Before ‘Stranger Things’ turned her into a global star, Millie Bobby Brown came close to landing a major role in one of the X-Men franchise’s most acclaimed films. The actress has revealed that she auditioned for Laura Kinney, also known as X-23, in James Mangold’s ‘Logan’, screen-testing opposite Hugh Jackman when she was around 11 or 12 years old.
Although Brown now looks back on the experience as one of the best auditions of her career, she admitted she walked out of the room convinced she hadn’t gotten the part. The role ultimately went to Dafne Keen, whose performance in the 2017 film became one of the most celebrated parts of ‘Logan’ and the wider X-Men universe.
Millie Bobby Brown Called Her ‘Logan’ Test One Of Her Best Auditions
Brown has spoken about the audition on more than one occasion, including during a 2017 Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Evan Rachel Wood, where she described the ‘Logan’ test as her “best audition.” She explained that she prepared intensely beforehand and still remembers how surreal it felt to perform in front of Mangold while doing a scene opposite Jackman.
“It meant so much to me. I was filming Stranger Things, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be amazing, I’m gonna really prepare,’ and I sat in my room reading the lines,” Brown said. “And honestly, for me, I felt so… I felt an actor, in the audition room, hitting Hugh Jackman, and [director] James Mangold sitting right in front of me. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ It was the best audition.”
Despite feeling proud of the work she did, Brown later admitted she left believing the role had slipped away. While promoting ‘Enola Holmes’ in 2020, she recalled feeling “broken” after the audition and said she had a strong sense that someone else had simply done it better.
That actor was Dafne Keen, who went on to earn widespread acclaim for her fierce performance as X-23 in ‘Logan’. Brown has since been gracious about missing out on the role, saying Keen was “incredible” in the film. In hindsight, the casting worked out well for both young actors: Keen made the role her own, while Brown was free to fully break out as Eleven in ‘Stranger Things’.
Jackman, meanwhile, has long remembered Keen’s audition vividly. He has previously recounted how the young actress left him bruised during their 2017 screen test, recalling a moment in which she punched him hard enough to leave marks on his arm. “I’ve never gone home with bruises,” Jackman said. “There’s a scene where she punches me in the arm and I went home and I had bruises all over my arm.”