Sam Claflin feels as though becoming a father has given him more “emotional depth” as an actor.
The Hunger Games actor married Guardians of the Galaxy star Laura Haddock in 2013 and the couple welcomed a little boy in December 2015. The pair have remained fiercely private about their son, refusing to even reveal his name, but Sam opened up about parenthood in a rare interview with Australia’s NW magazine.
“Now that I’m a father, I feel like I’ve got an emotional depth greater than, say, two years ago,” he explained.
Sam’s next role will see him star in the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel My Cousin Rachel alongside Rachel Weisz. And the 30-year-old admitted the part is indicative of those he is being offered now he’s more mature, as both a person and an actor.
“What’s great about where I am now is that I’m starting to get scripts for older men. I’m ready to explore that,” he smiled.
Sam, who also recently appeared in blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, has been doing the promo rounds for My Cousin Rachel. And in a separate interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, he admitted that he’s been the victim of male body shaming during his time in the film industry.
“I read in an interview recently and I think it’s absolutely true: men have it just as bad,” he told the publication. “Well, not just as bad but they get it bad and it’s never talked about.”
He also recalled one audition when he was made to feel “like a piece of meat” by the producers, explaining: “I remember doing one job when they literally made me pull my shirt up and were grabbing my fat and going, ‘You need to lose a bit of weight’.
“This other time they were slapping me. I felt like a piece of meat.”
