Set Visit/Hugh Interview

[narrows101]

I feel really bad for Hugh in all this hubub since it's his first real producing gig and his company has a stake in it.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25280027-5006011,00.html

It's your time, Mr Wolf
Article from:
By Claire Bradley
April 05, 2009 12:00am

PUTTERING across the water to Sydney¿s Cockatoo Island, our boat falls under the shadow of a jagged rock-face silhouetted against the sunset and we catch a whiff of danger in the air ¿ that and the smell of bacon and eggs.

Welcome to the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring the Aussie everyone loves to love, Hugh Jackman.

If we were to fast-forward 12 months, Jackman would be flying high on the success of his all-singing, all-dancing turn as host of the 81st Academy Awards, after touring the world on the back of that Baz Luhrmann extravaganza, Australia.

But, today, it’s his Friday night off from filming and he’s meeting me at the historic island location, which has been transformed into the lair of crazed colonel William Stryker, to talk about his latest box-office juggernaut, Wolverine.

This is a new chapter in the X-Men saga, but the story precedes that of the first three Hollywood blockbusters. As the early starters in a revived comic-film genre, they drew such big-name stars as Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry, but always centered on Jackman’s character, Logan, aka Wolverine.

Shrouded in the island’s darkness, I take in the spectacle. What was once a storage area for convicts from 1839, then a naval dockyard from 1850, is now scattered with scaffolding; cranes overhang sheer walls of rock and roped-off areas mark out dark nooks where you can imagine strange creatures seeking shelter.

At the end of the jetty on which I’ve been dropped is a line of trailers marked Mutant #1, Mutant #2, and so on.

Confused by the smell of the early morning feast, I’m reminded that the location is on night shoots: the crew arrive for a 5.30pm start and are served a breakfast buffet, then shoot through to ‘lunch’ at around midnight, and on to dawn. It’s within these eerie hours that the story of the mutant Wolverine, who’s characterised by his unwieldy metal claws and ‘berserker rage’, is explored further than in any of the previous X-Men incarnations.

“It’s almost like we’ve teased the audience for the first three films,” says 40-year-old Jackman.

“You’ve seen him, but you don’t know his past... a little bit, but not everything. I think, enough already – at the end of this film, I want people to go, ‘Oh, I’ve got it. I know where he comes from.’”

A very real challenge in this task is accuracy. Rich in history, the character of Wolverine first appeared as a cameo in the Hulk comics in 1974, but his story wasn’t fully revealed until Marvel’s Origin series was released in 2001.

His past is buried in controversy, and you need only glance online – where reams of blogs from passionate fans dissect rumours of onset squabbles – for an idea of the interest and diverse predictions for this film.

However, those in the know can rest assured – the production team has hired its very own coven of comic geeks to keep watch and ensure the film has its facts straight. And so far, our boy and his take on the Wolverine legend seem to have earned a thumbs up.

Sequestered in one of the prefabricated cottages that are clustered in a central section of the island, members of the cast and crew come, one after the other, to talk me through their Marvel world.

“I was blissfully unaware of X-Men,” says Jackman, who admits that before he took on the Wolverine role in 2000, the only thing he related to it was the 1980s Aussie rock band Uncanny X-Men.

“For this film, we’ve had an amazing scriptwriter in David Benioff (Troy, The Kite Runner), who happens to be a massive Wolverine fan. He came to us.”

As for director Gavin Hood (co-writer and director of the Oscar-winning Tsotsi), the star can’t praise him enough.

“He understands character and story arcs. I knew he’d push me to go further than I have in all sorts of areas.”

Setting the benchmark at Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed 2005 film Batman Begins, Jackman says Hood was a key ingredient in producing a comic-book movie that was darker and grittier.

For Daniel Henney, taking the role of Agent Zero meant entering a brave new world. He hadn’t grown up with the comic-book genre, but it took only one rushed meeting in LA to land him the part of a mutant with the power to absorb kinetic energy.

“It was a bolt out of the blue,” he says. “It’s been a lot of responsibility, but I’ve been studying the Origin stuff for ages now.”

While the 29-year-old is chuffed about being recognised in a comic-book store earlier in the week, he says the highlight has been working with such well respected actors as Jackman and Liev Schreiber, who plays Wolverine’s nemesis, Sabretooth.

But, despite being a bona fide star in his home country of South Korea, Henney admits the crossover into Hollywood was daunting.

“It’s so hard when it’s your first big-budget movie,” he says. “You hear stories about actors not wanting to stick around for their close-up (because) they want to get home, but Hugh is the most giving and available actor. I remember the day I met him; we were due to do a really emotional scene the next day. After we’d wrapped, he said ‘Let’s go lock down this scene,’ and I was like, ‘Great, I really want to know what I’m doing.’ We stayed there hours after we’d finished working.”

