AUSTRALIAN HUGH JACKMAN is best known for leading roles in films such as Kate & Leopold, Van Helsing, The Prestige, Australia, Real Steel, and Prisoners. His work on Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award. He is also a singer, dancer and actor in stage musicals, and won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. He has played the character of Logan/Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, and its spin-offs, since the very first instalment back in 2000. He reprises this iconic role in X-Men: Days of Future Past from director Bryan Singer…
Q: How did it feel having Bryan Singer back at the helm; he’s almost synonymous with this franchise?
A: Bryan did X-Men and X2, and not only were they successful and loved by the fans, but they also started a genre. I remember when we were shooting the first X-Men, there were a lot of people, a lot of nay-sayers, going, ‘That doesn’t work any more,’ but he had this really great idea of making it fun — spectacular but also making them very human and making the characters people you could really invest in and understand and relate to, even though they have super-human abilities. So it was a bold choice. And I think having him back as director after ten years was so great because the franchise has continued but this film was a challenge like we had not had before. It was a massive scale epic in every way and he understands that, but also he understands the humour and the emotion. He has done a brilliant job.
Q: Did Days of Future Past feel the most epic of all the X-Men films when you were making the movie?
A: Yes, it did have the biggest budget and in every way, especially storytelling-wise, it is the most epic. The danger is very real. From the moment the movie opens it’s spectacular and the stakes are higher than ever before. You feel real possibility of the extinction of mutants. That tension runs throughout the entire movie. It is epic in the size of the cast and the amount of storylines, the fact that you are doing a superhero movie, a time travel movie. All these things are very hard to hold in one hand and yet Bryan does it brilliantly.
Q: What are some of your favourite moments from across the X-Men franchise to date?
A: I would go back to the first one, the beginning of X-Men, that first ten minutes which lets you understand that all these mutants’ powers emanate from a traumatic experience in their life. It is the great dichotomy of life in general but particularly of mutants. Their power and their strength come out of adversity and it is all linked in. I love the opening of X2 with Nightcrawler in the White House. It is fantastic. And you can sense in the first five minutes of this movie a lot of the smarts and ingenuity. Also, I have a soft spot for The Wolverine, obviously, and I love the bullet train sequence so I will throw that one in there as well.
Q: What can you share about your forthcoming films, like Chappie from director Neill Blomkamp?
A: It is going to be in the world of District 9, that kind of size. It’s terrific and it’s got a lot of heart. It’s quite funny really. Sharlto [Copley] is voicing Chappie who is a robot and all his scenes are CGI. I did a number of scenes with him and he was wearing this grey suit walking around with all these dots all over it. He is fantastic. I think it is going to be really great.
Q: And you are playing the villain Blackbeard in the Joe Wright film Pan…
A: I am so excited about it and it’s a really fun character to play. The world that Joe is creating is massive and so unique. You know how brilliant Joe is visually, and with story and character. It is going to be really cool. If you imagine the man who made Anna Karenina and Atonement, he has a very unique style but you give him the palette of Neverland and wow! There really are no rules on Neverland. Well, there are but they are unique to Neverland. It fits him perfectly. The stuff I have seen already, pre-viz and storyboards, is so beautiful. I said that he should somehow publish these storyboards. They are incredible.
Q: Are you going to be playing Barnum? It seems a perfect role for you…
A: Well, we haven’t got an official green light on it yet, but Fox are very bullish about it. If all goes according to plan, the beginning of next year is when we start filming that.
Q: How do you find time for other things in life?
A: That’s a good point. I had a bit of a break actually after Days of Future Past. I have been two or three weeks on Chappie, but I really have had a little bit of downtime. The films we’ve just talked about have mapped out my next year. I have three jobs and it seems like I am incredibly busy but I probably have way more time off than you have. When I am not working, I try to be there to pick up the kids. The thing is when I am working I don’t know when I am going to be around or what time I am going to finish work. I may have to sleep in or there may be a night-shoot so the kids can’t really rely on me. So I try to be around in a very reliable way [when I am not working], so they know I am going to be at home and around most evenings, that I am going to pick them up. I can go to all their soccer games and gymnastic practices and things like that, because I can’t guarantee any of that normally.
Q: Do you travel back home when you are working in, for example, America?
A: Not any more. If I do movies I use whatever power I have to try to make them in the summer so the kids can be with me. The schools have a three-month summer holiday. That is a long period of time so you can actually shoot a movie and the family can be with me, although the kids are getting to that age where it’s, ‘I have got to go on set, really? I want to hang out with my friends instead!’ I am getting all that at the moment!
Q: What does your son, Oscar, think of his dad being Wolverine?
A: He never really thought of it as a cool thing, really. It is a weird thing because he has grown up in that world. He was born during X-Men so he is almost 14 and hey, I have heard him say to a girl, ‘My dad is Wolverine.’ So he will use it sometimes. It is a weird thing knowing you are the wingman for your kid, signing autographs for girls on the beach! He just wants me to be his dad, though, really. He doesn’t like the attention that he gets from other people. Kids, particularly of that age, just want to be normal. Like me, I had an accountant dad. I don’t remember anyone asking what my dad for a living. I think for kids, parents are embarrassing. When everyone is talking about your parents, it’s even worse.
Q: If your kids wanted to become actors would you encourage them?
A: Yes. My dad sent me to a private school and most people went on to finance, politics or law, one of those sorts of things. But my dad always wanted me to do what I wanted. He loved being an accountant. He always loved his job and never missed a day of work. So he always wanted that for us, that we were doing the thing that we loved. When I told him I was thinking about becoming an actor he actually said, ‘I think that is a good choice. I think you have talent. But I have one worry: you are too thin skinned.’
Q: Being thin-skinned might be good for an actor: it allows you to empathise more easily with the characters you’re bringing to life…
A: The number one most important thing for an actor is imagination. Sensitivity is important because acting is about listening and tuning into other people and your library is people — so if you are the kind of person who doesn’t care a hoot about anyone else, and is not sensitive, not tuned in, doesn’t listen, then you are going to find it a hard road. But, at the same point, there is a lot of rejection. Never look at the comments about yourself online. Trust me, that is a rookie error right there! So being thin-skinned does have some drawbacks.
Q: What does playing Wolverine mean to you?
A: A lot. He is the foundation of my career, really. X-Men was the first film I ever did in America and it made me a household name and gave me a profile where studios were more interested in using me than directors were. Often, it happens the other way round. In fact, when I was in Australia it was directors who wanted to work with me but the money-people were like, ‘We don’t know who this guy is so you can’t use him.’ My first American film was a big hit and it was kind of a classical leading man role so I had good will from studios and then it took a little longer to get the offers from directors but it’s all good now.
Q: Did that bother you at the time — that Hollywood directors took longer to warm to you?
A: If I could have looked ahead and known I’d have the type of career where I can do Prisoners, I can do a play or host the Oscars or do Les Miserables, as well as Wolverine, then this is as good as I thought it would get. I have variety and it hasn’t held me back or pigeonholed me. I know in the past that actors have said playing James Bond pigeonholes them. This role hasn’t done that to me and I am really, really grateful. I have had a number of opportunities to show other things I can do. I have been quite conscious about trying to do stuff that is away from superhero stuff.
Q: What the greatest gift this job has given you?
A: I have always been a fan of learning. I love learning. If I weren’t an actor, I’d be the guy doing night courses and this class and that class. Every day I get to work with some unbelievable people and I am constantly learning. That’s the most rewarding thing.
