Jackman's Perm Almost Cost Him Wolverine

11 May 2009

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Hugh Jackman almost missed out on the chance to play Wolverine in the original X-Men movie - because he had to audition with a perm.

The Aussie star reveals he tried out for the action man role nine months before filming started - and was initially passed over for Brit DougrayScott.

And he thinks his hair put the casting director off.

I was doing a musical in London at the time, playing Curly in Oklahoma - so I had a perm in my hair

He explains, "I was doing a musical in London at the time, playing Curly in Oklahoma - so I had a perm in my hair. "So I put the hat on to do the audition and about halfway through, the casting director was like, 'That was great, could you do one without the hat? I can't really see Wolverine wearing a baseball cap.' "I took it off and I read about two lines and she goes, 'Cut, put the hat on - now!'" But fortune came Jackman's way when filming on Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible film overran and Scott was contracted to complete that film first.

Producers couldn't wait and so Jackman re-auditioned - four days after X-Men began shooting in 1999.

Ten years later, the Aussie has played the claw-handed mutant in four movies, including the newly-released X-Men Origins Wolverine, which debuted at the top of box office charts around the globe this week on its way to an impressive $175 million (£116 million) haul.

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