Hugh Jackman on How He Became Wolverine and Why He's Stepping Away Now

First of all, it says that Russell Crowe was the original, they wanted him to be Wolverine. Is that true? Absolutely. And Russell Crowe called you and said, Hey, you ought to go in on this part. He didn't tell call me. He called Brian, Brian Singer, the director. He said, look, I don't want to do it, but you should look at this guy. Right. And I was doing Oklahoma at the time. My hair looked like yours, man. I had a perm in my hair. You had a fro. When I went for the Wolverine audition, I had to put a baseball cap on and the casting agent said, uh, I don't think the baseball cap Wolverine, I took it off. He goes, yeah, put it back on. It's so weird, isn't it? Because here, you know, first of all, you have the Australian accent, you know, there was a lot they had to overlook or take a leap of faith with you as Wolverine. Plus you knew nothing about Wolverine. You thought, you thought it was about wolves. You thought you were playing. I didn't even know. I'd never heard of X-Men. I didn't know there was an animal called a Wolverine. I thought it was like one of those Shazam. It's a made up like comic book animal or something. And I came to set after studying wolves and I had this whole physicality and I was doing it like a rehearsal and the director goes, what are you doing with your body, man? And I said, Oh, you know, I was just thinking wolves the way they're always smelling and they're looking down because they're actually smelling the ground. He goes, wolves, you're a Wolverine. I said, well, there's no such thing. And he goes, yeah, there is go to the zoo down the road, man. There's a whole, there's four of them down there. What did you do? You walked around. I know your wife told you not to take the part because it's said, don't do the audition. Yeah. She said you have the Royal National Theater and you've got freaking claws coming out of your hands. But you know, she's going off three pages. Right. And by the way, this is the only time Deb has ever been wrong. Very, very clear. But a good advisor. Yeah. But I went for the audition and uh, I, I said, yeah, but Anna Paquin, this is Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, you know, the director of Usual Suspects. I said, there's gotta be more to this. I'd only read three pages too. But isn't the motto or not the moral of the story that as a, as a performer, as an actor, you gotta act. You can't, you don't know with these films, you don't really have a crystal ball to know that you're going to end up. Are you the longest running in a series? I think the only other guy is Sean Connery who'd played James Bond. Yeah. But you playing a continuing character in the movies, you're one, you have the most longevity as a Wolverine and it's brilliant. Why not? No, I, and yeah, I, I always had a young actors like, I don't know about doing this. I said, say yes, man. Yes. Michael Caine's the best. Michael Caine always said, he goes, look, one in 10 things you do is a success. Everything else is a failure. So just say yes to everything. Right. And just make sure you got 10 things. Are we done with Wolverine? Is that it? Is it over? Yeah. It's over. Yeah. Are you okay? Good. We're all right. I feel good because I was really proud of that last film and I loved it. Very good. Yeah. I loved that film. Yeah. Thanks man. And, and, and, and I really did decide to finish it after that conversation I had with Jerry Seinfeld. I asked him why, what made him quit? Like what was the last thing to say? This is the last season. He said, it's really important if you're in anything creative to not run the tank dry because it could actually never get refilled again. Like if you can really overdo it, he said, so you leave while there's something in the tank and that will propel you into the next thing. Who knows what the next thing is. Right. It's good. But how do you know when there's not, maybe there is more in the tank. It's just a, it's just a gut feeling. The moment he told me that story, I was like, Oh yeah. Well, you know, Sean Connery made his last James Bond film and then came back. Did he? Yes. Oh yeah. He's like, fuck what I said. How much money are you giving me? Okay. Can I reserve? Yeah, there is a clause. So I'll make you a deal. If I changed my mind, I'll tell you guys. We'll give you a promotion. Believe me, you're terrific.