20 Years Later, Hugh Jackman Faces Consequences of Becoming Wolverine
Over the last two decades, Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in eight films, if you count uncredited cameos, and his portrayal of the character became popular and iconic.
However, while Wolverine is famously capable of quickly recovering from practically any injury (even the film version of the character has enough healing factor to shrug off bullet wounds), Hugh himself is not so lucky, and this role resulted in permanent damage to his body.
Usually the main threats to an actor's health on set are traumas he might get while performing stunts without a stunt double (as many actions actors do, when possible).
But playing Wolverine represented a rather unique challenge. Wolverine's animalistic growling and propensity to yell at the top of his lungs happened to be not really meant for a normal human's throat.
So, as Hugh revealed on BBC's radio show Front Row, playing Wolverine resulted in permanent damage to his vocal cords:
"I've done some damage to my voice with Wolverine. My falsetto is not as strong as it used to be and that I directly put down to some of the growling and yelling. My vocal teacher in drama school would've been horrified with some of the things I did [as Wolverine]."
He went on to explain:
"We learned a technique [in school] of how to shout and how to yell without ruining your voice. However, during Wolverine, I did some screaming and yelling and things that I think did damage to my voice."
Despite these problems, Hugh Jackman loved and apparently still loves playing Wolverine. While his last appearance on the big screen in this role has been Logan (2017), he will return as the legendary mutant in Ryan Reynold's Deadpool 3, which is scheduled to hit the theatres on November 8, 2024.
As this film is still in the early stages of production, not much is known about it.
And most of what we do know is encapsulated in its storyline teaser:
"A weary Wolverine finds himself recovering from his injuries when he comes across a loudmouth Deadpool who has time travelled forward to heal his greatest pal in the hopes to befriend the wild beast and to team up to take down a foe they both have in common."