Hugh Jackman became famous for playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies from 2000 to 2017. He held the Guinness World Record for ‘longest career as a live-action Marvel character’ until May 2022 when Patrick Stewart broke the record for playing Charles Xavier.
When the X-Men star was creating his Wolverine character, he had a real-life fighter in mind. He didn’t want Wolverine to look pretty. Instead, he wanted him to be tough and rough.
The Sydney native drew inspiration from boxer Mike Tyson, aiming to make Wolverine intense and raw like him. Jackman believed his mutant hero should share a key trait with the iconic Kid Dynamite.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine’s Connection with Mike Tyson
Before Hugh Jackman got the role of Wolverine in X-Men, he didn’t know much about the character. In fact, he didn’t even know that Wolverines were real animals. Jackman once shared the same on Late Night with Stephen Colbert:
“Embarrassingly, I didn’t know what a wolverine was…. And I presumed it was a made-up name for the comic book. I’d never read an X-Men comic. I’d never seen a wolverine… So I presumed it was a wolf.”
After getting the role, Jackman got to understand his Wolverine character deeply. At first, he had some ideas about how he wanted Wolverine to fight and looked at Mike Tyson‘s boxing style for inspiration. The 55-year-old once told Entertainment Weekly:
“I was very adamant at the beginning in 1 and 2— I used to watch tapes of Mike Tyson — and I was like, I don’t want it to be pretty. I don’t want it to be martial arts. I don’t want him to be anything other than, like, a street fighter. He doesn’t fight for the sake of fighting. If he can take someone’s head off in the first punch, he’ll take it off.”
The Australian actor explained that he didn’t want Wolverine’s fighting style to be elegant or like martial arts. Instead, he wanted him to fight like a street fighter, with the intent to end the fight quickly and decisively.
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The Wolverine Role is Hugh Jackman’s Decade-Long Career Catalyst
In a 2014 interview with Collider, Jackman revealed that the role of Wolverine was crucial for his career. It wasn’t just his big break, but a character he played for over a decade. Playing Wolverine also allowed Jackman to see how he grew as an actor over the years.
He said, ” And this character is very much the foundation, the spine of my career, so I can easily see how I’ve changed. I’d say I’m more confident.”
Even then, when he understood that he would eventually have to give up the role of Wolverine to another actor. This made him feel more protective of the character.
The Marvel star said, “I’ve been doing it for 14 years, so of course at some point I’m going to have to pass it on, so I guard it more jealously.”
Watch X-Men on Disney+.
