Hugh Jackman Took a Pay Cut to Make Sure His Final Wolverine Movie Got an R Rating

Hugh Jackman is a nice guy, so nice that he took a pay cut to make sure 'Logan' was rated R.

December 12, 2016

Not Available Lead — Image via Complex Original

Now here's a generous gesture that could surely teach us all a big lesson. Want your movie to be violent, filthy, and generally awesome? You're gonna need at least an R rating, something we're thankfully getting with next year's Logan. To make sure that his final Wolverine film secured that (presumably hard) R, Hugh Jackman did the unthinkable: Dude took a pay cut.

Ain't It Cool News' Eric Vespe tweeted updates from this weekend's Butt-Numb-A-Thon film marathon, which gifted attendees with 40 minutes of Logan months ahead of its release:

According to Vespe, the movie leaves behind the "cartoony" vibes of Bryan Singer's X-Men films and is loaded with cool words like "fuck" and whatnot.

Director James Mangold, who was in attendance for the Logan tease, revealed that Jackman agreed to make less guap for the movie to make sure those aforementioned "fucks" and other R-rated stuff were allowed:

Let's raise a ~~glass~~ blunt to Jackman for that one, as agreeing to take a cut in his pay probably eased any (annoying) studio fears about an R-rated X-Men movie somehow not totally dominating the box office. Speaking with Empire back in October, Mangold explained his decision to hit us with Johnny Cash's Nine Inch Nails cover "Hurt" in the film's first trailer:

"Obviously I have a connection and a fondness for Johnny Cash, and his tone and his message and his music," Mangold said. "But the real driver in all these decisions is trying to separate ourselves, in an accurate way, from the other superhero movies. We think we're going to deliver something a little different and we want to make sure we're selling audiences on the difference."

See Wolverine's empire of dirt when Logan hits theaters Mar. 3, 2017.