‘Mission: Impossible 2’ actor Dougray Scott says Tom Cruise made him give up Wolverine role: ‘He said I couldn’t’
Scottish actor Dougray Scott — not Hugh Jackman — was all set to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies, beginning with director Bryan Singer's first foray back in 2000.
Though Russell Crowe was Singer's first choice, the Oscar winner turned the role down, suggesting the then-unknown Jackman, a fellow Australian, instead.
Because Jackman was an unknown quantity, Singer offered the role to Scott, who took it. But in the end, due to delays in filming on Mission: Impossible II, Scott had to pull out.
Now Scott has claimed that it was Tom Cruise who wouldn't allow him to take the role.
Speaking to the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, Scott said: “Tom Cruise didn’t let me do it.
“We were doing Mission: Impossible and he was like, ‘You’ve got to stay and finish the film’ and I said, 'I will, but I’ll go and do that as well.’ For whatever reason he said I couldn’t.
“He was a very powerful guy. Other people were doing everything to make it work.”
Scott played villain Sean Ambrose in the John Woo-directed movie, which famously began with Cruise free-climbing on a sheer cliff face in the Moab desert (though he did a harness, there was no safety net beneath).
However, he said that he bears no grudge against Jackman for taking up the role.
“I love what Hugh did with [the Wolverine character]. He’s a lovely guy,” Scott added.
Prior to X-Men, Jackman had only appeared in two movies, both low-budget Australian projects. It was playing Wolverine which catapulted him to fame.
He'd go on to play the claw-handed mutant eight more times on screen, cementing his career in Hollywood, before finally closing the door on the character with 2017's acclaimed Logan.
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