The island’s sinister surroundings are fitting for the villainous Stryker, played by Danny Huston (half brother of Angelica).

Having climbed the racks of scaffolding to the top floor of his laboratory, which is lined with mocked-up tanks of frozen human specimens and implement-laden steel benchtops, I already have a sense of the ex-soldier whose life campaign is to rid the world of mutants.

“I’d much rather play Captain Hook than Peter Pan,” says Huston. “But Stryker is a bit of a Dr Frankenstein. He understands (the mutants’) weaknesses and tries to help – in a perverse, horrible way.”

It’s under his watchful eye that Sabretooth and Wolverine are pitted against each other as they fight to harness their powers. As Houston talks, a TV screen behind him rolls film stills, including the now-infamous image of Wolverine rising out of the bath in which Stryker has given him his near indestructible adamantium skeleton.

That physique, says Jackman, was the result of 15 months of hardship. “It has been steamed brown rice and veg,” he says.

“A body builder wrote me out the key (to achieving it). It read, ‘4am: eggwhites and a slice of dry wholemeal or rye toast,’ then in brackets it said, ‘Yippee!’ I said to him, ‘Which bit is the yippee?’

He replied, ‘You get a piece of toast – that’s about as good as it gets, mate.’ I’m looking forward to pizza and a few beers.”

Before a ‘mid-morning snack’ at around 7.30pm, I take another tour of the set, following fluoro-lit tunnels that cut through the rock to the other side of the island.

Because this site is heritage-listed, the production – the first approved to film here – had to make provisions and change the original plans for the set to stay in keeping with the natural landscape.

As we study the tunnel from which we’ve emerged, location manager Gareth Price explains that the facade – the void through which Wolverine makes a dramatic escape – was specially constructed: it features a collage of moss, rusted signs and metal door panels, and there’s a mattress of tree roots pushing up through a blanket of pine needles on the ground. It looks so real, I’m astounded it hasn’t all been here for hundreds of years.

Back on the active stages, filming is about to start and groups of haunted-looking, jumpsuit-clad creatures are being corralled for the next shot. From our vantage point, we’re transfixed as ghostly white make-up is touched up, eyes are coloured the perfect shade of mutant red and actors are called to take their places.

The group runs through a shot in which the creatures try to escape, causing alarms to go off and yellow lights to search the perimeter. Just as it looks as if filming might get underway, we’re ushered off, stage left, leaving the weary mutant warriors to their night’s work.

Combine the massive sets, far-flung locations (including Vancouver and New Orleans) and the great expectations of both fans and financier, 20th Century Fox, and it’s clear that Jackman has quite a lot riding on this film.
His production company, Seed – which he co-founded with his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, and their long-time friend John Palermo – shares the credit with producer Ralph Winter, who says the actor has remained unfazed throughout filming. If anything, he seems to be blooming under the pressure.

“I’ve enjoyed the acting more, because I’m that much more involved,” Jackman says.

“I’ve had casting approval, script approval. But the studio isn’t just letting me run my own race. I’m a very inexperienced producer – this is only my second film. I’ve made some mistakes and learnt that my instincts aren’t always right.”

It’s this humble attitude that has made the world fall in love with this star. He’s the consummate gentleman in a brown velvet jacket and pressed jeans, and his fellow crew say nothing to tarnish his squeaky-clean image.
“You won’t find any dirt on Hugh,” says Winter, who admits he’s had a ball playing practical jokes on Jackman during filming.

“I’ve started to spread rumours about myself, but they’re not sticking,” says the man himself. “To be honest, I’m a bit of an open book. There’s not a lot of dirt beyond a few stories about my personal life.”

Jackman’s mother left the family when he was eight, and he and his four older siblings were raised by their father at the family home on Sydney’s North Shore.

He and Furness – whom he met in 1995 while filming the Aussie prison drama Correlli – have two adopted children, Oscar, 8, and Ava, 3.
“I don’t know how many times people can follow me and my kids to the beach. My private life is pretty straightforward, which is a euphemism for dull. I find it interesting but, for most people, it’s dull.”

Still, not many eight-year-olds can tag along with their dads to one of the country’s biggest filmsets, as Oscar did when he was an extra on Australia. He must love visiting this one.

“No, (Australia) cured him,” Jackman says. “He turned to me four days into filming and said, ‘Dad, you have the most boring job in the world. And that guy with the mike just yells at you; he’s so bossy!’ He was talking about Baz.”

