Considering he led Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of famed musical “Les Miserables,” and scored an Oscar nomination in the process, it was kind of a surprise the actor didn’t at least make a cameo in Hooper’s recent and infamous film take of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical “Cats”.
In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Jackman confirmed that he actually turned down a role in “Cats” after Hooper called him early in pre-production to discuss various roles the actor might want to do:
“There were a couple of options there based on availability and time, but I just wasn’t available at the time.”
Asked if it was beneficial to turn down the film considering the reception it got, he said:
“I’m in the theater, man, and I don’t want to be in the business of bashing people – or jumping on bandwagons. I haven’t seen it, and Tom Hooper’s one of the great filmmakers we have.”
One thing he is happy to do though is hand on the legacy of Wolverine to another actor. With the character to be rebooted for the MCU, Jackman has long made peace with saying goodbye to the role:
“Somebody else will pick it up and run with it. It’s too good of a character not to. It’s kind of like, you’re on your way home and your friend rings you and goes, ‘Oh, dude, a new DJ just came on and the music is awesome, are you going to come back?’ And you say, Sounds good but…no. They’re fine with someone else.”
Jackman will soon be seen in the HBO telemovie “Bad Education” which will screen on the cabler on April 25th.
