The Official Wolverine MAGAZINES Thread

[Retroman]

I would love to know WHY they styled his hair like this and WHY he approved.

Good question.

LMAOt:

NON-SPORT Update Magazine - April/May, 2009

The Wolverine Cometh
Marvel’s hairy hero is back in this new movie adaptation. The issue will also contain Battlestar Galactica Season 4 and X-Men Archives promos, both courtesy of Rittenhouse Archives.


DVD Special Magazine (Germany) - May, 2009

BLU-RAY Magazine (Germany)

LIVE Magazine (UK) - April 5, 2009

Hugh Jackman- In depth interview with portraits and cover on X-Men Origins - Wolverine.


HDRI 3D Magazine - Issue 26

THE BEST AT WHAT THEY DO:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
A candid discussion with Pat McClung, Erik Liles, and Alec Gillis—supervisors for many of the effects on X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Learn a little about being a VFX Supervisor, and “seeing” in order to create art!
By Mike Rizzuto


SOURCE LINKS: 1 2 3 4 5

 

[narrows101]

PARADE magazine this Sunday (a supplement with newspapers):

http://www.parade.com/celebrity/2009/04/hugh-jackman.html

The star of the hit X-Men movies is a philosopher at heart

Hugh Jackman's Essential Truth
by Kevin Sessums
published: 04/26/2009

'To get down to the quick of it, respect motivates me—not success,” says Hugh Jackman when we meet for a late lunch in Beverly Hills. Bronzed and brawny, the 40-year-old Australian wears a blue polo shirt that fits him as comfortably as his ready smile.

Jackman has the respect of serious theatergoers as well as movie fans, who flock to see him as Wolverine, the half-animal/half-human mutant in the wildly popular X-Men movies. The first three films have grossed $1.2 billion. The fourth, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, opens May 1.

“To make films like X-Men work commercially—and also have some class—is one of the hardest things there is to do,” Jackman says. “I want to be seen to be able to cross lots of genres and still be ‘fair dinkum,’ as we say in Australia, which means genuine and true and, well, unique.”

Jackman is certainly an original. Although his biggest success is as an action hero, he also shone as the host of this year’s Oscars. And he feels at home in musical theater, having starred in Beauty and the Beast and Sunset Boulevard in Australia, and in Oklahoma! at the National Theatre in London. In The Boy From Oz, on Broadway from 2003 to 2004, he portrayed his flamboyant, openly gay fellow Aussie, Peter Allen, a kind of Down Under Elton John. The performance won him a Tony Award. Jackman is currently being taught to accomplish Harry Houdini’s most daring feats of magic so he can star in a musical based on the illusionist, whom Jackman describes as “the first rock star.”

Ask anybody in Hollywood who has worked with Jackman to comment on him, and the two words that keep popping up are “nice” and “lovely.” So what continues to draw him to the dark character of Wolverine?

“My favorite play in drama school was The Bacchae,” Jackman says, surprising me. Why would he choose this most gruesome of Greek tragedies as his favorite? “It’s about a king who literally gets eaten alive by all the women in the play in a kind of orgy—it’s related to the word ‘bacchanal’—and I loved that idea of animalistic chaos and following our own desires,” Jackman says. “I think Wolverine represents that in its most allegorical sense. He’s a man who battles between the animal and the human, between the chaos in him and the self-control he must have. We all deal with this to some extent. At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.”

Seeking a deeper meaning in life, Jackman began to immerse himself 17 years ago in study at the School of Practical Philosophy, an international organization that provides courses and activities based on both Eastern and Western philosophical principles. He began meditating twice a day. Jackman says the school is about “taking duality and finding the underlying unity of things. Yin and yang, sacred and profane. And, yes, animal and human.” That dynamic of duality in himself, and his graceful way of unifying it, is at the core of his appeal.

