Russell Crowe, who has starred in films such as Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, is said to have turned down the role of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy after a tense meeting with director Peter Jackson.

The Oscar winner explained why he turned down the blockbuster trilogy, which would have paid him a fortune, in a recent interview with Howard Stern to promote his Showtime Roger Ailes miniseries The Loudest Voice.

Stern inquired if it was true that he would have received 10% of the backend gross, which would have been roughly $100 million. “Never thought about it — only in situations like interviews where people are polite and kind enough to add shit up for me,” the actor joked.

Crowe recounted to Stern how he came to decline the part. The actor remembered, “I didn’t think Peter Jackson wanted me on that film. Because he was forced into talking to me, because there was a moment in time when everyone wanted me in everything.”

Crowe said that as a fellow New Zealander, he could tell by Jackson’s voice that the director didn’t want him to play the character.

Crowe recounted, “I am talking to him on the phone, it is like, I don’t think he even knows what I’ve done.”

“I just knew that my instinct was that he had somebody else in mind, which turned out to be Viggo, and he should be allowed to hire the actor who he wants.”

Stern double-checked that he understood, asking whether he meant that Jackson’s studio, Warner Bros., was pressuring him to award the part to Crowe. That was confirmed by the actor.

After that, Stern brought up Crowe’s refusal to play Wolverine in the X-Men films, to which Crowe responded that Hugh Jackman done a “brilliant” job. “There’s no way I would have ever done that. Even if I had done the film, I wouldn’t have carried it through with the grace and the direction that Hugh gave it.”

Crowe has a long list of great films to his credit, including Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, and Les Miserables.

The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy included The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

Crowe will next be seen in The True History of the Kelly Gang later this year, following his appearance in Boy Erased last year.