The cast of 'Papillon' starved themselves to prepare for the film

Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek will be seen essaying exciting and challenging roles in 'Papillon'. The actors have stepped into the shoes of prisoners. While in conversation, they have mentioned how they prepared for the film and it was shocking to learn that they starved themselves. In order to understand their characters’ emotions to the core, they had no food for five consecutive days and survived on two bottles of water.

“Rami and I aggressively starved ourselves, which is the type of thing that will make two men become brothers very quickly,”  said Charles Hunnam.

“To be hungry all the time, and to deny the primal instinct to feed yourself, is no easy trick. Not drinking water was hard. All I had was two small bottles over the course of five days without food. It got a little crazy, and it was definitely very emotional. I found myself crying once or twice when everyone left work and I was there alone,” he further added.

To make sure Rami Malek joined the cast, lead actor Charles Hunnam personally reached out to him, although he barely knew him to get him on board.

Talking of the episode Charles Hunnam said, “At one point, it looked like it might not work out. So I called him and said, ‘Brother, stay the course! I know this is going to happen! We'll make it happen if we have to!’ The funny thing is, he and I didn't really know each other very well at that point, so it was sort of a heavy burden to lay on him. But thankfully he folded under my pressure!”

Based on the international best-selling autobiographic books Papillon and Banco, the film follows the epic story of Henri Papillon Charrière (Charlie Hunnam), a safecracker from the Parisian underworld who is framed for murder and condemned to life in the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island. Determined to regain his freedom, Papillon forms an unlikely alliance with a convicted counterfeiter Louis Dega (Rami Malek), who in exchange for protection, agrees to finance Papillon’s escape. The film hit Indian theatres on August 31.