Now that Hugh Jackman has hung up his mantle, retracted his claws and stepped away from Wolverine, the role that made him famous, it’s worth reflecting on the humble origins of his shot to fame.
I didn’t even know there was a wolverine. I literally, embarrassingly did about two weeks of research on wolves. I was rehearsing for three weeks and I was shooting, so I was kind of on my own. I remember going past an IMAX in Toronto, and there was an IMAX documentary about wolves, and so I thought, “I’ll go and see that.”
It’s sad to know that there is no existing footage of Jackman attempting to imitate an IMAX wolf documentary in portraying Wolverine – because it looks like that’s basically what he did.
“[Singer] said, ‘Are you sort of walking funny, what’s going on?’ And I said, ‘I’ve been doing this thing with wolves,’ and he goes, ‘You know you’re not a wolf, right?’”
The actor was gently told he was to portray a wolverine, not a wolf. “I said, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as a wolverine,’” Jackman said. Singer responded: “‘Go to the zoo, dude.’ I literally didn’t know it existed,” Jackman said.
