HUGH JACKMAN WOLVERINE

HUGH JACKMAN almost missed out on the chance to play WOLVERINE in the original X-MEN movie - because he had to audition with a perm.

The Aussie star reveals he tried out for the action man role nine months before filming started - and was initially passed over for Brit Dougray Scott. And he thinks his hair put the casting director off. He explains, "I was doing a musical in London at the time, playing Curly in Oklahoma - so I had a perm in my hair.

"So I put the hat on to do the audition and about halfway through, the casting director was like, 'That was great, could you do one without the hat? I can't really see Wolverine wearing a baseball cap.'

"I took it off and I read about two lines and she goes, 'Cut, put the hat on - now'"

But fortune came Jackman's way when filming on Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible film overran and Scott was contracted to complete that film first. Producers couldn't wait and so Jackman re-auditioned - four days after X-Men began shooting in 1999.

Ten years later, the Aussie has played the claw-handed mutant in four movies, including the forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine