Hugh Jackman is one of the most beloved superhero stars ever, with his 17-year career as Wolverine earning him the accolade of being the longest-serving Marvel hero on the big screen. All that could have been cut short right at the beginning, though, as the actor has revealed that he was almost fired from 2000’s X-Men.
Jackman is currently on the UK leg of the worldwide tour of his stage show and while speaking to the crowd on Monday night, the star opened up about a dark time in his career, when he was informed he might be let go as Logan. He revealed how he got frustrated and angry about the situation until his wife encouraged him to calm down and trust his gut with his portrayal.
“I was told that things weren’t really working out as they hoped. I was about to get fired from my first Hollywood movie – the biggest of my career. I was angry, I went home to my wife and I complained. I was whinging an Olympic level of whinging to Deb, my wife, and moaning about this person and that person. She listened to me very patiently for about an hour and finally she just said, ‘Listen, I think you have just got to trust yourself. You are worrying way too much about what everything else is thinking. Just go back to the character, focus on that, trust your instinct… you’ve got this.’ To me that was love. Someone that believes in you when you don’t fully believe in yourself.”
Jackman fans will likely know that the Australian star wasn’t the studio’s first choice to play Wolvie. Scottish actor Dougray Scott – soon to be seen in The CW’s Batwoman – was initially cast but dropped out over scheduling conflicts with Mission: Impossible II. Jackman was then called in to replace him and the rest is history, though it sounds like there were some issue with his performance at first.
Thankfully, whoever it was that was thinking of firing Jackman came to their senses. And thanks to his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, for convincing her husband that he was on the right track with playing the character by trusting his instincts. The shape of the X-Men franchise would’ve been totally different if either of those two events never occurred and we’d all be living in some dystopian Sentinel-controlled future.
Fans – and Ryan Reynolds – are always calling for Jackman to return as Wolverine, but he’s adamant(ium) that he’s sheathed his claws for good. As such, don’t expect to see him in Dark Phoenix when it flies into cinemas on June 7th.