While he had just finished filming X-Men, Hugh Jackman decided to try his luck to star opposite Sandra Bullock in Miss Detective. But things didn’t go the way he wanted.
We are at the end of the 90s. Hugh Jackman is not yet the interplanetary star that he is today. At this time, the Australian actor had just completed filming on X-Men, where he played the mutant Wolverine.
While waiting for the film to be released on all screens, Jackman continues the auditions. And that’s good, he has just landed a nice role in the romcom Animal Attraction opposite Ashley Judd.
His agent then has an idea: to get him cast for a big production with Sandra Bullock. If he is cast in Miss Detective, he could use it as an argument to negotiate his contract on Ashley Judd’s film. But nothing goes as planned, as the actor will reveal a few years later to Variety.
When he goes to the audition, Hugh Jackman does not expect to meet the lead actress. The two actors must pass a chemistry test, to find out if their relationship works well on screen (he is supposed to play Inspector Eric Matthews, a police officer who falls under the spell of Gracie Hart).
But Jackman is quickly destabilized by his colleague:
“Damn, she’s awesome. So quick and efficient. I can’t follow her. I scrambled as best I could but I didn’t know the script well enough. It was the first time I tested with another actor.”he reveals.
Finally, the producers preferred actor Benjamin Bratt. As for him, he even continued with the filming of Animal Attraction. “It’s humiliating when you hear your agent say ‘I don’t want you to be in this movie but try to get the role anyway’ and then you don’t get it.”
Fortunately, this refusal will not have had a negative impact on Hugh Jackman’s career. The release of X-Men in 2000 propelled him to the forefront of the international scene.
Miss Detective leaves Netflix on January 31.