Although the world knows Hugh Jackman as the legendary actor behind such iconic roles as Wolverine, there was a time before he became an X-Men when even he felt like a “nobody” and found himself in a particularly humiliating moment.
According to Variety, Jackman revealed an anecdote about when auditioned for the role of Sandra Bullock’s love interest in Miss Special Agent. Jackman did not want the part, but his agent encouraged him to try it because it would help him in his negotiations for Always by your side with Ashley Judd if he got it.
When you think about Jackman now, you would think that he would come to an audition with all the confidence in the world and would have no problem landing whatever role he liked, but he didn’t.
“Nobody knew X-Men yet,” said Jackman. “I was nobody.”
He read with Bullock for the audition and was impressed by his talent. He was so impressed that he just he felt overwhelmed in every way.
“Holy crap! She’s amazing! And so fast and fast,” recalls Jackman. “I’m not even remotely up to it. I was pedaling as fast as I could, but I didn’t know the script well enough. It was the first time he had auditioned.” [con otra actriz]. I was impressed that he was there. She didn’t expect her to be there. I guess there were eight people she did the test with.”
Jackman’s feelings were not unfounded, as he lost the role to Benjamin Bratt. As if that wasn’t loss enough, had the added embarrassment of losing a role her agent considered easy to get for him.
“It’s humiliating, when your agent says, ‘I don’t want you to get this job, but go get it.’ And then you don’t,” Jackman said.
Jackman had already finished filming his X-Men debut as Wolverine when he auditioned, and despite this setback, he quickly found his feet, and the rest, as they say, is history.
If you want to know a little more about that history and its future, be sure to read the news that broke the internet that Jackman will return as Wolverine for the first time since 2017 to star in Deadpool 3 alongside Ryan Reynolds.