Jackman was raised by his father, who is a devout, born-again Christian. His mother deserted the family when he was 8 and moved back to her native England. Hoping his son would also have a born-again experience, his father took Hugh to Billy Graham crusades every time the famed evangelist came to Australia.

“He takes his religion very seriously and would prefer I go to church,” Jackman says of his father. “We’ve had discussions about our separate beliefs. I just find the evangelical church too, well, restrictive. But the School of Practical Philosophy is nonconfrontational. We believe there are many forms of Scripture. What is true is true and will never change, whether it’s in the Bible or in Shakespeare. It’s about oneness. Its basic philosophy is that if the Buddha and Krishna and Jesus were all at a dinner table together, they wouldn’t be arguing. There is an essential truth. And we are limitless.”

Jackman credits his 13-year marriage to Australian actress Deborra-Lee Furness as contributing to his wholeness as a person. They have two multiracial children—Oscar, now 8, and Ava, soon to be 4.

“Mixed-race babies have such a hard time being adopted that Deb and I checked off that box specifically when we were filling out our forms,” Jackman says. “Our lawyer brought the form back to us and said, ‘This is not the time to be politically correct. Are you sure this is what you want?’ We were definite about it. Adoption is about taking a baby into your home—and your heart. It’s the best thing we’ve ever done.”

Do they plan to adopt more children? Jackman is the youngest of five himself. “No!” he says, then pauses. “Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that so emphatically and on-the-record. For Deb and me, our family is the most important thing to us, but we travel so much that we fear if we have more kids, it’ll be too much.”

Despite his obviously close relationship with his wife, whispers have persisted since he played Peter Allen that Jackman himself might be gay. “I’d be happy to go and deny it, because I’m not,” he says. “But by denying it, I’m saying there is something shameful about it, and there isn’t anything shameful. The questions about sexuality I find more here in America than anywhere else, because it’s a big hang-up and defines what people think about themselves and others. It’s not a big issue in Australia.”

Furness was the far bigger star in Australia when she met Jackman in 1995 on her hit television series, Correlli. But he has now surpassed her. How do they deal with this reversal?

“The thing I find hard is that a lot of people won’t even see her, and they’ll obviously be talking to her to get to me,” he says. “I’ve seen Deb literally be knocked out of the way. She just knocks ’em back.”

Jackman’s eyes brighten when he discusses his wife, who is eight years older than he.

“She’s a morning person,” he says. “Deb pops up, and it’s, ‘Come on, baby. Let’s go!’ Yet at night she falls asleep instantly, sometimes in mid-conversation. She’s fallen asleep during every movie I’ve ever done. At one premiere, this big-time producer—he’s known for growling—growled down the row to me, ‘Wake your wife up!’ She’s the most honest person I’ve ever met. The worst liar. Can’t do it. Everything she feels comes out. This is just the long way of saying she’s not jealous of my success, no. It’s not in her DNA. Every person I’ve ever worked with has ended up liking Deb more than they like me. I’m a little behind in the wit department, and she’s always, ‘Come on, Hugh, keep up! Keep up!’ She looks a lot like Kim Novak, but she’s from the Ethel Merman school with her humor.”

Since Jackman had decided to evoke old-time stars to describe his wife, I come up with a few myself to describe him. “You’re like a cross between Gary Cooper and Gene Kelly,” I tell him. “With just a soupçon of Rosalind Russell.”

Jackman throws his head back and roars—not with the animalistic rage of his Wolverine character but with an ironic laugh, that most human of sounds.

“Promise to put that in the story,” he says. “Deb’ll love that.”

 

[narrows101]

Starlog magazine - there's a new photo of Gavin and Hugh in article.

http://www.starlog.com/comics/6-com...g-exclusive-hugh-jackman-speaks-hes-wolverine

STARLOG EXCLUSIVE: Hugh Jackman Speaks! He’s Wolverine!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009 16:08 WILL MURRAY COMICS SCENE®


An all-new, never-before-seen, one-on-one interview! Rescued from the unpublished STARLOG #375!

