Hugh Jackman Talks About His Early Struggles With Playing Wolverine
Wolverine was such a different character when he was introduced in Bryan Singer's X-Men. When you look back and see Hugh Jackman in that role, he just has a different feel. Over the years the character has been refined and has evolved into what we are about to see in Logan, which will be Jackman's final time playing Wolverine unless he surprises us and pops up in Deadpool 2.
During an interview with EOnline, Jackman talked about what it was like for him to play Wolverine 18 years ago and admits that it was a struggle for him. He explained:
"I was kind of struggling, to be honest. It was the first movie I had ever done in America. I was pretty tight. I was nervous. I was average, to be honest, at best. No one was saying anything and I sort of thought I was getting away with it, but I wasn't."
He went on to talk about how studio executive Tom Rothman sat Jackman down a month into filming and pretty much told him he was blowing it.
"He told me that he believed in me, that from the moment he'd seen my tape he had a gut feeling I was the guy, but watching my dailies was like watching someone put a lampshade over a light."
That would be so discouraging to hear as an actor! What a terrible experience that must've been, and it would have left such a horrible feeling if failure. I guess the talk worked, though, because Jackman has absolutely killed it in the role of Wolverine over the years, and Logan could end up being the best performance of Jackman's career! At least that's what it looks like to me judging from the trailers.