Russell Crowe explains why he did not play Wolverine
By Erik Swann
Crowe had an unusual reason for choosing not to don the adamantium claws!
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When people think of Wolverine, the first person who comes to mind is undoubtedly Hugh Jackman. Over the years, he has become synonymous with the character, and we’ll likely hold any future actor to his standard. However, Russell Crowe was once up for the part, but he ultimately referred his friend Jackman for the job. Now, Crowe has opened up on why he didn’t take the role.
The actor recently co-hosted Australian radio show Fitzy & Wippa where he explained that the opportunity arose because he was Bryan Singer’s good friend. He then revealed that Maximus, his character in Gladiator (2000), was the reason that he decided against it:
"“Bryan [Singer] was a friend at the time. And he was really putting the pressure on. If you remember, Maximus has a wolf at the center of his cuirass, and he has a wolf as his companion … which I thought was going to be a bigger deal [at the time]. So, I said no because I didn’t want to be ‘wolfy’, like ‘Mr. Wolf’.”"
Not wanting to play two characters that were somehow connected to wolves is—an intriguing reason to say the least. And, in the end, the Gladiator scenes putting emphasis on the wolf were not even featured in the completed film.
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It’s hard to say whether or not Crowe would have definitely taken the job had he known how things would turn out. But, one thing that can be said is that his interpretation would have looked a lot more different than Jackman’s, and some might still wonder what he would have done in the role.
Still, I think we can all agree that we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for helping to give us the definitive, big-screen Wolverine.