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.