On Cockatoo Island, filming is progressing through the night’s chill, and I wonder at what point the unflappable Jackman loses his cool. For his most diva-like behaviour, he offers up a few hours of being irritable.

“I become a bit Jekyll and Hyde between 3am and 5am. I don’t know if it’s from years doing the night-shift at a service station, but when I do a night shoot, I lose all personality. I’m like a zombie – the only time I perform is between ‘Action!’ and ‘Cut!’ I’m pretty grumpy.”

Hopefully there will be time for a good night’s sleep once the hectic promotion schedule is out of the way. But, just to be sure, Furness has booked a break for the family.

“About 18 months ago, Deb said, ‘When you finish Wolverine, you’re taking six months off.’ I think there may have been a question in there, but it was 90 per cent exclamation. I’m not sure what I’m doing after this. I might go back onto the stage,” he adds, which wouldn’t come as a surprise after he so recently dug out his top hat and tails.

For now, our glimpse into this world of fantasy and anti-heroes has come full circle. By the time I’ve hopped back onto the boat, amid the fragrant beginnings of dinner, the woolly star of this tale has already morphed back into father, husband and all-round good guy – a Jackman of all trades bound to excel in whatever he turns his hand to. Perhaps he is a mutant after all.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is in cinemas April 30.

 

[narrows101]

Here's another great interview.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mos...-Jackman-action-star-screen-too.html?ITO=1490

 

[sniktsnakt]

Sweet! Thanks for posting!

 

[Celestial]

From the print version of the Mail on Sunday profile:

 

[Pauluz]

That's a bad ass pic, although his hair looks a little.....fluffy.

 

[TNC9852002]

I really like that hairstyle. It makes him look younger. It looks very 90's.

If X-Men is set to take place in the not too distant future within 2000, then if 15 years before that could still be in the 90's. I wonder if they could've gotten away with that hairstyle throughout most of the movie.

 

[Celestial]

Going by the on-set photos, there's going to be a lot of fluffy hair. Which beats the "two cans of hairspray" or the wig.

 

[Andreth]

I Love that pic

 

[Celestial]

Here's an interview with Hugh and another with Gavin Hood:
http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/10/movies/2212384&sec=movies
http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/10/movies/2246201&sec=movies

 

[narrows101]

Long article:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertai...1239222973059.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

A canny X-man

WHATEVER happens when the comic-book superhero Wolverine reaches cinemas in his own Hollywood movie this month, Hugh Jackman will have an unusual memento of filming. And, appropriately for one of the X-Men, it's X-rated.

"I was talking to the director the other day and he goes, 'I've got a little present for you. I've cut a little bit of footage of your willy and I've put it in a bag so you can keep it'," the world's sexiest man says cheerfully.

Yes, Jackman - inspiration for a thousand sighs when he took an outback bath in Australia; the all-singing, all-dancing host of the Oscars - bared more than just his sensitive side to play the bad-attitude mutant who sprouts claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

He was not remotely flustered about going the full monty for a sequence that shows Wolverine bursting from a tank of liquid then emerging from a tunnel. The location was Cockatoo Island, the former shipyard that was transformed into an abandoned nuclear power plant for the movie.

"I'm not really worried," Jackman says about stripping off. "Probably too many skinny-dipping parties as a young man. Sometimes there can be so much effort when people put on a sock and tape it up here and there. I know they can't have my willy in shot so I just figure, what the hell?"

As producer and star of what is estimated to be at least a $US150 million (about $215 million) Hollywood-backed movie that he personally steered to Australia and New Zealand, Jackman has a lot riding on Wolverine.

Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox have high hopes the fourth movie in the franchise will crack open Hollywood's summer blockbuster season despite the leaking to the internet last week of a work print, which has subsequently been downloaded more than a million times. "We are encouraged by the support of fansites condemning this illegal posting and pointing out that such theft undermines the enormous efforts of the filmmakers and actors and, above all, hurts the fans of the film," said a statement issued by 20th Century Fox.

After two highly regarded X-Men movies from director Bryan Singer and a less-than-great third by Brett Ratner - for a handsome worldwide box office of $US1.1 billion - there are plans to make "origin stories" for a number of the characters.

First is the story of mutant Wolverine (Jackman), a ferocious, sarcastic, bad-tempered ball of muscle who joins other mutants with superpowers in a covert military unit, Team X, before warring with his brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

"The last thing I thought I would [ever] do was be an action-movie guy," Jackman says during a break in filming. "It might seem hard to believe but one of the biggest challenges I've had as an actor is playing Wolverine."
Jackman was a late replacement on the first X-Men film for Dougray Scott (who was held up in Sydney making Mission: Impossible 2). The role of Wolverine launched a Hollywood career that is still rising for the 40-year-old actor, who was back in Sydney to preview the movie this week.
"It's been the thing that I'm probably best known for - definitely most known for - around the world," he says. "When we filmed it, comic-book movies were still unknown territory. I remember my agent saying, 'Before the movie comes out, you should come to Hollywood and have meetings.'
"I was auditioning for things but I was one of 50 people all waiting in a room. There wasn't any feeling of 'this guy is going to be the next guy'.

