X-Men star Hugh Jackman is now destined to forever be associated with the adamantium clawed Wolverine, but, aside from his spikey hair and berserker rage, he has also become well-known for his musical talents. Having earned his one and only Oscar nomination for playing Jean Valjean in director Tom Hooper's Les Misérables, Jackman was asked recently whether or not he turned down a role in Hooper's latest foray into cinematic musicals, the critically maligned Cats. Jackman's answer was respectfully simple and to the point.

"Umm... yep."

Interesting. Hugh Jackman was then asked who he was asked to play, to which he replied that "you know, Tom rang me early on because we did Les Mis together, and there were a couple of options there based on availability and time, and I really... yeah, I just wasn't available at the time".

So, ultimately it came down to availability, or lack thereof, with Jackman forced to turn down a role in Tom Hooper's big-screen iteration of the smash-hit stage show. Of course, we all now know how said iteration turned out, but Jackman resists the urge to bad mouth the critically maligned movie.

"I'm in the theater, man, and I don't want to be in the business of bashing people, or jumping on bandwagons. I haven't seen it, and Tom Hooper's one of the great filmmakers we have."

Jackman is nothing if not a class act, and though Cats has now become infamously known for the bizarre creative choices that were made, he clearly is not interested in adding any more fuel to the already all-consuming feline fire.

Still, with hindsight being what it is, Jackman turning down Cats turned out to be the right move, with the movie being pretty much universally despised, or at least ridiculed, and has gone on to take center stage in many an unsuspecting viewers nightmares.

One career move that has proven to be the right one though is Hugh Jackman's legacy as popular member of the X-Men, Wolverine. The actor debuted as the comic book superhero 20 years ago in 2000's X-Men and made his curtain call with the brilliant Logan back in 2017. Jackman said he has made peace with saying goodbye to the character and does not plan on returning as Wolverine in the future.

"I knew it was the right time for me to leave the party-not just for me, but for the character. Somebody else will pick it up and run with it. It's too good of a character not to. It's kind of like, you're on your way home and your friend rings you and goes, 'Oh, dude, a new DJ just came on and the music is awesome, are you going to come back?' And you say, Sounds good but...no. They're fine with someone else."

You can next see Jackman as the lead in the HBO movie Bad Education, which is due for release on April 25, 2020. This comes to us from The Daily Beast.