Netflix star Charlie Hunnam has risked sparking an international incident after revealing his scathing opinion of coffee in Melbourne.

“It’s going to be highly controversial, get ready, I think your coffee sucks,” Hunnam told ABC radio Melbourne at the weekend.

The British star was speaking to Melbourne breakfast host Paul Verhoeven as part of his promotional tour for the Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Hunnam, 45, plays the notorious Plainfield serial killer from the 1950s. Gein inspired legendary fictional villains such as Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs).

The series, which is live now, is the third instalment of director Ryan Murphy’s infamous Monster series. Murphy has also previously examined the lives of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and parent killers the Menendez brothers.

He told Verhoeven that Melbourne was one of his “favourite cities in the world, maybe my favourite city in the world” – except for one thing.

“Do you miss the coffee at all, or are you sick of people talking about the coffee?” Verhoeven said.

Hunnam responded that he was “tired of people talking about the coffee”.

“I like a strong, punchy cup of dark roast black coffee where the spoon stands up,” he said.

“It’s going to be highly controversial, get ready, I think your coffee sucks.

“It’s like a lukewarm milky coffee milkshake. I’m like, that’s not a cup of coffee to me.”

Hunnam finished with kinder words for the residents of the Victorian capital, where coffee is known to be taken very seriously. He said he loved “everything else” Melburnians did, but they should “leave the coffee alone”.

“Stop – for the love of God – claiming you have the best coffee in the world, because you’re making a mockery of it,” he said.

“Sorry, lovely people of Melbourne, because I do adore you.”

Hunnam’s contentious take drew a strong response online, with even Victoria Police getting in on the act.

“We’ll be investigating this,” the force’s official account wrote.

Another Instagram user said: “OK I get it. Mind you an American telling us about coffee.” (Hunnam is definitely British – he was born in Newcastle.)

A third had the ultimate slapdown.

“Off to Sydney you go, mate,” they wrote.

Hunnam was last in Melbourne in 2021 to film an adaptation of the best-selling book Shantaram for Apple TV. He was spotted around town, including snapping a selfie with a fan in inner-city Collingwood.

Hunnam also spent a stint in Melbourne in 2019 to film The True History of The Kelly Gang.