Hugh Jackman reveals he was almost fired from playing Wolverine

It's hard to imagine anyone else playing Wolverine other than Hugh Jackman.

He was born to those sideburns.

But the Australian actor has now revealed that he almost got the axe from the iconic X-Men role very early on.

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“I was told that things weren’t really working out as they hoped,” he admitted to the audience at his current show Hugh Jackman: The Man. The Music, via The Daily Mail.

“I was about to get fired from my first Hollywood movie, the biggest of my career. I was angry, I went home to my wife and I complained.

“I was whinging an Olympic level of whinging to Deb, my wife, and moaning about this person and that person.

“She listened to me very patiently for about an hour and finally she just said, ‘Listen, I think you have just got to trust yourself. You are worrying way too much about what everything else is thinking. Just go back to the character, focus on that, trust your instinct. You’ve got this.’

“To me that was love. Someone that believes in you when you don’t fully believe in yourself. This show is dedicated to Deb and the kids.”

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Jackman wasn't the only actor on the shortlist to play the invulnerable mutant.

Dougray Scott famously missed out on the gig after shooting of Mission: Impossible 2 overran, while Russell Crowe was initially in the frame too.

He turned down the role, but suggested producers give Jackman a call instead.