Keanu Reeves has revealed which character he always wanted to play on the big screen.
In an interview to promote his upcoming film Bill & Ted Face the Music, the actor mentioned it was his dream to play one of the X-Men characters.
“I always wanted to play Wolverine,” Reeves said.
When his Bill & Ted Face the Music co-star, Alex Winter, suggested Reeves could still achieve his dream, he said: “It is too late.”
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The role of Wolverine was played by Aussie Hugh Jackman in nine movies, beginning with X-Men and finishing with Logan.
In 2018, Jackman revealed on the Aussies in Hollywood podcast by Jenny Cooney how he was appearing in a stage version of Oklahoma! in London in 1999 when he landed an audition for Bryan Singer’s X-Men film, partly due to Russell Crowe.
“Bryan wanted Russell to play Wolverine,” Jackman said. “He (Crowe) said to him, ‘You should look at this guy, Hugh Jackman.’
“My audition was literally between the Wednesday matinee and the Wednesday evening (performance) and I raced off stage and I ran into Soho to do this audition,” he told Cooney.
“They were, as they do, running late. I’m a nobody and I’m like, ‘Um, I’ve got to be on stage’.”
Worried he was going to miss the evening performance, Jackman decided to barge into the audition room.
“I remember knocking on the door and I say, ‘Sorry to interrupt, excuse me.’ And they’re looking at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’
“I said, ‘I really need to do my audition now or I’m out.’ And I can see them going, ‘Yeah, leave.’ But the guy who was just finishing goes, ‘All right, come in here.’
“I remember being a little shitty because I’d waited for an hour and a half and I hate being late so I was p*ssed off,” Jackman said.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Source: Supplied
His bad mood turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Jackman channelled his anger for the audition.
“We did a take or two and then they said, ‘Can we do that one again?’ And I said, ‘No, can we just do the other scene? I just need to make sure I do the other scene.’
“I remember them going, ‘Who is this guy?’” he recalled.
Jackman had to audition another six times for the role only to be told they’d decided to cast Scottish actor Dougray Scott instead.
As luck would have it though, Scott had to withdraw from the X-Men movie because the filming for Mission: Impossible 2, which he was starring in, ran over schedule.
“I send Tom Cruise a present every year,” Jackman joked on the Aussies in Hollywood podcast.
Dougray Scott in 2016. Picture: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images Source: Getty Images
Before filming began, Jackman awkwardly ran into Scott at the opening of Fox Studios in Sydney.
“He came up afterwards and I said, ‘Mate, I’m really sorry.’ And he said, ‘Mate, it’s nothing to do with you. That is an awesome role, go and crush it. You’re going to be great.’
“I always thought he was a class act,” Jackman added.
Last year Scott was asked on a red carpet about missing out on playing Wolverine and he said, “It’s a part that I was offered and turned down three times and didn’t want to do.
“Then they persuaded me to do it and I was … about to do it and then the movie I was doing at the time just overran by so much that I couldn’t do it in the end. So that was the story with Wolverine.
“I never think about it to be honest with you,” he added.
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