Quick summary
- Hugh Jackman said in a 2009 interview with Female that he expected the 2006 film The Fountain to do more for his career than X-Men.
- Far Out Magazine revisited the remark on 3 November 2026.
- According to Far Out, The Fountain flopped at the box office and divided critics.
- X-Men became a franchise that ran for roughly two decades, with Jackman as Wolverine.
Hugh Jackman once bet that The Fountain, not X-Men, would make him a bigger star. He was wrong, and he has been open about it. Far Out Magazine revisited the Australian actor’s remark this week, drawing on a 2009 interview with Female in which he looked back on the 2006 sci-fi romance directed by Darren Aronofsky.
What Hugh Jackman said about The Fountain
In that 2009 interview, Jackman described how unpredictable a career can be. “Some things work out for you; some things don’t work out for you,” he said, according to Far Out. He added that he had been in films he was proud of that “kind of come and gone.”
He named Aronofsky’s film directly. “If I was a betting man, I would have thought something like The Fountain would have done more for my career than when I first did X-Men,” he said.
That is a striking admission from an actor whose name is now tied to Wolverine. It also shows how much faith he had in the project at the time.
Why The Fountain did not land
Far Out’s account of the film is blunt. The outlet writes that Jackman was sure the film had the visuals, emotional weight and big ideas to be both a critical and commercial hit, and perhaps an awards contender. Instead, it says, the film struggled at the box office and left critics baffled.
The story spans several eras, and Jackman plays a conquistador, a scientist and a bald traveller crossing the universe in a space bubble. Far Out calls it a pretentious “important film” in the eyes of the few people who paid to see it. That is the outlet’s opinion, not a settled verdict, and the film has its admirers. The article does not give box office figures, so none are quoted here.
Why nobody saw X-Men coming
The comparison looks odd today, but Far Out points out that expectations for X-Men were low. Before Bryan Singer’s 2000 film, mainstream audiences knew little about the characters. Superhero films were seen as a risky bet after the failure of 1997’s Batman & Robin.
Jackman recalled that people close to him urged him to line up another job before the film came out. “Nobody knew what would happen with the series,” he said. Some advised him to use the role as leverage, because word was that the film would not do well.
It did far better than that. According to Far Out, X-Men launched a franchise that lasted about two decades and made Jackman synonymous with the clawed hero. He also went on to become an Academy Award nominee, though the outlet notes that The Fountain was not the reason.
The lesson the industry keeps relearning
Far Out ends with a line from screenwriter William Goldman, who wrote in Adventures in the Screen Trade that nobody in film knows for certain what will work. Studios test films heavily, the outlet notes, yet few people in the business claim they can predict a hit.
Readers who want more on the actor can browse everything we publish about Hugh Jackman, including our look at another sci-fi flop, Chappie, revisited and the news that The Wolverine lands on HBO Max. More film coverage sits in our Movies section.
What happens next
This is a retrospective, so there is no new project or announcement attached to it. Jackman has not commented on the Far Out piece, and the quotes come from an interview that is more than 15 years old. Any new remarks from him on his career choices would be reported here.
Frequently asked questions
What did Hugh Jackman say about The Fountain?
In a 2009 Female interview, he said he would have expected The Fountain to do more for his career than X-Men did. He called it one of the films he was proud of that “came and gone.”
Who directed The Fountain?
Darren Aronofsky directed the 2006 sci-fi romance, according to Far Out Magazine. Jackman played several roles across different time periods.
Did The Fountain succeed at the box office?
According to Far Out Magazine, no. It says the film failed commercially and puzzled critics. The article gives no figures.
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