Sam Claflin talks about adjusting to single fatherhood despite divorce

• Sam Claflin was recently chosen to play rock singer Billy Dunne.
• Claflin’s character marries Camila and has a kid.
• Daisy Jones & the Six will debut on Amazon Video on March 3rd.

When Sam Claflin was chosen to play rock singer Billy Dunne in Daisy Jones & the Six, he was undergoing significant personal upheavals, including divorce and becoming a single father.

“I’d been through quite a lot personally at the time,” the Hunger Games actor, 36, told the media in a feature story published on Wednesday, February 22. “I was in a really bad place.”

The native of England declared his separation from his then-wife Laura Haddock in August 2019 after six years of marriage. Pip, their son, is 7 years old, and Margot is 5 years old.

“Laura and I have decided to legally separate. We will move forward with nothing but love, friendship and a deep respect for one another, whilst we continue to raise our family together,” Claflin wrote in a statement via Instagram Story at the time.

Now, more than three years later, the Me Before You star reflected on the early days as a divorcée and a single dad. He explained to the media: “I think I needed to work out a few kinks in my own life, to figure out who I was as this dad on my own in a house outnumbered by two toddlers. Then this job coming out the back of that was just the most fun, joyous fresh start.”

Daisy Jones & the Six on Amazon Video chronicles the ascent to popularity and abrupt dissolution of a 1970s rock band. In spite of his drug and alcohol addiction, Claflin’s lead singer Billy marries Camila (Camila Morrone), his high school sweetheart, and has a kid. He begins working with vocalist Daisy Jones as he strives to curb his substance habit and maintain his family (Riley Keough). Their spark-in-a-bottle connection has the potential to make his band the best—and destroy his marriage.

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Claflin was unable to identify with Billy’s issues with drugs and alcohol, but he was well aware of what it was like to face challenges in one’s marriage or as a parent. “I was a husband. I’ve been through marriage and the struggle of juggling work, family life, home and being grounded,” he said.

“The obstacles he has to overcome, like becoming a dad and the fear or anxiety that brings, feeling like you might fail. … His fear of failure is something that I can massively relate to — needing to feel approval and the fear of abandonment. I’ve been through this struggle. And I’m sure the struggle will continue.”

He thinks Daisy Jones & the Six, nevertheless, were instrumental in helping him get through the most trying time of his breakup. The five-week preparation for the play extended into a year and a half during the coronavirus pandemic after he was cast just a few months after he and Haddock made their divorce official.

“I think my relationship with myself is a lot better than it was,” Claflin said. “Before, I didn’t like who I was or what I had to say. Whereas now, after going through the journey of Billy Dunne, I realize how therapeutic or cathartic it was to tell a story that feels really authentic to me. It allowed me the opportunity to approach life differently.”

Daisy Jones & the Six will debut on Amazon Video on March 3rd.

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