In an interview Hugh Jackman commented that he physically prepared himself for the “X-Men” movies by exercising and following a diet, without resorting to steroids; he also mistakenly believed that Wolverine’s character was a wolf

Australian actor Hugh Jackman has played the character Wolverine in many films in the “X-Men” saga, but in a matter of months, every time the filming of one of the films was about to begin, his body would change drastically, showing a remarkable musculature. He has now made it known that, contrary to what many thought, his preparation was very natural, based on a specific diet and a lot of exercise.

In an interview within the series “Who’s talking to Chris Wallace” Jackman commented that using steroids to play Wolverine was never among his plans: “No, I love my job. And I love Wolverine. I have to be careful what I say here, but I was told anecdotally what the side effects of that are. And I said to myself: ‘I don’t want to do it to that degree either’. So no, I just did it old school. And I tell you, I’ve eaten more chicken, I’m so sorry to all the vegans and vegetarians and the chickens in the world. Karma is literally not good for me. If the deity has something to do with chickens, I’m in trouble.”

When he was cast in one of the lead roles in “X-Men,” Hugh hadn’t even read the Marvel comic, and mistakenly thought Wolverine was a werewolf, when in fact the character is based on the gluttonous animal (also known as wolverine or gulo gulo): “I had never read the comic. I got the part. In Australia we don’t have wolverines. I didn’t know it was a real animal. I had never heard of a wolverine. I thought it was a made up animal. You know, Wolverine has the hands of a man and claws of steel, and while I was getting ready I walked past an IMAX screen that was showing a documentary about wolves. And I said ‘Perfect! Because I’m obviously a wolf, part wolf.”

With his characteristic good humor, Jackman said it was ultimately embarrassing for him to realize he was wrong: “So I went on set doing all these wolf moves, and the director said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Well, I was just thinking that wolves always look like that because they’re actually smelling, they have their noses to the ground. That’s why they look like this all the time. And he said to me, ‘What do you mean a wolf?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, Wolverine, I’m part wolf, so…’ and he said, ‘No, you’re a wolverine.’”

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