But the moment the movie opened, I got a phone call about 5.30 on Saturday morning from the head of the studio, who I think was probably still drunk.

It probably tripled their expectations . . . By Monday morning, I had all these offers for films."

Jackman, who hopes to take Wolverine on a samurai adventure in Japan next, sees him as a character study.

"I've had probably as good a run - better than most - in the X-Men world in terms of screen time for my character," he says. "But I still felt, particularly as the series went on, we never really fully dealt with who he was, where he came from, where the memory loss came from, what motivates him?

"It was always an interesting dynamic to me: this character who is battling between this chaotic, animalistic, rage-filled side of him and the human side. It's an issue that goes back to Greek tragedy."

Wolverine is Jackman's second shot at producing a movie after the so-so thriller Deception. It's his biggest chance so far to translate his stardom into Hollywood clout.

That has involved the bold choice of South African director Gavin Hood on the basis of his small-scale Oscar- winning drama Tsotsi, as well as a cast that includes Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am (as teleporting mutant John Wraith), Ryan Reynolds (as wisecracking swordsman Deadpool), Danny Huston (as the shadowy William Stryker), plus Australian actors Max Cullen, Asher Keddie and Tahyna Tozzi.

"By being a producer, I've enjoyed the acting more," Jackman says. "I'm much more involved and I have been for a year before shooting. Every casting choice, every location . . . by the time I walk on set, I think this is all the things that I've wanted and it's here.


"It reminds me more of being in the theatre - that feeling of being part of the whole instead of the isolating experience that film can often be."
Hood was shocked to be approached by Jackman. "My first inclination - and I hope it doesn't turn out to be the case - was that I was the wrong guy," he says. "I come from a very different background.

"My initial reaction was, 'Isn't this a superhero movie about a guy who takes revenge on people?' Hugh kept saying to me, 'No, Gav, that's just not what I need.' So I said, 'OK, let's meet.'

"We sat together for a few hours and we talked about how you make something that's fresh and engaging, given you're making a comic-book movie for the umpteenth time."

Jackman defends Hood against reports of delays and disagreements between the director and Fox boss Tom Rothman. Director Richard Donner, of Superman and Lethal Weapon fame, was reputedly brought in to mediate.

"I had disagreements with Gav, he had them with me. I had them with the studio, they had them with me. But that's what happens. [Every movie I've] ever done, especially the X-Men movies, they've always been like that.

But my experience is that sometimes that brings out the better result. There certainly was nothing major."

As that glimpse of bare chest in Australia revealed, Jackman had an almost fanatical dedication to getting the right physique for Wolverine. For more than a year before filming he undertook intense weight training and ate seven protein-rich meals a day, starting at 4am. That included countless meals of "steamed chicken, steamed brown rice and steamed vegetables" and a very un-Wolverine peppermint tea.

"The vision I had in my head for the character - I didn't feel like it had ever really been fulfilled in the first three movies," he says. "It wasn't enough to be pumped up or look like a bodybuilder or big. I wanted him to look more menacing, leaner, veinier, make people a little uncomfortable to look at him rather than go, 'Oh, wow, what a great bod.'

"I always remem ber that moment of seeing Robert de Niro in Cape Fear. You were almost scared the moment you saw him in the jail. From that moment on, you just knew the guy was ready to snap at any second. That was kind of the image I had in my head."

The radical diet was laid down by a natural bodybuilder. "He writes brackets next to things," Jackman says. "It starts with '4am egg whites and piece of dry wholemeal or rye toast'. In brackets, he goes 'yippee'. I rang him and said, 'Which bit is the yippee, the 4am?' He said, 'Man, you get a piece of toast'. I said, 'Dry toast'. He said, 'That's about as good as it gets.'"


To get himself in the mood before scenes, Jackman would take cold showers and lift weights - sometimes with him and Schreiber driving each other on.

"When he starts pumping iron and preparing for a scene, a beast comes alive," says Huston. "Liev has been doing that as well to play the brother. Talk about Cane and Abel. When these two are at each other, it's ferocious."

Jackman says he wanted to lead from the front on the movie, especially given he was shifting a franchise that had been shot in Canada to his home country.

