Hugh Jackman was obviously in great shape when he debuted as Wolverine in the first X-Men movie, but he packed on more muscle over the years and became even more ripped for each subsequent appearance as the character.
This resulted in a lot of speculation that the actor must be relying on steroids to achieve his chiselled appearance. It's something Jackman has mostly avoided addressing in interviews, but he was asked about the rumors directly while chatting to Chris Wallace (via Variety), and had the following to say on the matter.
“No, I love my job. And I love Wolverine,” Jackman said when quizzed about going on "the juice" to enhance his physique. “I got to be careful what I say here, but I had been told anecdotally what the side effects are of that. And I was like, ‘I don’t love it that much.’ So no, I just did it the old school way. And I tell you, I’ve eaten more chickens — I’m so sorry to all the vegans and vegetarians and to the chickens of the world. Literally the karma is not good for me. If the deity has anything related to chickens, I’m in trouble.”
Jackman has been training hard for his return as Logan in Deadpool 3 (which he recently referred to as "Wolverine and Deadpool"), which will mark his 12th time playing the fan-favorite mutant. At this point, he obviously has a solid grasp on the character, but that wasn't always the case!
Elsewhere in the interview, Jackman told an amusing story about studying wolves after landing the role - because he thought "wolverine" was a made-up moniker for his character!
“I had never read the comic book,” he admitted. “I got the part. I didn’t really know anything about it. In Australia we don’t have wolverines. I didn’t know that was a real animal. I’d never heard of a wolverine. I thought it was a made-up animal. You know, like, he’s got man hands of steel, made up. And so I was passing as I was doing rehearsal at the Imax, they had this documentary about wolves. And I was like, perfect, because obviously I’m a wolf, part wolf.”
“So I went [to set] with all these wolf moves and I was doing these moves, and the director said, ‘What are you doing?'” Jackman continued. “And I said, ‘Well, I was just thinking wolves are always looking like this because they’re actually smelling, they’ve got their nose to the ground. That’s why they’re looking like this all the time.’ And he goes, ‘What do you mean a wolf?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, Wolverine — I’m part wolf so…’ and he goes, ‘No, you’re a wolverine.'”
To be fair, Logan probably does have more in common with a wolf than an actual wolverine (the name was applied because of his ferocity and short stature), so some of those mannerisms could have worked reasonably well... at least in Wolvie's more animalistic state!
What do you guys make of Jackman's comments? Deadpool 3 is set to hit theaters next February.