During a chat on 'Happy Sad Confused' podcast, the 'Lord of the Rings' star opens up about his meeting with director Bryan Singer to talk about him taking on the mutant role.

• Feb 10, 2021

AceShowbiz - "Lord of the Rings" star Viggo Mortensen turned down the chance to play Wolverine in the "X-Men" movies, because he didn't want to be attached to one character for a decade.

Mortensen famously met with director Bryan Singer about taking on the role in 2000's "X-Men", but admits he came away convinced signing on for multiple movies would be a bad idea.

"The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over," he told the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast. "I was nervous about that."

And Viggo's comic book-loving son, Henry, helped him make his decision, "I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide. In the back of my mind I was thinking he could learn something too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes, 'This is wrong, that's not how it is'."

Mortensen reveals Singer went out of his way to explain why he was leaving certain things out of the movie, "The rest of the meeting was him explaining in detail to Henry why he was taking certain liberties."

And he thinks Henry's input might have helped in a small way, "There were some things... I mean they straightened most of them out."

Viggo has no regrets about passing on the role, because Hugh Jackman picked up the part of Wolverine and the "Eastern Promises" star cannot imagine anyone else doing it better.

"I think he did great," he says. "I'm sure no one could imagine anyone doing it better than he did anyway."

Jackman played Wolverine in nine movies over 17 years before retiring as the character after 2017's "Logan".