Fresh off his appearance in Guy Ritchie’s “The Gentleman” Netflix spin-off series (read our review), actor Vinnie Jones is opening up about his “disappointing” turn as the Juggernaut in Brett Ratner’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Additionally, the actor reveals he turned down a role to appear in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which he suggests was money related, but describes it as a “budget” problem.
“Funnily enough, I just got asked to do Deadpool, the new one now, and I spoke to the director, and I just said, ‘It’s such a drama putting that suit on, you know, mentally and physically.’ I mean, it had its mental toll as well because you’re in it, and you can’t do anything all day; you can only drink through a straw. So we couldn’t strike the deal for Deadpool [& Wolverine],’” Jones explained in a Yahoo UK interview. However, it sounds like he really wanted to do it, and money may have been an issue. “But Deadpool’s my favorite movie of all f*ckin time more or less,” he added. “I really wanted to do it, but they didn’t have the budget to put me in the suit.”
READ MORE: ‘Deadpool 2’ Director Describes Process Of Bringing Juggernaut Back To The Big Screen
For additional context, it sounds like Jones had a miserable experience on “X-Men: Last Stand,” and if he was going to reprise the role, he wasn’t about to do it for the price of a song.
Jones described the “X-Men” experience as a “shambles,” explaining that Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class”) was supposed to be the director and then “he bailed,” ringing up Jones and telling him he wasn’t doing the movie.
Filmmaker Brett Ratner signed on in his place, but “it was not the same as the same role that I signed on to do,” he said, explaining that in Ratner’s version, his role was reduced to a small cameo with no lines. “Mine was the role that got diluted, the Juggernaut, just diluted; I lost all interest quite early, I was very upset, and became an extra [essentially]; that’s what happened.”
To add further insult to injury, filming wrapped, and then a disgruntled Jones received a call from Brett Ratner to do a day’s reshoot of one scene: the “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch” line, which Jones already knew was basically a dumb online meme.
The “line, he saw it online,” he said about the early meme that Ratner aped for the movie. “I was quite disappointed in that.”
Jones recalled his experience of reading the new script and realizing his role was reduced to nothing. “Where is my dialogue? Where’s the storyline?” he recalled thinking at the time. “And Brett had different directors directing, and he would sit there in a big chair as the big director, and for me, it was a shambles.”
“But it was when it came out that I was very upset with [that] X-Men’ [movie]… I got dumped on, really.”
Given the terrible experience,—and Jones suggested that putting on the Juggernaut suit was an entire to-do ordeal—maybe it’s no wonder he didn’t do a cameo at what sounds like might have been a bargain basement price. Check out the full interview below and cross off one “X-Men” cameo on your “Deadpool & Wolverine” bingo card (Oh, well, there’s always the CGI version from “Deadpool 2,” right?)