"I told everyone who worked on the film that we needed to exceed people's expectations," he says. "There was also probably amongst fans [a feeling of] 'what's this going to be? Is this like a cheap spin-off? Is it X-Men 4 in disguise?'

"One of the great things about shooting in Australia [and New Zealand] was exactly that - a new crew, new locations. It just gave us a different scope and a different visual palette.

I want everyone from the moment the film starts to go. 'Oh, this feels a little different. OK, we're going in a different direction.' "

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens on April 29.

 

[sniktsnakt]

I know I've bewailed this before, but why does the US get it two days later?

It doesn't help that it seems that every article out there just seems to love to rub it in our faces.



Awesome article, though!

 

[narrows101]

I know I've bewailed this before, but why does the US get it two days later?

It doesn't help that it seems that every article out there just seems to love to rub it in our faces.



Awesome article, though!

Movies always open in the U.S. on a Friday, unless it's perhaps a holiday weekend and then they may open on a Wednesday or Thursday. But 99.9% of the time it's Fridays.

 

[squeekness]

I know I've bewailed this before, but why does the US get it two days later?

It doesn't help that it seems that every article out there just seems to love to rub it in our faces.



Awesome article, though!

Yeah, doesn't seem quite fair. It was the same with X3 too. The boards will be swimming with spoilers for three days.

 

[narrows101]

New Hugh interview:

http://www.shortlist.com/jameson-s-movies/article/exclusive-hugh-jackman-interview/1

An excerpt LOL:

What do you do to get like that?

Wake up at four in the morning to eat! I worked with this guy, Scott, who’s the natural bodybuilding champion in Australia – that’s natural bodybuilding, because obviously I had no interest in doing any of that cr*p [steroids], not for a movie. I don’t want a small penis for the rest of my life.

 

[narrows101]

Another nice article:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25352101-5006023,00.html

Herculean Hugh

HUGH Jackman could be forgiven for wanting a good lie down after a busy few months.

Not only has Jackman been central to the two biggest movies of his career, he has also been named the sexiest man alive and hosted the Oscars in front of a television audience of a billion people.

And yet here he is after being up since before sunrise, arriving by helicopter at Sydneys Cockatoo Island, all smiles, charm and boundless energy in his umpteenth interview of the day, knowing the fate of the blockbuster superhero flick X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which he produced and stars in as the title character, rests squarely on his impossibly broad and muscular shoulders.

I am excited, he says of the films April 29 release. There have been a lot of exciting twists and turns in my life over the past six months that have been really exciting. Despite his producers credit and having been involved in almost every aspect of production from script to casting to locations to number-crunching, Jackman says he is no more nervous about the spin-off to the successful X-Men trilogy than he has been about any of his other movies.

He has produced movies and TV before through Seed Productions, his company with wife Deborra-lee Furness and long-time friend John Palermo, but nothing near the action-laden, CGI-heavy scale of Wolverine. He knows how much is at stake.

For our company its obviously a big, big film and we are putting our names on there as producers, so you live or die by the sword, he says. If its applause, we will share in it, and if its boos, then we will have to share in that, too. I like that and I will take it on the chin no matter what it is.
The production side made him enjoy acting even more, knowing how much had gone into proceedings before director Gavin Hood yelled action. I suppose the analogy for me is that sitting in a great garden is a beautiful thing, but if you have created that garden, if you dig it and tend it and look after it, the satisfaction is so much greater, he says.

Jackmans passion for Wolverine and Baz Luhrmanns Australia is palpable and he says he needs that passion for whatever he works on for better or worse.

The all-singing, dancing actor famously knocked back the lead in Chicago, which won six Oscars, because he felt he was too young.

I sweated bullets watching that movie, let alone when it was up for every award, he says. But I was 30 at the time and I just couldnt see myself saying the line, Ive seen it all, kid.

Similarly, his 2006 sci-fi fantasy The Fountain was a box office disaster, but it remains one of Jackmans favourite projects and he says the same is true of Wolverine, regardless of how it performs. For me, success or failure is so much easier to live with when you do the project for the right reasons and are passionate about it, he says.

Even if it falls in a heap. Jackman says his experience watching Luhrmann on Australia held him in good stead for being the go-to man on Wolverine and taught him a good deal not only about movie-making, but also about respect and getting the best of out cast and crew.

In terms of (Luhrmann) being a leader and how he supports and carries everybody, not just the actors, it is superhuman, he says.

It was a joy from beginning to end that movie, and if I had gotten to the end of that eight or nine-week shoot and been told we had to do it all again, I would have been fine.

