Hugh Jackman spent more than a decade being our Wolverine, but the actor recently revealed how the role was only offered to him indirectly because of Tom Cruise.

For those who don’t know, the role of Wolverine was first offered to Dougray Scott. But during the time Scott bagged Wolverine, he was busy shooting Mission Impossible 2 with Tom Cruise. He was supposed to immediately jump into shooting X-Men, but was unable to do so because of MI’s shooting delays. 20th Century Fox didn’t want to wait any longer, and decided to cast Jackman instead.

“The shoot has gone longer than expected, and Scott lost a few days with a shoulder injury,” a Variety report from 2000 said. Director Bryan Singer even pushed Scott’s scenes to buy more time, but that didn’t work out. The report continued, “Even though X-Men had begun production late last month, Fox was holding out hope until the last minute that Paramount would be able to give a stop date for Scott on M:I:2 so he could join the cast in Toronto this week. In the whirlwind casting change, Jackman’s deal was finalized late last week so he could be fitted for his claws over the weekend. He will begin rehearsals and action choreography today.”

In an interview to the Daily Telegraph, Scott put the blame squarely on Tom Cruise. “Tom Cruise didn’t let me do it,” he said. “We were doing Mission: Impossible and he was like, ‘You’ve got to stay and finish the film’ and I said I will, but I’ll go and do that as well. For whatever reason he said I couldn’t. He was a very powerful guy. Other people were doing everything to make it work.”

In an interview to The Daily Beast, Jackman said he’d auditioned for the part, but was offered it a full nine months later. “I actually got the part nine months after I’d first auditioned for it. I only went back and auditioned again after Dougray got caught up on Mission: Impossible II, so I had no idea who was going for it nor did I expect to get it,” he said.

Scott has vocally claimed he has no hard feelings against Jackman. “I love what Hugh did with it,” he said. “He’s a lovely guy.”