narrows101
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This is more about AUSTRALIA than WOLVERINE, but that and X-Men it is mentioned so I thought I would post it. It a Hugh profile in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/movies/moviesspecial/07barnes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/movies/moviesspecial/07barnes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
A Wolverine Finds His Romantic Side
20th Century Fox
Hugh Jackman is a rugged drover wooing Nicole Kidman in the romance Australia.
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: September 4, 2008
HUGH JACKMAN is a big, macho movie star. Got it?
In talking up Mr. Jackman in advance of Australia, his coming romantic epic, three executives at 20th Century Fox all described the actor as a rough-hewn throwback to Hollywoods classic leading-man types, a young Clint Eastwood.
Baz Luhrmann, the director of Australia, which co-stars Nicole Kidman as an aristocratic cattle owner, also talked up Mr. Jackmans manliness. There are not many actors who have an ability to pick up a Nicole Kidman, throw her on the bed and ravish her with believability, Mr. Luhrmann said.
Perhaps feeling that description was not vivid enough, Mr. Luhrmann added, He is also excellent with a cattle whip.
Heres what Mr. Jackmans bosses and colleagues are trying to say: Mr. Jackman, 39, is on the verge of megastardom, the kind that comes with Oscar nominations and demands for script approval. But to join the short A-list of male movie stars he must move past all that girly singing and dancing stuff on his résumé.
In Hollywood, where typecasting remains very much a force, Mr. Jackman retains a slight stigma. Isnt he the guy who won a Tony Award for playing a flamboyant gay songwriter in The Boy From Oz on Broadway? Didnt he host the Tony Awards for three years running? And didnt he also produce and star in Viva Laughlin, that campy CBS musical series that bombed last year?
With Australia, which Fox plans to release on Nov. 26 in North America, Mr. Jackman will get the chance to prove that he can play a big-time romantic lead in a big-time movie. And with any luck, the film will be part of a one-two punch erasing any lingering worries about his ability to open a movie. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which he reprises his X-Men role as a hirsute mutant in need of a nail file, opens on May 1.
I think it will surprise people, Mr. Jackman said of his performance in Australia during an interview on the Fox lot. Im never that worried about positioning myself, and I dont like labels personally or professionally. But this is definitely the straight-down-the-line, classic, old-school leading-man role Ive been waiting for.
Mr. Jackman was not Mr. Luhrmanns first choice. Mr. Luhrmann intended for Russell Crowe to play the character, a brooding drover with no name who helps Ms. Kidmans aristocrat drive cattle across a barren homestead during World War II. But Mr. Crowe and Fox sparred over money. (At the time the combative actor fumed to a reporter, I do charity work, but I dont do charity work for major studios.)
Mr. Luhrmann, the director of critical darlings like Moulin Rouge! William Shakespeares Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom, said Mr. Jackman was initially under consideration for the smaller role of a greedy land manager. I was keen to have Hugh in the film, but I didnt immediately see him as the drover, Mr. Luhrmann said, adding that Fox worried about Mr. Jackmans marketability.
Fox grew more comfortable with Mr. Jackmans star status after X-Men: The Last Stand opened in 2006 with strong results (it ended up making more than $450 million worldwide), and Mr. Luhrmann had become impressed with Mr. Jackmans gung-ho attitude. Ms. Kidman, a friend of Mr. Jackmans wife, the Australian actress Deborah-Lee Furness, gave her approval at a party in Los Angeles.
Nicole came bounding in and said she heard I was talking to Baz, Mr. Jackman recalled. I said: Yes, Im very excited. But I havent yet seen a script. Tell me, what is it like? And she responded: Oh, I havent read the script. Its Baz. Just sign on.
Not long after, Mr. Jackman found himself enduring intense horse training in Texas. For the role he would need not only to woo Ms. Kidmans character, who inherits an enormous cattle ranch in a remote part of Australia, but also to ride herd over 2,000 cattle and rope horses. In one scene he would need to jump off his horse and grab a stampeding cow by the tail. Another scene called for him to stand in the center of a corral and lasso a wild horse.