He communicates with you, he takes your ideas, he supports you, he makes things easy for you, he is always wanting to make the best environment for everyone involved. To do that is massive and I dont think I nearly lived up to his standards, but he is the benchmark.

If his Wolverine castmates are anything to go by, Jackman learned his lessons well. Taylor Kitsch, who plays the mutant Gambit, says: I learned such a lot from him. He has extraordinary focus and talent. But he also has such a great vibe. When this guy walks on to the set, he doesnt expect people to go, Oh my God, its Hugh Jackman the star. Thats there because he is such a huge star, but he makes everybody feel comfortable and a part of the production. Theres not a fake bone in his body.

Or this from castmate Dominic Monaghan: He is one of the elite, along with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon. He is also such a great person. You know the saying, The king should dictate how his subjects behave and set an example. I think Hugh Jackman exemplifies that. He leads by example.

For someone who is universally regarded as one of the nicest guys in showbiz, Jackman does angry well.

IT was his role as the rage-filled Wace in the low-budget 1999 drama Erskineville Kings that scored him the coveted role of Wolverine in the first X-Men film. The new movie delves deeper in the characters origins and what makes him such a ball of barely repressed fury. Jackman says cold showers, listening to Metallica and Godsmack, and filming at 4am were good triggers for him to connect with his inner rage, but concedes its roots may go back a long way. He admits to having some dark periods as a child after his mother left the family, leaving father Chris to bring up their five children on his own on Sydneys North Shore. The split left him with anger issues, which he used to take out on the football field, leaping off cliffs, car-surfing and scrapping with his siblings.

I am a believer that actors are limitless in the emotions they can touch, he says. Its just as big a mistake to think of yourself as a nice guy thats not your job as an actor. Your job as an actor is to be neutral and human, and to observe.

I dont think for roles like Wolverine I have to go out and get in a fight in a bar, that seems crazy to me. Im not saying I always pull it off, but you have to be very careful as an actor not to have any ideas of who you are.

If you hold on to any label of who you are then you start to get in trouble and you limit yourself your job is to try to stay open. So is anger open to me? Absolutely. If a stranger came over and belted my kid for no reason, watch out. I dont care how nice a person you are, there is a trigger for every emotion within every person including compassion, love, humour, anger.

Jackman is looking forward to some time off after Wolverine and is weighing up his many options, some of which arose from his mostly acclaimed gig hosting the Oscars.

Contrary to rumours, he has not yet been invited back for next year, but says he was honoured to have done it.

I had a good time. I havent been asked (again), but if I do my first question will be, Will Beyonce be doing it, he says with a laugh.
He is looking forward to some family time, revealing he and Furness play tag team on their films when possible so one can be with their two children Oscar, 8, and Ava, 3. After making one movie in more than a decade, Furness filmed two last year, but family remains her first priority.

Deb doesnt have the same desire to be working all the time, Jackman says. One day she says she would like to direct, but I think she feels the kids are too young to do that, because anyone who has been involved in the film business knows how myopic you have to be to be a film director. She will do that one day and will be a phenomenal director. X-Men Origins:

Wolverine opens on April 29.

 

[narrows101]

Some good stuff in here!

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25370596-5006013,00.html

Many faces of Hugh Jackman on the silver screen

Article from: \
By Alice Wasley
April 23, 2009 12:00am


HE MIGHT be a muscle-bound action man but Hugh Jackman admits he has quite a thin skin.

Countless images of him grimacing, complete with his trademark sideburns and deadly claws, are floating around in the promotional material for his latest film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but in reality he’s a softie who dreads the appraisal of others.

“I’m terrible like that – I have no idea, I don’t read reviews, I don’t go on the internet,” Jackman says.

“Because I’m a typical actor, it doesn’t really matter if eight people liked it and two didn’t, I’ll only really listen to the two that didn’t.”

Wife Deborra-Lee Furness is the one person he is always prepared to hear the truth from, especially after an opening night or his recent gig hosting the Oscars.

“Afterwards I always invite my wife into my dressing room – I want no one but my wife,” he says.

“I want to hear it straight how it went. And we just always have a moment together.”

No doubt Furness breathed a sigh of relief after her husband dazzled Hollywood with his tongue-in-cheek musical routine at the Academy Awards.

It was something he says he was “shocked” to be asked to do.

Forty-year-old Jackman, who previously was best known in America for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men films, says as a result he has gained more notoriety there.

“The paparazzi’s gone a little more crazy since then,” Jackman admits.
And apart from more attention, his talents as a song-and-dance man are now recognised worldwide.

“I think when the Oscars happened, a lot of people were like, ‘What? I knew him as Wolverine. He sings? He dances?’,” he says.

“That was kind of a shock to them.”

