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The Prestige to open in Aussie cinemas
10:00 AM November 15
British movie stars Michael Caine and Christian Bale are sitting in a Los Angeles hotel analysing Hugh Jackman, their co-star in the new Hollywood thriller, The Prestige.
"He's annoying," says two-time Oscar winner Caine, with the hint of a smile.
Christian Bale agrees.
"The bastard has got to be hiding something," says the 32-year-old Welshman.
The irritation is feigned, but they are racking their brains to find a flaw in the Australian actor who won a Tony Award for the Broadway run of The Boy from Oz and has been mentioned as an Oscar candidate for The Prestige.
"He can do everything," said 73-year-old Caine, a good judge of fellow actors after a career of more than 90 movies continues.
"He can sing and dance and he's got this great, fit body."
Bale, regarded as one of Hollywood's top young actors for roles including 2004's The Machinist, where he rapidly lost 30kg to play an insomniac, scratches his head.
The smiling, courteous, good guy Jackman the world has come to know is the real deal, Bale says.
Jackman's picture perfect life goes like this.
He celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with Australian actress wife Deborra-Lee Furness in April and he has two children, six-year-old son Oscar and one-year-old daughter, Ava.
On the career front, Jackman has four major films hitting cinemas over the next few weeks - The Prestige, The Fountain, Flushed Away and Happy Feet - and has at least seven upcoming film projects, including the much anticipated X-Men spinoff, Wolverine, and the untitled Australian epic with Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann.
He also just returned from Australia where he packed some of nation's largest stadiums with The Boy from Oz stage show.
Jackman is 189cm tall and has the abdominal muscles of an ironman.
It must have gone to Jackman's head ... right?
"Honestly, I don't have anything bad to say about him," Bale, who revived the Batman franchise last year by giving Bruce Wayne some substance, said.
"He's straightforward, easy going, easy to work with, a good guy.
"He really is."
When Jackman hears what his co-stars had to say about him he laughs and appears slightly embarrassed.
"That's very kind," Jackman, 38, smiles.
But, is it true?
"Nobody is perfect," Jackman offers, before bracing himself for the obvious question.
What is Hugh Jackman not good at?
"I'm not good at fixing things around the house," Jackman offers.
"I'm hopeless at it.
"I'm hopeless with tools.
"My wife, Deb, has to do any repair work."
So, that's as bad as it gets - Hugh Jackman is no Jamie Durie or Tim the Tool Man.
Perhaps the only dark side the public will see from Jackman will be in the not so nice characters he portrays on film or stage.
In The Prestige, Jackman's character, magician Robert Angier, has a nasty, obsessive streak.
Set in London in the 1890s, Angier goes head-to-head with the equally ambitious magician Alfred Borden (Bale), with each showman attempting to outdo the other with new, more elaborate tricks.
The duel gets downright vicious and, without giving away too much, blood is spilled.
"Magicians back in the Victorian era were the rock stars of their time," Jackman said.
When Jackman heard another Brit, Christopher Nolan, who directed Guy Pearce in the critically-acclaimed independent thriller, Memento, would direct The Prestige, he did not need much convincing to sign on.
Jackman was in Vancouver, Canada, shooting X-Men: The Last Stand, but quickly hopped on a plane to California.
"My agent said 'Chris Nolan is doing a new film'," Jackman recalled.
"I said 'I'm doing it'.
"My agent said, 'Well, let me send you the script'.
"I loved it and I flew down from X-Men 3 to meet Chris because I was fascinated by the story.
"It was definitely a story that required you to use your brain.
"I thought it was brilliantly conceived and I loved the backdrop of the world of magic and that era."
Nolan knew Jackman would make the perfect Robert Angier, despite the apparent lack of a ruthless, mean streak in the Aussie actor.
Angier is a showman, while his rival, Bale's Borden, is a less flashier magician. Many scenes required Jackman and Bale to perform magic on stage in front of hundreds of extras.
Nolan never saw Jackman in The Boy from Oz, but he had talked to numerous friends, including Caine, who had been to Jackman's Tony-winning show and raved about his stage presence.
"Hugh is wonderfully comfortable on stage," Nolan said.
"You could see it by the way he moved and the way he simply controls the audience.
"It was exactly what the character needed."
Caine's eyes light up like a kid who has just come face to face with Santa Claus when he recalls the night he sat in the audience on Broadway and watched Jackman channel Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.
"Did you ever see The Boy from Oz?," Caine asks.
"I thought it was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen on stage. Hugh completely held an audience on his own.
"I'd heard about his performance so that's why we went to see him.
"You wouldn't have expected it.
"If a movie star went on stage, you don't expect them to give one of the greatest performances of all time, but that's what Hugh did."
The Prestige opens in Australian theatres on Thursday.
