She was 11 years old. A child actor at a Hollywood wrap party, the celebration thrown when filming ends.
And someone offered her cocaine.
Not once. It kept happening, at 11, at 12, at 13.
That child was Dafne Keen, the Spanish-British actress who stole scenes as Laura, also known as X-23, opposite Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in 2017's Logan. Now 21, she's opening up about what growing up in Hollywood really looked like.
"I Was Getting Offered Coke at Wrap Parties"
Keen made the revelation on the November 3 episode of Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast. She was explaining why she has never been interested in drinking or drugs when she said it plainly: "I was getting offered coke at wrap parties."
Rosenbaum asked how old she was at the time. Keen said she was tiny, around 11, 12, and 13.
She said no every time.
Keen didn't name the productions behind those parties or say who made the offers. But she said that seeing so much of that behavior as a kid is exactly why she wanted nothing to do with it. She has never even been drunk enough to have a hangover.
The Clever Trick She Used to Stay Sober
Keen still loves going to parties for the music, the dancing, and the people. She just prefers to do it completely sober.
As a teenager, she came up with a smart way to dodge peer pressure. When someone offered her a drink, she would politely say no and claim she had already taken something, when in reality she was totally sober. She jokingly described herself as "the goodest goody-two-shoes ever."
For a kid surrounded by adults who should have known better, it's a remarkable amount of self-control.
The Wolverine Who Had Her Back
But Keen's story isn't only about what went wrong. It's also about the person who got it right.
Keen was cast in Logan at just 11. Her audition tape with Hugh Jackman later went viral, and she reportedly punched him so convincingly during the screen test that she left bruises on his arm.
Once filming began, Jackman became much more than her co-star. Keen said he gave her "a lot of really positive reinforcement" and plenty of good advice, and that he truly felt like a parental figure.
He made sure no one was abusing her working hours. He checked that she was actually having fun on set. And he kept her shielded from any tensions happening behind the scenes, so she could just be a kid doing something she loved.
"He was so incredibly protective and amazing," Keen said.
Still in His Corner, Years Later
Jackman's support didn't stop when the cameras did. Back in 2017, when asked who could someday take over as Wolverine, he pointed straight at his 11-year-old co-star and said she could "absolutely frickin' nail it."
Seven years later, the two reunited when Keen reprised her role as Laura in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine. She has since gone on to star in His Dark Materials and Star Wars: The Acolyte.
Hollywood can be a rough place to grow up, and Keen's story about those wrap parties is a reminder of how true that is. But it also shows what one decent adult can do. For one little girl on one very big movie set, Hugh Jackman made sure she felt safe.
Sometimes the biggest stars really are the good guys.
