At this point, everyone is more than aware that Hugh Jackman was cast as Wolverine after Bryan Singer’s X-Men had already started shooting, with the unknown actor being recommended by Russell Crowe, who admitted he had no interest in playing the role after scheduling conflicts with Mission: Impossible II forced original choice Dougray Scott to drop out.
What followed was arguably the most iconic run of performances that the comic book genre has ever seen, with Jackman establishing Wolverine as one of 21st Century cinema’s most recognizable and important characters, as well as launching a massively successful Hollywood career that’s still going strong to this day.
Although actors publicly claim that they don’t dwell on the past, Scott must be kicking himself, as Mission: Impossible II is still widely regarded as the weakest entry in the entire franchise, while in the two decades since he hasn’t come close to the career-defining role that Jackman lucked into, even though he’s been working solidly for years.
He might have gracefully retired the sideburns and claws in Logan, but it seems unlikely that Jackman will do an interview for the rest of his career where Wolverine doesn’t come up at least once. The most recent saw him appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where the host surprised him with footage from his very first audition back in 1999. You can check it out at around the 7:43 mark in the video above.
Interestingly, the Les Miserables star revealed that Kevin Feige drove him back to the airport after the audition, with the Marvel Studios head honcho an up-and-coming associate producer at the time, and it would be an understatement to say that they’ve both done pretty well for themselves over the last 20 years.