After a decade of berserker rage, Hugh Jackman explores the ORIGINS of his mutant anger.

A decade ago, an unknown Australian thespian named Hugh Jackman was cast at the last minute to replace another actor as the berserker mutant known as Wolverine. The first X-MEN film was already shooting. No one knew what to expect. Comic book movies were in eclipse, thanks to the battered and dying BATMAN franchise.

Reminded that STARLOG first interviewed him on that set, Jackman laughs. “Were my eyes like a rabbit in the headlights? It’s sort of unbelievable to me. I really didn’t know much about X-MEN when I got into it. My eyes were pretty wide. I was nervous in the beginning. It took a little while to settle down and get to the business of acting. But I ended up loving it. I dove into my character just to get away from the enormity of what was going on around me. There was lots of pressure. I had never known anything like it.”

X-MEN spawned two successful sequels, and helped kick off a spate of hit Marvel movies. Now, 10 years later, the X-MEN film franchise has shifted onto the shoulders of its most popular character, which means that after X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, Hugh Jackman is the last mutant standing.

And standing pretty tall, too. Now, Jackman takes the time to talk about what he hopes will be the first in a series of solo WOLVERINE films. Although it’s his fourth outing as the mutant hero, he frankly admits that didn’t mean that it was the easiest.

“It was the most challenging one, next to the first film, where I had to come to grips with a whole world and a character I wasn’t really aware of,” he relates. “It’s definitely the most satisfying. As good a go as I had in the X-MEN movies, I still had many lingering questions: Who is this guy? Where did he come from? What makes him tick? All these things that I wanted to know as an actor—and that I think audiences want to know as well.”

For this project (which hits theaters May 1), Jackman has ascended from being one of several leads to both star and producer of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. Hence the raised difficulty level. “As a producer, I was involved in every step of it,” he affirms. “Not just the script, but casting and locations and shooting and every member of the crew. So when it came to shooting the scenes, I loved it. I felt very fresh. My mantra to everybody who worked on the movie was: ‘We have to exceed expectations here. We’ve got to make sure that people understand that this isn’t simply some X-MEN spin-off, but a new kind of film.’ ”

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE revisits the Weapon X subplot from X2, but goes beyond Barry Windsor-Smith’s celebrated 1991 Marvel mini-series storyline, wherein Logan was implanted with an adamantium skeleton bonded to his retractable claws as part of a secret Canadian government project to create perfect assassins. “You can’t do an origin story on Wolverine without touching on it,” Jackman remarks. “But we touched on it before, so we needed to do it in a slightly different way. We had to really understand what brought him there. That was one of the great things that [screenwriter] David Benioff brought to the table. He had a brilliant idea about how to do that. We talked a long time about how to start a Wolverine movie series, but in the end, if you don’t solve the questions of who he is, where he came from and how he became this guy with claws, you can’t go anywhere else.”

Set largely 20 years ago, WOLVERINE tracks Logan over more than 80 years of his preternaturally long life. “It opens when he’s a little kid,” Jackman reveals. “There are elements of the ORIGINS comic book series, but I’m not sure if I can say anything more than that. But it’s definitely more than Weapon X.”

The cast of characters is culled from the galaxy of Marvel mutants. A few have appeared in the other X-MEN movies, but this time different actors play them. Among them are Liev Schreiber as the ferocious Sabretooth, and Danny Huston as William Stryker. Scott Summers cameos, but this time he’s essayed by Tim Pocock.

Perhaps the biggest casting surprise is Schreiber as Wolverine’s half-brother and feral opposite, a.k.a. Victor Creed. “People are going to love him,” Jackman promises. “He’s awesome! Liev was one of my first choices for the entire movie. I worked with him on KATE & LEOPOLD. He has great acting chops. Liev is in every way strong. He’s unbelievable. What that guy does in this film will blow everyone away. He absolutely hit it out of the park!”

