Looking back at the prep that went into past roles, Hugh says he always chose to do things naturally and never turned to steroids.
Even for his role as Wolverine, where he constantly had to pack on pounds of muscle, Hugh chose to do things the “old school” way.
“I love my job. And I love Wolverine. I got to be careful what I say here, but I had been told anecdotally what the side effects are of that,” Hugh shared on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?
He continued, “I was like, ‘I don’t love it that much.’ So, no, I just did it the old-school way.”
Hugh also joked about his diet while getting ready to play Wolverine on the big screen, admitting that he ate a whole lot of chicken.
“I tell you, I’ve eaten more chickens — I’m so sorry to all the vegans and vegetarians and to the chickens of the world,” he said. “Literally, the karma is not good for me. If the deity has anything related to chickens, I’m in trouble.”
And while Hugh was able to bulk up to play the part, there was actually one physical trait that almost cost him the role.
Hugh explained that during the audition process, producer Tom DeSanto expressed concern that Hugh was too tall for the role, which was expected to be played by someone about 5 feet 5.
“We were talking, and he said, ‘You know, it’s just one problem. I hope the fans are not going to have a problem, because the character is meant to be 5 feet 5,'” Hugh shared. “And I said, ‘Tom. Really, it’s going to be absolutely fine. Don’t worry about it, thank you.'”
Hugh ended up landing the part — and says he spent the majority of the first film crouching down while his castmates stood on boxes!
