Why Hugh Jackman Turned Down Playing James Bond (2018)

You turned down James Bond. Not really. Yes. No, no, no, no, no. I got a call from my agent saying they're interested in you for bond and they want to know if it's something you're interested in. Right. And I took that as a, they're going to ask, it's a bit like the secret service. They're not, they don't want to offer it to you and you say no. Right. So there were canvassing six or seven people. And at the time, at the time I was like, well, I've got, well, I've got X-Men and I know I'm going to an X-Men too. Right. I actually rang Russell and got advice from him about it. I said, man, what do you think I should do? And he said to me, he goes, make sure you know the direction it's going in, man, because you're going to be, if you say yes to that and it works, you've got X-Men bond, X-Men bond, X-Men bond. So you want to make sure you're doing something that you really love. And, and I remember him going back and saying, I said, okay, before I say yes or no, like who's directing it and where are we at? And I thought it kind of needed a bit of a change and, and, and they said, oh, no, no, you just sign on. I was like, ah, you know, it's not for me. And in my head, I remember saying to my agent, I said, I think it should, I feel it's got to go back to being a little more Sean Connery. There's a little tougher and maybe, you know, anyway, so I go to see Casino Royale. I was like, oops. Is that the worst feeling at this point? You don't give a shit. I mean, cause no, that was fine. The worst feeling was Chicago, watching Chicago because I weirdly come, I never thought I would do musicals. That was a huge shock to me that I got into musicals. So I, but now I've got offers in movies and I can do musicals and I'm thinking, well, hopefully I'll get to do a movie musical. And that one came to me the, and, uh, I thought I was way too young. Well, I was too young. I was 30 playing a part and he's got a line, uh, the character, he goes, I've seen it all kid to Renee Zellweger. And I was like, I'm the same age as a 30 year old lawyer. I said, I don't think I can pull that off. And when I went to watch the movie, my palms were sweating because the moment it opened up, I was going, Oh, I really should have just said, let's put some makeup on. Let's go old. And by the way, Richard Gibb is so perfect for it. I actually kind of a bit disappointed in myself. I'd tell you that story, but I've told it before, but otherwise I wouldn't, because I always think it's a little, you know, Richard Gere's at home going really dude, like you're telling the world, like, I, you know, you were offered a first, like, thanks pal. But I think that there's such a passage of time and the guy was so successful with it that, uh, you're not, I don't think you're hurting him by saying that, and I bet you Daniel Craig doesn't give a shit either. You know what I mean? No, he doesn't. We're good mates. And by the way, he would have got the same call I got. I have since heard a bunch of people, uh, got that call.