The iconic 2000s role Russell Crowe wasn’t interested in: “He was really putting the pressure on”
The year 2000 was a great time to be Russell Crowe, who, after steadily establishing himself as a Hollywood mainstay over the previous few years, made arguably the most important film in his entire career: Gladiator.
As Maximus Decimus Meridius (father to a murdered son…), the Kiwi star stepped into the colosseum, battled a corrupt emperor, and made a lot of money in the process. Not only was the film a commercial success, but it also earned him the title of ‘Best Actor’ at the Academy Awards. All in all, he had a very successful year in 2000, but it could have been even better.
It’s quite a well-known fact that Crowe was director Bryan Singer’s first choice to play Wolverine in his film version of X-Men, which was also released in 2000. “Bryan was a friend at the time. and he was really putting the pressure on,” he revealed to News. Notice how he was quick to assert that Singer was only his friend “at the time”, a wise move given the director’s fall from grace in recent years.
As we all know, Crowe didn’t grow out his sideburns and chomp on cigars as the gruff mutant. He did recommend his old pal Hugh Jackman for the role, though, which ended up changing his life forever. But why did he say no?
It’s possible that Crowe didn’t want to commit to too many high-profile projects at the same time, or that he didn’t believe that a comic book movie would be a success. X-Men was one of the films that changed people’s minds about superhero movies, lest we forget, but none of this mattered to Crowe, who had a different, much stranger reason for rejecting the role.
“If you remember, Maximus has a wolf at the centre of his cuirass,” he explained, “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’.”
Just take a minute to let that sink in; Russell Crowe turned down a movie that made $300million at the box office, and led to a multi-billion dollar franchise, because he thought he was making too many films with wolves in them? There are definitely way worse animals to be associated with. If Maximus had had a slug in the middle of his armour, I might have understood, but wolves are cool!
Of course, we now know that Maximus’ wolf did not become a major part of his character. His canine companion pretty much disappears after the film’s first intense battle sequence. As for Wolverine, he has nothing in common with nature’s goodest boys either, a misconception Jackman also harboured and had to be corrected very early in the filming process.
Jackman is now so closely linked to Wolverine that it feels weird to think about anyone else in the role. It’s probably a good thing that Crowe didn’t get it, but it’s absolutely bonkers to learn the reason he declined it.
