There are some roles so perfect for certain actors that it becomes impossible to see anybody else play the role. Hugh Jackman’s turn as Wolverine has certainly become one of those performances. His unexpected return in Deadpool & Wolverine simply reinforced how great he is in that part. Original X-Men stunt coordinator (and Oscar winner) Ke Huy Quan says Jackman was truly a natural, which is incredible considering he almost didn’t play Wolverine.
Ke Huy Quan is currently starring in his first movie as a leading man in Love Hurts, but for decades the actor wasn’t getting the offers from Hollywood that he clearly should have been. This led him to work behind the camera. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Quan talked about working with Hugh Jackman on the original X-Men movie and said he can’t take credit for Jackman’s incredible performance because Jackman took to it all naturally. Quan shared…
From the very beginning, from day one, when we showed him the moves, he didn’t need much training. He has this incredible, physical ability. He just needed to learn the moves. So my job was to show him the choreography. But I mean, every punch he threw, every move that he did, it was just perfect. Yeah, he was born to do it. That’s why he looked so great. So I won’t take credit for that. That’s him. We just take credit for the choreography.
Ke Huy Quan was part of the team that choreographed the big action set piece at the end of the first X-Men movie that saw Wolverine fight Mystique. And this meant at points Wolverine was fighting himself. Quan indicates that it was merely a case of teaching Hugh Jackman what the moves would be, because actually performing them wasn’t difficult at all.
Jackman had certainly never done anything quite like playing Wolverine before, but as an accomplished stage actor, his experience as a dancer probably translated over well to learning the choreography for an action sequence.
Jackman’s speed in taking to the role was probably a godsend for the filmmakers, considering Jackman wasn’t supposed to be playing Wolverine at all. Actor Dougray Scott had originally been cast as Wolverine, but the actor had hurt himself during the production of Mission: Impossible 2, so there was a concern that he might have trouble with exactly this sort of physical work. Jackman was brought in at the last minute.
Jackman may have been the second choice to play Wolverine but in the end, he was clearly the right one. The actor's career was made on the back of the mutant, and it's far from certain that the actor is officially done with Wolverine. Jackman actually apologized to Dougray Scott over the circumstances, and one has to imagine that Scott, like many others, have wondered what might have been.
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