Janet Jackson was (almost) a part of a mutant nation, reflects on being asked to play Storm in “X-Men”

The part ultimately went to Halle Berry and a series of unfortunate wigs.

Her name's not baby, but it coulda been Ororo. Ms. Munroe, if you're nasty.

Janet Jackson blessed the set of The Drew Barrymore Show recently, where she discussed one famous — albeit, insultingly underwritten — role that got away: playing Storm in the 2000 film X-Men.

Drew Barrymore's cohost Ross Mathews mistakenly thought Jackson was almost in The Matrix (that was Janet's late heir apparent Aaliyah), but the pop diva corrects him...sorta. She can't actually remember the name of the film she was supposed to be in, only that "Halle Berry played Storm."

"X-Men?!" Barrymore gasps.

"But I couldn't," accept the part, Jackson recalled, "because I was just embarking on the Janet tour."

On the one hand, Janet as Storm makes all the sense in the world. A goddess who dances on the wind? Check and check. But, considering how dirty all the X-Men movies did Storm — even lying to Berry to get her to sign on to X3 — it might have been for the best.

Still, it would've been nothing short of amazing to hear Janet whisper that all-time worst line, "Do you know what happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else." Followed by a 10-minute dance break because you're not getting Janet Jackson c. 2000 without ponying up some cinematic real estate.

Not in that high-end diva economy.

Janet Jackson's interview on The Drew Barrymore Show airs Friday.

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Related content:

• No one does Storm quite like the animated X-Men

• Matthew Vaughn says Halle Berry was tricked into X-Men: The Last Stand with fake Storm script

• 30 years ago Janet Jackson's Janet album reinvented the modern pop diva
  

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