Hugh Jackman became a star when he was cast as Wolverine for 2000’s X-Men . This was long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Jackman was still early into his acting career. It’s been 24 years since the first of the X-Men movies was released, but the Logan star still remembers the audition process like it was yesterday.
From his perspective, Jackman completely bombed his first audition for the superhero part, but Kevin Feige’s generosity after the fact was the most memorable aspect of the process. Jackman sat down with Entertainment Weekly to talk about reprising Wolverine and being a part of the all-star cast of Deadpool & Wolverine led by Ryan Reynolds . The Oscar nominee got candid about how stressful auditioning for X-Men was way back in 1999, and how he was pretty positive he blew the audition.
Despite this, Kevin Fiege, who is now the President of Marvel Studios, invited the young actor to dinner with him and the screenwriter, and drove Jackman to the airport after his presumed failed audition. Jackman recalled the moment, saying: I said, 'Kevin, we all know I'm not getting the part. You don't have to do dinner.
' But no, he sat in there and had a steak dinner with me and then drove me to the airport. I'll never forget it. That was the nicest thing.
I thought, I'll never see him again. For context, in 1999, Kevin Feige wasn’t the powerful Hollywood head honcho he is now. As mentioned in the article, Feige was working on X-Men as a low level producer’s ass.
