Hugh Jackman Reveals He Turned Down Daniel Craig’s ‘James Bond’ Role — And Totally Regrets It!
We definitely understand why he regrets this! In a new interview, Hugh Jackman revealed that he once turned down Daniel Craig‘s James Bond role because friend Russell Crowe advised him not to take the part. And today, the 50-year-old star said he wishes he could reverse that career decision!
According to the UK’s Daily Star, Russell, 54, asked The Greatest Showman star if he wanted to be a part of two major franchises with the James Bond films and his work portraying Wolverine in the X-Men movies. “I was like, ‘It’s not for me.’ Anyway, so I go to see Casino Royale and I was like, ‘Oops,’” Hugh said, adding that he immediately thought, “Oh s–t,” and wished he had taken the gig.
This interestingly isn’t the first time that Hugh has spoken out about turning down the 007 role. Back in 2015, he told Variety, “I was about to do X-Men 2 and a call came from my agent asking if I’d be interested in Bond. I just felt at the time that the scripts had become so unbelievable and crazy, and I felt like they needed to become grittier and real,” he said.
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“I was also worried that between Bond and X-Men, I’d never have time to do different things. I always tried to do different things. But there was a time between X-Men 3 and the first Wolverine movie when I could see the roles getting smaller. People wanted me to play that kind of hero part exclusively. It felt a little bit claustrophobic,” Hugh continued.
The part, of course, went to Daniel, 50, and the actor has since starred in four Bond films: 2006’s Casino Royale, 2008’s Quantum of Solace, 2012’s Skyfall, and 2015’s Spectre. The star’s final 007 flick, which currently has the working title Bond 25, just reportedly found its director and should start filming soon. No word yet on who will take over the James Bond character after Daniel exits the franchise — maybe Hugh will get a second chance at the coveted gig!
