Charlie Hunnam proves that patience is a virtue.
The 42-year-old actor, who starred as Jax Teller on seven seasons of FX's Sons of Anarchy from 2008 to 2014, returns to television on Apple TV+'s Shantaram, premiering Oct. 14.
An adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' 2003 novel of the same name, the series is based on real-life experiences of Roberts and centers on Lin Ford (Hunnam), a convicted Australian bank robber who escapes from prison and flees to India.
Hunnam, who appeared in movies like 2019's The Gentlemen and 2016's The Lost City of Z after leaving Sons of Anarchy behind, exclusively told E! News that his television dry spell was by design.
"I love long-form storytelling and I've been really eager to get back into television," Hunnam said. "I had a few opportunities, particularly over the last five years, to get involved with things that would have been really extraordinary."
However, Hunnam wanted to wait.
"Seven years ago, I read Shantaram and it became an obsession for me to be part of the creative team that would bring this adaptation to screen," he revealed. "Luckily, seven years later, that tenacity has paid off and I'm the guy that got to play Lin."
The move was risky, Hunnam admitted, but that's how passionate he was about the material.
"It was really a balancing act," he said of weighing his career options. "I knew I wanted to return to long-form and it was just having the conviction to believe that Shantaram would actually would come through and give me the confidence to actually turn down those other great opportunities that I got."
Once things actually came to fruition, he realized there was still one major challenge in front of him: Mastering an Australian accent.
The U.K.-born actor joked, "My sense is I did a 75 percent good job with it," but it wasn't for a lack of effort.
"I worked with a dialect coach. I found some voices from Australia, notable people that had done a lot of interviews that I could listen to endlessly," he explained. "I just tried to stay in it as much as possible. We started shooting in Australia, which was really beneficial because I was surrounded by crazy Australians and the crazy sounds that they make. All of that being the case, it was still very difficult."
Hunnam vowed to remain steadfast in his pursuit of perfection, saying, "I'll just make this declaration: if we're lucky enough to come back and do season two, then maybe I'll get it 95 percent."
The first three episodes of Shantaram drop Oct. 14 on Apple TV+.