The timing for the boost in his profile couldn’t be better, with X-Men Origins: Wolverine about to be released here and in the US, especially after the setback earlier this month when an unfinished version of the film was leaked on the internet.

Jackman, who is both the star and producer of the movie, agrees a lot is riding on its success.

The 20th Century Fox film had an estimated budget of at least $US150 million ($207 million) and was the first movie in the X-Men franchise to be filmed in Australia and New Zealand, something Jackman pushed for.

It is also only the second feature film for production company Seed, which he founded with Furness and business partner John Palermo.

“I do have more invested in it – there’s no doubt about it,” he says.
Although things seem to be falling into place for Jackman, he says he has never “been a great strategist” and points out the Oscars could have easily gone the other way.

“If it had really died … it would have been bad,” he says.

To submit to the intense physical preparation Jackman goes through to become Wolverine he would need to be driven by a lot more than simply commercial interests.

He describes the gruelling diet and intense exercise regime he put himself through as “a Spartan lifestyle”.

“I do get a little turned on by – I don’t know what it is – a real challenge,” he says.

“I’m one of those. If I wasn’t under contract to do a movie I’d want to climb a mountain or do something because I quite like the extremes and having something to go for.

“Knowing you’re on a 40-foot (12m) screen is good incentive.”
He was also inspired by the prospect of a leaner, veinier, more menacing Wolverine.

“I have an image of the character in my head and in this movie this is the first time I’ve gone – that’s it!” he says.

This was all part of a larger plan to make his film stand apart from the other X-Men films, based on the Marvel X-Men comics.

It is a prequel to the first three films and tells the story of how the mutant Wolverine developed.

Jackman chose Tsotsi director Gavin Hood, a step away from previous X-Men directors Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner.

The cast includes Liev Schreiber and Ryan Reynolds, but there’s no sign of Halle Berry or Anna Paquin, who starred with Jackman in the previous films.

Filming mostly at Australian locations, including Cockatoo Island and Fox Studios, as well as the Hawkesbury, Camden and a Newcastle beach that stands in for the Normandy coastline in the movie, also helped achieve a different look for the film.

“You’ve got a different quality – of light, of scenery – you’ve got a slightly different feel from what we’ve had before and you see that in the film,” he says.

Jackman, who is based with his family in New York, is keen to get stuck into a new project but won’t confirm exactly what it will be.

But he hints that after playing tough characters in his last two films, including The Drover in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, we might see something different from him.

His production company has been working on two musicals – one for the stage and one for the screen.

“I’m really working heavily on a movie version of Carousel, a remake of that,” he says.

“For two years we’ve been trying to find a way to make it relevant and not feel old-fashioned and I think we’ve finally done that.

“On stage we’re working on a musical version of the life of Houdini.

"We’ve been working on that for about a year and we’ll probably go to Broadway when we’re finished.

"But it’ll be at least a year away.”

Jackman as a singing, dancing Houdini sounds intriguing and he’s clearly not frightened of taking a risk.

“Come on. Why not?” he says with a laugh.

As the actor describes his fascination with the famous magician, a few parallels between the two become obvious.

“If he could sing and dance he would have done it,” Jackman says.

“He was a showman basically. He was probably the first rock star. A master manipulator of the media and a showman through and through.”

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens next Wednesday

 

[danoyse]

His production company has been working on two musicals – one for the stage and one for the screen.

“I’m really working heavily on a movie version of Carousel, a remake of that,” he says.

“For two years we’ve been trying to find a way to make it relevant and not feel old-fashioned and I think we’ve finally done that.

“On stage we’re working on a musical version of the life of Houdini.

"We’ve been working on that for about a year and we’ll probably go to Broadway when we’re finished.

This is exciting! t:

 

[narrows101]

This is exciting! t:

Yeah, that's the exact thing my eye settled on too! I can't WAIT to hear him sing those gorgeous songs from Carousel!

 

[danoyse]

Yeah, that's the exact thing my eye settled on too! I can't WAIT to hear him sing those gorgeous songs from Carousel!

One of my friends went to the Carnegie Hall concert when he performed them with Audra McDonald - she said he was amazing. I've seen the clips on YouTube, but they're hard to hear!

I love Carousel! I saw it the last time it was on Broadway and the music was just gorgeous.

 

[Celestial]

Here's a rather more thoughtful article on the movie from The Australian.

 

[narrows101]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30425546/

Hugh Jackman has a lot riding on ‘Wolverine’
‘It feels more personal and that’s the difference,’ says the star of ‘Origins’
By Miki Turner
msnbc.com contributor
updated 10:37 p.m. ET, Sun., April 26, 2009


LOS ANGELES - Despite what you might read in the tabloids there are nice people in Hollywood. And then, there’s Hugh Jackman.

