Hugh Jackman Turned Down The Opportunity To Play JAMES BOND
Hugh Jackman is one of Hollywood's most liked actors and is well known his for his role as Wolverine that catapulted him to superstardom, but did you know he had the chance to play one of the biggest characters in cinema history?
In a recent interview with Variety, Jackman spoke about being offered to carry on the role of James Bond after Pierce Brosnan walked away; and it wasn't that he didn't want to do it, he turned down the opportunity for a different reason.
“I was about to do X-Men 2 and a call came from my agent asking if I’d be interested in Bond. I just felt at the time that the scripts had become so unbelievable and crazy, and I felt like they needed to become grittier and real. And the response was: ‘Oh, you don’t get a say. You just have to sign on.’"
The scale of the Bond films had gotten more outrageous and that was one reason he went with turning it down, also Jackman wasn't to keen on the idea of jumping from one action franchise to another.
"I was also worried that between Bond and X-Men, I’d never have time to do different things."
It turns out that Jackman's refusal was part of a series of events that turned out to be the best thing to happen to the franchise in the past few decades. It lead to MGM Studios to decide to reboot the franchise with Casino Royale.
Even though Jackman turned down the role, his career doesn't seem to have taken any downfalls. He's appeared in critically acclaimed films like Les Misérables, The Fountain, and The Prestige, as well as reprising his role as Wolverine in the X-Men franchise.
Sadly, Jackman has hung up the adamantium claws after playing Wolverine for the final time in Logan. He can next be seen in the big budget musical The Greatest Showman as P.T. Barnum, which hits theaters on December 20.