Summary:
- Jackman doubted his Wolverine audition & felt tension from the screenwriter.
- Young Marvel exec Kevin Feige offered Jackman kindness despite the failed audition.
- Feige’s gesture led to a future collaboration on Deadpool & Wolverine.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hugh Jackman reflected on his experience landing the iconic role of Wolverine in the X-Men franchise. He was joined by Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Feige, who discussed their upcoming film Deadpool & Wolverine.
Jackman revealed his initial discouragement during the audition process. He believed the role had already been cast and felt his reading fell short. He also mentioned feeling tension from screenwriter Tom DeSanto.
“He’s just going, ‘Quiet…Quieter…Quieter.’ By the end, I couldn’t even hear myself,” Jackman says of Tom DeSanto, the screenwriter. “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.”
Despite this, Kevin Feige, then a young executive at Marvel, surprised Jackman by offering him lunch with DeSanto after the audition. Jackman, convinced he wouldn’t get the part, expressed his gratitude for Feige’s gesture.
“I said, ‘Kevin, we all know I’m not getting the part. You don’t have to do dinner,’” Jackman continued. “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’d never see him again.”
“I’ll never forget it,” Jackman stated. “That act of kindness meant a lot to me, even though I thought I wouldn’t see him again.”
Of course, Feige would play a pivotal role in Jackman’s career, with Jackman ultimately portraying Wolverine in nine films. Their recent collaboration on Deadpool & Wolverine reunites these characters on the big screen.
The interview also touched on Ryan Reynolds’ uncertainty regarding a potential third Deadpool film within the MCU. However, the success of Deadpool & Wolverine paves the way for further exploration of these characters.
Kevin Feige commented on the significance of this project, stating, “The idea that, after all these years, we have Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine, and Deadpool and all the X-Men characters existing in the same universe, is truly an extraordinary experience.”
