Hugh Jackman Still Regrets Turning Down 1 Movie for His Own Belief and It’s Surprisingly Not James Bond
Hugh Jackman is one of the most talented actors of his generation. Having kickstarted his acting career with the Australian television series Correlli right after his graduation, he has now starred in some of the best movies of all time. His role as James Howlett a.k.a. The Wolverine has won him the Guinness World Record for the longest-running career as a live-action Marvel character.
Although the superhero role catapulted him to global fame, Hugh Jackman has professed his undying love for musicals on numerous occasions. Of course, he has done two great musical movies, but there is another one that he could have been a part of. Unfortunately, he willingly refused to accept the part which was offered to him. This made it a lifelong regret for him, one that he has been vocal about.
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Hugh Jackman Regrets Turning Down This Movie
It is no secret that Hugh Jackman is a great performer. His love for participating in all-dance and all-sing spectacles has led him to perform on Broadway several times. He has also played lead roles in musical movies like Les Misérables (2012) and The Greatest Showman (2017).
Despite this, Jackman has a major regret about refusing to star in the musical Chicago when he was just starting out in the industry. He believed himself to be too young for the role. At the moment, that might have seemed to be the right decision, but the movie’s subsequent success became a pain point for him.
In an interview with OK! Magazine (via Far Out Magazine), The Prestige star opened up about this, saying:
“I’d always wanted to do a movie musical and this one came along relatively early in my career. I thought I was too young as there was one line when he said ‘I’ve seen it all, kid’. A year later it went on to win all the Oscars and I remember thinking that perhaps a little bit of make-up could have worked.”
The role Hugh Jackman was offered was of Billy Flynn. Eventually, Pretty Woman star Richard Gere took over the role. Chicago, released in 2002, won 6 Academy Awards out of the 12 it was nominated for. So, it is safe to say that the Swordfish actor made a mistake by refusing to take the part because he was not old enough.
Hugh Jackman Dodged a Bullet by Refusing to Make Another Musical
After missing out on an Oscar-winning musical, you would think that Hugh Jackman would have learned from his mistake. Thank God, he didn’t. Why? If he had, he would have starred in the disastrous musical Cats (not Taylor Swift’s brightest moment).
Jackman starred in two other musicals before he was offered Cats. Although he was close with director Tom Hooper since they had worked together in Les Misérables, the actor could not sign up for Cats because of his busy schedule.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, when asked which role he was going to play, Jackman said:
“You know, Tom rang me early on because we did Les Mis together, and there were a couple of options there based on availability and time, and I really… yeah, I just wasn’t available at the time.”
Cats was released in 2019; the same year Jackman went on his first world tour titled The Man. The Music. The Show. As of now, he is busy reprising his role as Wolverine in Deadpool 3.
