Daniel Radcliffe Denies Gaining Muscle Because of Wolverine Casting: ‘I Got Buff Because I Am Obsessive… No Wolverine’
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One year after telling fans he has no interest in playing Wolverine, Daniel Radcliffe is once again confronting rumors of a potential X-Men debut. This time, Radcliffe was asked by his “Merrily We Roll Along” musical co-stars Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez during a Vanity Fair lie detector test if it was Radclife himself who started the fan casting for the “Harry Potter” star to play Wolverine. Not true, he said.
While Radcliffe has downplayed rumors of playing Wolverine in the past, fans continue to look for signs that it’s true. Case in point: Radcliffe appeared in nothing but his underwear in the August series finale of his TBS comedy series “Miracle Workers,” and his muscular physique was enough to reignite rumors that he’s circling a Wolverine role.
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“No,” Radcliffe told Groff and Mendez. “Yes. I got buff because I am obsessive, and I want to… You’ve seen my parents, they’re like insane fitness people. So that’s just been passed on. But no. No Wolverine. Flattered, but no.”
Radcliffe told GQ magazine one year ago that any headline claiming he’s circling the role is “purely a press tour rumor.”
“I say something, and then occasionally I get bored of answering that way so I say something different, and that sets it off again,” Radcliffe said about his own part in fueling the Wolverine buzz. “I should just never open my mouth.”
Radcliffe added at the time, “I just don’t ever want to get locked into something that I am not sure I will be able to love the same amount the whole time.”
The actor also told Entertainment Weekly last year that the Wolverine rumors always surge because “Wolverine is short, so every so often they’re like, ‘Who’s a short actor?’ There’s never been any actual truth to it.” He added: “Every so often I get bored of answering the questions sensibly, so I just make a joke like I did the other day and that sort of has reignited the rumors of it, but there’s nothing going on.”
Wolverine is currently mounting a big screen comeback courtesy of Hugh Jackman, the actor who has played the comic book character on screen since 2000’s “X-Men.” Jackman’s Wolverine is headlining Marvel’s “Deadpool 3” alongside Ryan Reynolds in the title role.
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