10:00 AM November 15
British movie stars Michael Caine and Christian Bale are sitting in a Los Angeles hotel analysing Hugh Jackman, their co-star in the new Hollywood thriller, The Prestige.
"He's annoying," says two-time Oscar winner Caine, with the hint of a smile.
Christian Bale agrees.
"The bastard has got to be hiding something," says the 32-year-old Welshman.
The irritation is feigned, but they are racking their brains to find a flaw in the Australian actor who won a Tony Award for the Broadway run of The Boy from Oz and has been mentioned as an Oscar candidate for The Prestige.
"He can do everything," said 73-year-old Caine, a good judge of fellow actors after a career of more than 90 movies continues.
"He can sing and dance and he's got this great, fit body."
Bale, regarded as one of Hollywood's top young actors for roles including 2004's The Machinist, where he rapidly lost 30kg to play an insomniac, scratches his head.
The smiling, courteous, good guy Jackman the world has come to know is the real deal, Bale says.
Jackman's picture perfect life goes like this.
He celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with Australian actress wife Deborra-Lee Furness in April and he has two children, six-year-old son Oscar and one-year-old daughter, Ava.
On the career front, Jackman has four major films hitting cinemas over the next few weeks - The Prestige, The Fountain, Flushed Away and Happy Feet - and has at least seven upcoming film projects, including the much anticipated X-Men spinoff, Wolverine, and the untitled Australian epic with Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann.
He also just returned from Australia where he packed some of nation's largest stadiums with The Boy from Oz stage show.
Jackman is 189cm tall and has the abdominal muscles of an ironman.
It must have gone to Jackman's head ... right?
"Honestly, I don't have anything bad to say about him," Bale, who revived the Batman franchise last year by giving Bruce Wayne some substance, said.
"He's straightforward, easy going, easy to work with, a good guy.
"He really is."
When Jackman hears what his co-stars had to say about him he laughs and appears slightly embarrassed.
"That's very kind," Jackman, 38, smiles.
But, is it true?
"Nobody is perfect," Jackman offers, before bracing himself for the obvious question.
What is Hugh Jackman not good at?
"I'm not good at fixing things around the house," Jackman offers.
"I'm hopeless at it.
"I'm hopeless with tools.
"My wife, Deb, has to do any repair work."
So, that's as bad as it gets - Hugh Jackman is no Jamie Durie or Tim the Tool Man.
Perhaps the only dark side the public will see from Jackman will be in the not so nice characters he portrays on film or stage.
In The Prestige, Jackman's character, magician Robert Angier, has a nasty, obsessive streak.
Set in London in the 1890s, Angier goes head-to-head with the equally ambitious magician Alfred Borden (Bale), with each showman attempting to outdo the other with new, more elaborate tricks.
The duel gets downright vicious and, without giving away too much, blood is spilled.
"Magicians back in the Victorian era were the rock stars of their time," Jackman said.
When Jackman heard another Brit, Christopher Nolan, who directed Guy Pearce in the critically-acclaimed independent thriller, Memento, would direct The Prestige, he did not need much convincing to sign on.
Jackman was in Vancouver, Canada, shooting X-Men: The Last Stand, but quickly hopped on a plane to California.
"My agent said 'Chris Nolan is doing a new film'," Jackman recalled.
"I said 'I'm doing it'.
"My agent said, 'Well, let me send you the script'.
"I loved it and I flew down from X-Men 3 to meet Chris because I was fascinated by the story.
"It was definitely a story that required you to use your brain.
"I thought it was brilliantly conceived and I loved the backdrop of the world of magic and that era."
Nolan knew Jackman would make the perfect Robert Angier, despite the apparent lack of a ruthless, mean streak in the Aussie actor.
Angier is a showman, while his rival, Bale's Borden, is a less flashier magician. Many scenes required Jackman and Bale to perform magic on stage in front of hundreds of extras.
Nolan never saw Jackman in The Boy from Oz, but he had talked to numerous friends, including Caine, who had been to Jackman's Tony-winning show and raved about his stage presence.
"Hugh is wonderfully comfortable on stage," Nolan said.
"You could see it by the way he moved and the way he simply controls the audience.
"It was exactly what the character needed."
Caine's eyes light up like a kid who has just come face to face with Santa Claus when he recalls the night he sat in the audience on Broadway and watched Jackman channel Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.
"Did you ever see The Boy from Oz?," Caine asks.
"I thought it was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen on stage. Hugh completely held an audience on his own.
"I'd heard about his performance so that's why we went to see him.
"You wouldn't have expected it.
"If a movie star went on stage, you don't expect them to give one of the greatest performances of all time, but that's what Hugh did."
The Prestige opens in Australian theatres on Thursday.
