There's no denying how amazing Charlie Hunnam looks in 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword', and from the various teasers we have been treated to ahead of the film's release, we can see that he has also had to display a lot of physical talent for this movie. Thus, you won't be surprised to discover there was a lot of hard work involved.

Charlie Hunnam stars in 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword'Charlie Hunnam stars in 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword'

It always looks like it would be a lot of fun on the set of an action movie, but when you think about how hard actors have to train to get themselves to look a certain way and be able to perform the stunts required of them (professional stuntmen notwithstanding) for the purpose of cinema, your opinion of them becomes considerably higher.

'I knew that there were going to be some really, really long days and I've been on sets doing physical stuff before and know how gruelling it is and was able to predict what that was gonna require of me', Charlie Hunnam explained. 'More than any actual technical skill or sword fighting or anything else just getting my fitness, my stamina and endurance level up.' 

Watch the trailer for 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' here:

Nonetheless, the prospect of getting to mess around with swords all day everyday sounds like fun - though after hours and hours of physical training, Charlie found himself with a deep respect for professional sportsmen. 'I like to think that I was basically at a professional athlete level of fitness', he continues. 'Because I had to sword fight for fourteen hours a day for five days in a row.' 

'Anybody who's been in a boxing gym or sparred and knows throwing punches, how humbling that is and how quickly you tire, it's really the same thing in sword fighting', he adds. 'To do that for 60-70 hours a week is a really tall order so I did an enormous amount of cardio to get myself to that fitness level.'

More: Watch the full interview

'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' will be released on May 12th 2017.