Mr. Jackman played down the rigor required by most of the wrangling work. But even he was impressed with the lassoing. The horse went ballistic when I got that rope around his neck, he said. My gloves ripped, the rope peeled skin off my hands. I just remember being so happy that I did it that I didnt care at all.
Filming took place in Australias barren Northern Territory. (In the film Ms. Kidmans character owns a sprawling desert property near Darwin, a small Australian city bombed by the Japanese during World War II.) The shoot came with dust storms, scorpions and, down the side of a cliff from Mr. Jackmans trailer, a lagoon slithering with crocodiles. The shoot lasted 157 days in total, an epic period even for an epic drama.
I almost fainted on the first day, Mr. Jackman said. Incredibly hot, incredibly remote.
It was a long way from his days starting out in musical theater in Sydney, a time when he worked as a part-time clown at childrens parties. (In another job around that time, a pre-muscled Mr. Jackman was paid to stand in the lobby of a local gym as the before model.)
One early role came from the Sydney production of Disneys Beauty and the Beast. He played the prince. He went on to a starring role in a local tour of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Sunset Boulevard, and eventually landed the role of Curly in an acclaimed London revival of Oklahoma! in 1998.
During that production, a permed Mr. Jackman had his first professional encounter with Mr. Luhrmann. It didnt go well: he auditioned for the romantic lead in Moulin Rouge and was passed over for Ewan McGregor.
Mr. Jackman came out O.K., though. During the same time, he was a backup choice for the Wolverine character in X-Men and got the part after the original actor, Dougray Scott, backed out because of a conflicting film commitment. Aside from the X-Men movies, Mr. Jackmans movie career has mostly included films that missed expectations, including The Prestige. Whether Australia will work is unclear. Fox hopes it will be an Oscar force, and the footage is lavish. Mr. Luhrmann said he was influenced by sweeping classics like Gone With the Wind, The African Queen and Out of Africa, which Mr. Jackman says is one of his favorite films.
But the film is commercially risky. Historical epics can be a tough sell, as Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and King Arthur have recently proved to the studios dismay. And Ms. Kidmans recent track record at the box office (The Stepford Wives, Bewitched, The Invasion, The Golden Compass) has been scanty. (The film also represents a big departure for Mr. Luhrmann, who has developed a passionate following for his colorful visual style, which often places characters in over-the-top worlds bordering on fantasy. But Australia is darker and more realistic looking, and includes a subplot about the governments forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families.)
Mr. Jackman always has a backup in Wolverine. Judging from his reception in July at Comic-Con, the huge comic book and movie marketing convention, the action film will be a blockbuster. More than 6,500 fans at Comic-Con greeted him like a deity when he made a surprise appearance to plug the movie. People were screaming and chanting; one woman burst into tears. It was my little rock-star moment, Mr. Jackman said.
People who work with Mr. Jackman gush about him, too, to the degree that one starts to wonder just how badly other stars are behaving. He is the most centered, incredibly focused actor Ive ever worked with, Mr. Luhrmann said. I know everybody always says that in Hollywood, but I really mean it.
Nina Tassler, the president for entertainment at CBS, said she had no regrets about Viva Laughlin because of Mr. Jackmans involvement. Working with him was one of the highlights of my entire life, she said. Mr. Jackman, she added, was intimately involved in aspects of the project like script writing and marketing rare for movie stars moonlighting in television and said she found him humble and unassuming, an opinion echoed by others.
In wielding his charm, Mr. Jackman, whose offices on the Fox lot are located in Shirley Temples former dance studio and who watches Judge Judy in his spare time, likes to use humor. You cant cut my hair or my beard but you can trim my nose hair if you like, he said to a stylist readying him for a photo shoot.
And his looks five appearances on People magazines 50 Most Beautiful list and counting dont hurt his bankability either, as the director Bryan Singer, who hired Mr. Jackman for X-Men, helpfully pointed out in an interview.
As for that rough-hewn label? Thats studio-speak for a lot of chest hair, Mr. Singer said.