He’s so nice that he actually makes everyone else around him look as though they need anger management classes. For example, during a weekend press conference to discuss his new film, “X-Man Origins: Wolverine,” when reporters virtually ignored Lynn Collins who plays Wolverine’s love interest Kayla Silverfox, the Australian native made it a point to acknowledge her performance.

“Lynn plays a character here and fills a role that was so vital to this movie,” he said. “Anyone who knows acting and knows film structure, you’ll know that what Lynn had to pull off in the film was probably one of the most difficult things to do. She did an amazing job and I was really, really proud of what she did.”

He’s so down to earth that he was actually strolling around the Fox lot by himself greeting the press about an hour before he was scheduled.

And on top of all that, Jackman has a heart as big as his native land and an ego the size of a pin. That was especially evident as he continually gave props to his co-stars and Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood or when he talked about the body apparently built by free weights and God.

“This is a little embarrassing but I’m a little more of a wuss in real life — obviously (more) than my character,” Jackman said earnestly. “There’s a moment in your training when you just want to give up. But I used to imagine that I was really Wolverine and somehow my trainer got two or three more reps out of me.”

Seated in a black tent with flatscreen monitors behind him, Jackman, dressed casually in a form-fitting Navy blue polo shirt and matching trousers, was at his most attractive when he was poking fun at himself. Last year’s Sexiest Man Alive has been riding high for the past 12 months. Late last year he starred opposite fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman in the epic drama “Australia.” In February he received rave reviews after hosting the Academy Awards.

And now he’s back as Wolverine — the mutant with the steel claws and gnarly sideburns in the latest installment of the X-Men franchise that hits theaters on Friday. “Wolverine” explores the evolution of a man who appears to be constantly at war with himself, his brother Victor/Sabertooth (Live Schreiber), his leader William Stryker (Danny Huston) and his Team X comrades, all of whom aren’t willing to let Wolverine/Logan distance himself from his past.

‘Everything was new and fresh’

Slipping back into a familiar role can be redundant for some actors, but this was actually the first time Jackman, who is also a producer on the film, was the featured mutant.

“Everything was new and fresh,” said Jackman, dressed casually in a navy blue polo shirt with matching trousers. “It was important to me and Gav to move ahead in a fresh direction. Let’s face it I was going through 100 years of this guy’s life. In a way it was sort of acting the long way around. I have to say I loved it and that it was really, really challenging and I had a great time with these guys and all the others involved. It felt brand new.”

And it is. This time Jackman is working with a fresh crew of mutants including: Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), John Wraith (will.i.am) and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch). For Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, working with Jackman on his first feature film was especially gratifying.

“He’s the real deal,” said will.i.am. “It was really cool for me — being that this was my first big thing. I could look across the set and see Hugh and he’s like, whatever you need, let me know. He’s gets down like that. This movie is all about his character but Hugh will tell you in a minute that it’s not all about him.”

Being the man, however, did make Jackman a little nervous. “I found myself asking people if they like the movie and just hoping that they did,” he said. “It feels more personal and that’s the difference.”

Despite the fact that an unfinished version of the film was leaked on the Internet weeks ago, it appears that, like Wolverine, nothing can keep Jackman down for long. If the married father of two can continually laugh off the rumors about his sexuality, he can certainly deal with whatever fallout might arise from the “Wolverine” bootleg. At the end of the day he’s just a guy who’s happy to be doing what he does.

Sing. Dance. Act. Laugh. And obsess about the return of Halle Berry to the X-Men franchise. “It took me a little while to get used to Halle Berry not being on set most days — sorry, I jest,” he said with a grin.

And although he might be the reigning People magazine sex god, Jackman feels that he just might be the luckiest man alive, too.


“I have to say being up here with all these guys I feel incredibly lucky,” he said. “To be honest when I was 28 I was at the National Theatre in London doing a production of ‘Oklahoma’ and I was about as far as I had ever dreamed I could go being an actor. Everything since then has been so surreal and there’s really never a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars.

“The sexy thing, I’ve known that a long time. It’s more of a relief than anything.”

 

[narrows101]

This is a hysterical interview by Access Hollywood.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/hugh-jackman-talks-wolverine_video_1091855

 

[narrows101]

Great ET interview.

http://www.etonline.com/news/2009/04/73228/

 

[danoyse]

This is hilarious - watch the Fox News reporter after the interview get a little too enthusiastic over Wolverine's nude scene:

http://www.truveo.com/Hugh-Jackman-Talks-Nude-Scenes/id/934835828#