While on the KATE & LEOPOLD set, Schreiber’s physical skills caught Jackman’s appreciative eye. “I saw him do this thing, and I had never seen anything like it,” he recalls. “Liev had to climb up a 50-foot, old-fashioned scaffold, and as he was going up, he slipped about nine feet—and caught himself. The crew freaked out. Liev didn’t have any wires on him, but he was safe. Then, when he went to do it again, he did exactly the same thing! Everyone was like, ‘Ahhh!’ I think the director got annoyed with him, because it was pretty dangerous, but Liev was incredible! That was when I started talking to him.”

For this film, Sabretooth has been shorn of his feline coat to shift the character focus from sheer physicality to histrionic performance. “The relationship between Victor and Wolverine is at the center of this movie,” Jackman explains. “There’s animosity. There’s history. And it’s emotional, too. You couldn’t play it in the same way that Tyler Mane did in the first X-MEN, someone six feet tall and covered in prosthetics. We took a different approach, and it really works.”

X-MEN fans expect to see some serious combat between Wolverine and Sabretooth, and they won’t be disappointed. “The most difficult was this big, long fight sequence I have with Liev,” he says. “It was night shoots, and it probably took two and a half weeks to film. It was pretty tough. It reminded me of playing rugby in my younger days. Liev is a very solid boy, and he can hit pretty hard!”

The anti-mutant military scientist William Stryker is also back. “We all love Brian Cox,” Jackman says of the actor who played the character in X2, “but the X-MEN movies are set in the not-too-distant future, and WOLVERINE is set in the not-too-distant past. So Stryker needed to be played by a different actor, and Danny is fantastic. Stryker isn’t a mutant, but his son was. Mutants surround Stryker, and he has a strange power over them. That is what has always been intriguing about the character. And that is why we needed an actor like Danny to pull it off.”

Lynn Collins plays Logan’s love interest, the mutant known as Silver Fox. “You see another side of Logan,” Jackman says. “The movie begins with Logan trying to find peace, and he thinks he is at peace. He’s with somebody whom he cares about, and he feels settled. Hopefully, many of the dark things and memories in his past have been put to bed. I was very involved in the casting of Lynn. I remember thinking, ‘Who could Logan really be with? He’s essentially a lone figure. Knowing the kind of person he is, who’s going to put up with him?’ It takes a woman of substance. Lynn is a great actor who has the depth that we needed. She was perfect for the part.”

The wild-haired Wolverine that fans demand to see in action isn’t shirked either. In combat with Sabretooth and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds)—two more products of the super-secret Weapon X program—Logan unsheathes his adamantium claws with a vengeance. “You definitely see berserker rage,” Jackman offers. “And you’ll see lots of badass Wolverine in this movie. Ryan is great. He’s unbelievably talented, very funny and has this sarcastic tone. He performed this piece of fight choreography that is as good as I’ve seen an actor do. It’s up there with Keanu Reeves in THE MATRIX. Ryan trained for weeks and weeks to do this one bit that’s going to blow people away. The crew gave him a standing ovation. Fans are going to love Ryan in this film.”

Despite the roll call of mutants, WOLVERINE isn’t merely a ferocious free-for-all. “It’s more structured,” Jackman notes. “I can understand from seeing the trailer that people would ask, ‘How on Earth is this going to hang together?’ But David came up with this great idea of how to meld a few thematic ideas from the different X-MEN comics and bring them together so that essentially it’s Wolverine’s story. But there are other great characters. One of the beauties of this film is that we have a whole bunch of different mutants. No offense, of course, to the [prior] X-Men, but fans will enjoy seeing their other favorites.”

Gavin Hood helmed WOLVERINE. The TSOTSI and RENDITION director was an unexpected choice, but the stage-trained Jackman strongly desired to ramp up a breakout character who was forced to share the spotlight with his fellow mutants in the X-MEN trilogy. “Gavin knows how to tell a story,” Jackman relates. “These movies live and die on the story, characters and the emotional arc. The cool action stuff is terrific, but I knew that with so many people involved, in order for the story to work and the characters to come to life and the relationships to pay off, we required a storyteller.

