, 'Are you crazy?... Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it's the fourth lead, you can go and do this (instead)'. I said, 'I can't. He's my friend'."

"(I would have been flying) to Vancouver the next day (after Sons of Anarchy for Fifty Shades), have 10 days of rehearsal, and then start shooting...," he said. "Then I was going to have three days after that and I'd have to start shooting Crimson Peak, and then I'd have two days to travel and go back into Season 7 of Sons."

The role was eventually offered to Irish actor Jamie Dornan and the film became a massive hit when it was released in February, 2015. Dornan and co-star Dakota Johnson reprised their roles for the sequel, which was released last month (Feb17), and they have wrapped filming the third movie in the franchise, Fifty Shades Freed.