Hugh Jackman Discusses His 1999 Audition For Wolverine And Fearing He Would Not Get The Part

Hugh Jackman returns to play Wolverine once again in this month's Deadpool & Wolverine, but the career-defining role almost never materialized for the Australian actor. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jackman and Marvel boss Kevin Feige discussed Jackman's legacy as Wolverine, going back to their first meeting in 1999 and Jackman's first tryout for the role (and a steak dinner that followed).

The actor Dougray Scott was already signed on to play Wolverine in X-Men, but a commitment for Mission: Impossible 2 forced Scott to leave X-Men during filming (Scott would later say Tom Cruise forbade him from doing both films at the same time). This led to a last-minute recast for Wolverine, and that's where Jackman came in.

When Jackman came to Toronto for his own tryout for Wolverine, things didn't seem to go very well. He said he recalls reading lines for director Bryan Singer and writer Tom DeSanto. Jackman said it was a tense audition, held in the director's trailer during a lunch break. "I could tell he was like, 'Why on my lunch hour am I auditioning some guy for a part that I've already cast?' He was pissed off," Jackman said of DeSanto.

In the background, however, Feige said there was a "scramble" to find someone to play Wolverine, but Jackman was originally passed over for the role in part for being too tall (he is 6' 3"). Jackman said he left his audition feeling like he would not get the part, and then Feige offered to go out to dinner with DeSanto instead of just sending him "out into the cold" and immediately back to the airport.

"I said, 'Kevin, we all know I'm not getting the part. You don't have to do dinner,'" Jackman recalled. "But no, he sat in there and had a steak dinner with me and then drove me to the airport. I'll never forget it. That was the nicest thing. I thought, I'll never see him again."

Jackman of course did land the role of Wolverine in X-Men and would go on to reprise the role in numerous films over the years. He was originally expecting that 2018's Logan would be his final appearance as Wolverine, but he was ultimately convinced to come back once more for Deadpool & Wolverine.

The movie arrives on July 26, and it may not be the final time we see Ryan Reynolds and Jackman together in a film. Reynolds teased, "We have one we're looking to do soon."

"I would say that [ours] is like any relationship that is successful and works: It's that two parties are rooting for each other," Reynolds said. "I'm always rooting for Hugh to score and win. I also know the infinite nuance of his heart and his mind and who he is. I can say firsthand that he's a person who's not just worth rooting for; he's somebody who's impossible to not root for."

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