“You look at the kid’s arc in TSOTSI—he [begins entirely] closed-off, but by the movie’s end, you fully understand who he is. He goes on this massive journey. That’s reminiscent of what happens in WOLVERINE. When I talked about Logan to Gavin, he understood what WOLVERINE was all about. Gavin totally got the thematic ideas embedded within X-MEN.

“Gavin is also a very loud, bombastic, classic leader,” Jackman continues. “And in movies like this, you need that. They’re marathons. It’s like driving a massive ship. You need to have an old-fashioned captain at the helm. But Gavin was very respectful with people, and it was a happy shoot.”

In recently hosting the Oscars, Jackman may be at a career apogee few entertainers ever experience. It’s fair to say that he’s as reflective about what has already transpired as he is excited over the prospects still to come. “It was very bizarre,” Jackman muses. “Just the other day, we were shooting in Canada, and we were back at the same studio [where we filmed the first X-MEN]. I was kind of wearing the same clothes, and I was walking in with the same hair, and I said to myself, ‘It feels like I’m going back to school.’ It was like going to a school reunion.

“I realized that 10 years is a long time to be revisiting Wolverine,” he adds. “And it amazes me that I’m still as passionate about the character as I am. Probably even more so than when I began, to be honest. I think I have more confidence, more knowledge, in who Wolverine is. I definitely have more confidence on the set—and I enjoy it more! I fell in love with the character long ago. I love playing him.”

As for the future, Jackman still enjoys embodying Wolverine, and hopes to continue exploring the character. “I would never do it if people were saying, ‘Come on, man. Enough already.’ I’m not going to flog a dead horse,” he states. “But I’m open to playing him again. I know what it means to give everything to these movies. When I did this one, I gave everything. I told everybody on this movie, ‘Whatever you’ve given before, you’re going to give more.’

“And I wanted to give it more effort. physically, I wanted to be in better shape. I’ve met many fans over the years, and I understand from them what it must be like to sit back and watch other people tell the story of their beloved character. If I ever say yes again, I’ll make sure that I feel that same passion, because otherwise it would be better to get someone else to do it.”

The actor is already thinking ahead to WOLVERINE 2. “The Japan story,” Hugh Jackman reveals. “I’ve always loved that, right from the beginning. Not just visually, but the story itself. But hey, that’s me. I’m not the be-all, end-all. Who knows what will happen? But we’ll know much more come May 2!”

All X-Men Character Likenesses: Trademark & Copyright 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

All X-Men Photos: Trademark & Copyright 2009 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Wolverine Walks & Claws Extended Photos: Michael Muller

Special Thanks to Will Murray

 

[Retroman]

STUDIO Cine Live Magazine (France)

INSIDE FILM Magazine (Australia) - Issue 120 April, 2009

Under the Hood: Wolverine

[Thu 02/04/2009 03:20:00]

The success of the first three X-Men movies made them one of the biggest franchises in movie history. INSIDEFILM reveals what happened when the latest instalment was filmed in Sydney.

Gavin Hood never thought he would wind up directing a big budget Hollywood movie based on a comic book.

But a lengthy discussion with X-Men star Hugh Jackman about creating a dark but humane story about a conflicted comic book character convinced the 2006 Oscar-winning director of gritty South African gang tale Tsotsi.

“My first inclination was that I hope it doesn't turn out to be the case that I was the wrong guy,” Hood told INSIDEFILM on the set in May last year.

“I come from a very different background, a period of heightened (and thankfully) dying days of apartheid, and then living through the change, the work of Tutu and Mandela.”

At various times the studio behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 20th Century Fox, may have had the same thoughts with a rumoured $150 million backing the latest instalment in the highly lucrative X-Men franchise.

