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Have you ever left a job interview convinced that you bombed it? That’s what happened to Dafne Keen, but she took matters into her own hands. She marched back into the office and asked to do it again.

This is even more impressive when you remember that she was 11-years-old, and the job interview in question was an audition to play X-23, Wolverine’s “daughter,” for the film Logan.

“The audition process was long. I did like five different self-tapes,” Keen recalls during a panel at Calgary Expo 2025. “I sent in really weird self-tapes. Like, my parents and I got really excited about it, so we just kept choreographing stunts before the scene. I would flip into the scene and I would start doing my lines, so I think the director probably thought, ‘Who the fuck is this kid? She seems interesting.’ I was just having fun. It wasn’t strategic.”

However, when it came time to audition in person, Keen was overcome with imposter syndrome.

“The last audition was in person, and it was just me and another actress, who is lovely. We love her. I went into the audition. I did a terrible audition, it was atrocious. It was really really bad because I got nervous because I saw the other actress, and I was like, ‘Oh, she’s fantastic in everything she does. I’m going to kill myself.’”

Keen wasn’t going to let things end that way. Like the character Laura, she was determined, so she marched back in there asking for another chance, even if it meant keeping Hugh Jackman waiting.

“On my way out I was like, ‘I’ve got to do it again.’ And I asked my mom to ask them, and they made Mr. Hugh Jackman wait, which is crazy. I would never do that now as a 20-year-old, but when you’re 11 you have the confidence. It’s insane. Right now, I’d be terrified.”

Not only did she go back and audition again, but she told the casting agents that the script was wrong.

“I went in there and I was like, ‘First of all, the Spanish in the script is incorrect.’ I corrected it, and I was like, ‘This is the correct version of it, and also, can I improv.’ James Mangold was like, ‘Sure.’ And then I booked it.”

If you’re curious, 20^th Century Studios has the audition tape on their YouTube channel. Watching it, it’s clear why Keen was cast. The young actress is a fireball of energy and is able to take control when she’s sitting next to none other than Hugh Jackman.

If that’s not X-23, then I don’t know who is.

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