Hugh Jackman is now famous for bringing X-Men icon Wolverine to life for the X-Men movies franchise, but that wasn’t always the case. Jackman just filmed his final performance as Wolverine for the upcoming movie Logan. Now that his 18-year-long journey is over, Jackman is opening up a bit about how he struggle with the role of Wolverine.

Jackman tells E! News that getting into character for the original X-Men movie wasn’t easy.

“I was kind of struggling, to be honest,” Jackman said. “It was the first movie I had ever done in America. I was pretty tight. I was nervous. I was average, to be honest, at best. No one was saying anything and I sort of thought I was getting away with it, but I wasn’t.”

It took a little tough love from studio executive Tom Rothman to get Jackman back on track.

“He told me that he believed in me, that from the moment he’d seen my tape he had a gut feeling I was the guy, but watching my dailies was like watching someone put a lampshade over a light,” Jackman admitted.

That was probably a tough pill for Jackman to swallow, but it seems Rothman was right to believe in Jackman. Once Jackman got over that initial struggle, he came to own the role of Wolverine over eight films and became an icon of superhero cinema.

Logan takes place in the year 2029, where mutant births have become extremely rare. The defenders of mutant kind, the X-Men, are long gone, and the only remains of them are an old and struggling Charles Xavier and a weary Logan. Logan’s vaunted healing factor has slowed, and at times doesn’t seem to work at all. When a young mutant needs his help, Logan has to unsheathe his claws once more. His job isn’t over yet.

Logan stars Hugh Jackman (Logan), Boyd Holbrook (Donald Pierce), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier), Dafne Keen (Laura Kinney/X-23), Doris Morgado (Maria), Stephen Merchant (Caliban), Elizabeth Rodriguez (Gabriela), and Richard E. Grant (Dr. Zander Rice). James Mangold is directing and helped on the screenplay along with Scott Frank and Michael Green.

Logan hits theaters on March 3, 2017.

Hugh Jackman Admits To Early Struggles Playing Wolverine