Hugh Jackman Didn’t Know Wolverines Were Real Until After He First Signed On To Play Wolverine

For over 20 years, Hugh Jackman has been playing Wolverine, arguably the most popular mutant member of the X-Men. It made him a household name, establishing him as one of the biggest movie stars in the world. But it also did something else for him: It taught him that wolverines are real.

The stage and screen star recently appeared on HBO’s Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace, where he denied using steroids to get all ripped for his most iconic role. He also revealed something a bit embarrassing. For one thing, they don’t have wolverines — a small but ferocious loner found primarily in boreal forests and subarctic areas — in his native Australia. Not only had Jackman never read the X-Men comic, he never read the biology textbook that mentions the existence of wolverines.

“I didn’t know that was a real animal. I’d never heard of a wolverine,” Jackman confessed. “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.”

And so Jackman showed up impersonating the wrong animal. “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 recalled. “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.’”

It all worked out in the end: Jackman earned raves as the brooding aggro Logan, a part he loves so much he’s bringing him back from the dead. But perhaps the most important part was that he learned about an animal he’d never heard of before. Animals rule.