Whether he's playing a man-beast on screen or the nice gentleman from a century ago, Hugh Jackman makes fans go weak in the knees anyway. Angus Fontaine meets and interviews the 40-year-old Aussie for Sunday MiD DAY
Whether he's playing a man-beast on screen or the nice gentleman from a century ago, Hugh Jackman makes fans go weak in the knees anyway. Angus Fontaine meets and interviews the 40-year-old Aussie for Sunday MiD DAY
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Looking every inch the action hero, the 40-year-old flew in over a glittering Sydney Harbour hanging from the rail of a helicopter. He then leapt to earth, grabbed a flying fox trapeze and zoomed onto the set of a morning chat show and a new charm offensive began.Twenty-five years before, Hugh Jackman had scrubbed dirty dishes on ferries traversing the Harbour of his hometown. Now that same sparkling backdrop paled in comparison to the Sydney boy's celebrity as he unveiled X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the blockbuster he starred in and produced which detonates in cinemas in India next month.
Not even controversially leaked versions of a near-complete Wolverine on the Web can dim Jackman's sunny charisma today. "It's like buying a Ferrari without a paint job," he explains, flashing the high-wattage smile that weakens male and female knees. "You wouldn't take a picture of a bride at 8 am before she has her hair and makeup and dress on, would you?!"
But Jackman's joviality can't hide Wolverine's importance to him. After all, the first X Men film in 2000 where the 6-ft 3-inch Aussie was a last-minute replacement for Dougray Scott u2014 introduced him to Hollywood and kick-started his steep trajectory into the big time.
"I've played Logan/Wolverine for ten years now and because X Men was such a success, it opened up many opportunities for me as an actor. That's why Wolverine's very close to my heart."
Now, after a decade in which he's won an Emmy and a Tony for his theatre song and dance skills, been nominated for a Golden Globe for Kate & Leopold, hunted vampires in Van Helsing, been Woody Allen's muse in Scoop, a magic man in The Prestige and a hunky drover in Baz Luhrmann's Australia, Jackman is muscling his way into the Big Boys' Blockbuster Club.
"Wolverine reminds me of the characters I loved growing up: Mad Max, Dirty Harry, Han Solo reluctant heroes," Jackman told Sunday MiD DAY from a rundown warehouse on Cockatoo Island a former convict gaol turned movie set for Wolverine.
"Wolverine was the first anti-hero in comic books. He was out there, badass. There's something we love about that and that's why he transfers well to film, because there's a lot of mystery about him he's a character with a hidden past and a lot of intrigue and mystery surrounding him."
As producer, Jackman had a lot of say in casting and character development too. "I was adamant to everyone working on the film that this didn't look like X-Men 4 in disguise, He says. "I wanted this to look like, visually and stylistically and emotionally, a deviation."
XMO: Wolverine's story stretches back nearly 150 years, introducing multiple mutants of Team X. The film recreates four wars along the way, depicting brothers Logan (Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) fighting side-by-side in epic, historical battles. It gave Jackman the chance to fill in the mysterious blanks of his character's previously untold story. "It's always good to know where a person comes from, to understand who he is," he says.
Part of that is an even bigger, supremely beefier Wolverine. "I wanted him to look a little freaky," explains Jackman of his hairy, hulking, muscle-busting alter-ego. "I wanted people to be uncomfortable. I wanted Wolverine animalistic, with veins!"
Basing his physique on the menacing muscles of Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear, Jackman bulked up by following a strict regiment of egg whites washed down with protein shakes and 3:45 am wake-up calls so he could clock two hours at the gym before a 12-hour day on-set. Today, dressed all in black, he obligingly flexes the tennis ball-sized bicep bulges peeking out of his t-shirt for journalists.
In real life, Jackman is more puppy dog than Wolverine. Born the youngest of five kids to an accountant father and a mother who abandoned the family when he was eight, Hugh Michael Jackman is today married to actress Deborra-Lee Furness, father to Oscar, 9, and Ava, 4, and far from the angry man-beast on-screen.
In fact, to get into character, Jackman says he kick-started every morning with the coldest shower he could muster! "I'm not a particularly angry person, but when we're shooting from one o' clock in the morning on, it's very easy to get into character," he laughs. "Anyway, as an actor, it's easier to play someone a little bit further away from who you are than to be yourself."
That's what made hosting the cut-price Oscars telecast so fun. Not only did Jackman get to reveal himself as an all-singing, all-dancing host with the most, he got to play humble, funny nice-as-pie self. So will he accept an invitation to host again in 2010? "If I do, my first question will be, 'Is Beyonce doing it again?'" he laughs, "Because that was a bit of a highlight."
In between, Jackman is looking to take his triple-talent skills to India. "I love Bollywood! I'm always flirting with the idea of doing something like that a big Bolly movie musical." He'll get the chance later this year when he fulfils a lifelong dream to visit India.
"Both my wife and I have been obsessed with India and itching to go there," he says. "There are many, many things drawing me there. I've studied a lot of the philosophies, the food and the people and the culture is so unique. I'm a cricket lover too and I produced a TV show a while ago about my best friend following the Australian cricket team around the subcontinent. Watching hours and hours of amazing Indian street life and sports action, I was so turned on by it I got jealous I'd sent him not me!"
If Jackman had a mutant power, "I'd love to be teleport," he says. And where would he go? "Right now? India for dinner! I'm already dreaming about naan bread and curry!"
The writer is Editor-in-Chief, Time Out, Sydney
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