Extensive reshoots and the appearance of producer and director Richard Donner mid-way through the shoot only fuelled those rumours.

“We had Richard Donner turn up part way through the movie, and he was more of a vocal assistant director, than a silent producer, shall we say,” one on-set source says. “He was only around for a while and got the movie back on track a little bit and then went away.”

Donner, whose wife Lauren Shuler Donner is a producer on the film, has publicly said he had no directing duties on the film and only came to Sydney with Hood’s blessing.

Want to read more? Grab a copy of the April #120 issue available at newsstands now.

MEN'S FITNESS Magazine (UK) - June, 2009

Nobody wants to be that paunchy, pale bloke on the beach. Being s******ed at by more chiselled beachgoers is enough to make you want to stick your head in the sand. But don't do that - not only will it draw even more laughs, but you'll be spitting out sand for days after.

Instead, pick up our latest issue. It's is packed with workouts, nutrition, gear and grooming advice to help you get a beach body that leaves people envious and admiring, rather than in fits of derisory laughter.

But our June issue won't just get you in shape for the beach - it will arm you with the tools you need to stay in shape all year round. We've got a world-exclusive Wolverine workout to help you pack on muscle like action star Hugh Jackman, who used it to get in shape for the latest X-Men film.

We've also been looking at the dangerous and increasingly widespread phenomenon of gym rage. Many of us have experienced it - but why? How damaging is it? And how can you make sure you're not a victim? We talked to experts about the reasons for the rage and to gym-goers about their most unpleasant encounters.

We've also found the five best fat-torching gadgets, uncovered how you can eat like a king on the budget of a recession-blighted pauper and shown you how to avoid the gym pitfalls that make your workouts less effective.

RYAN REYNOLDS
The man who plays wise-cracking mutant Deadpool in the new film X-Men Origins: Wolverine talks to MF about swordfighting, dead hookers and starvation.

SOURCE: 1 2 3 4

 

[_BB_]

^ That last magazine cover is disgusting, makes me physically sick just looking at it

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Yea WTF?! Looks like the guy has about 10 hernias, and those veins?!? I've got a 6 pack, but it doesn't look nothing like that, and I'm glad. How could anyone find that attractive?

 

[squeekness]

It has to be exagerated. It looks awful.

 

[Agent Muños]

Well Wolverine seems to like it.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Nice

 

[Retroman]

He probably trained in a corset to achieve that look.


MAD Magazine (USA Edition) - Issue #500

Written and illustrated by The Usual Gang of Idiots

It's MAD's 500th issue! And it's jam-packed with just as much stupidity as you'd expect! For starters, we're welcoming back some legendary members of the Usual Gang of Idiots who haven't appeared in MAD for years! And to mark this landmark issue, Sergio Aragones is showing off his 500 (that's right five HUNDRED!) favorite Marginal cartoons! Plus, there's Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and the MAD Fold-In! And, of course, you'll find our typical stupidity, mocking the new Wolverine movie, The Jonas Brothers, The Octo-Mom, Google, Man-Boobs and so more! So stop reading and start celebrating – go buy an issue NOW!er.
MAD | 56pg. | Color | $ 5.99 US

On Sale April 29, 2009

MAD Magazine (German edition) - Issue #18

MAD Magazine (Australian edition) - Issue # 498

SOURCE: 1 2 3

 

[danoyse]

The 5/18 issue of ESPN The Magazine has the full-page Wolverine 'Got Milk?' ad on page 21 (which is now hanging up over my computer).

Also, this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly has some lovely Taylor Kitsch photos and an interview. He's apparently signed on for 2 more Wolverine/X-Men movies.

 

[narrows101]

American Cinematographer magazine - photos that were in the article are on the right.

http://www.theasc.com/magazine_dynamic/May2009/Wolverine/page1.php

 

[Retroman]

MUSCLE & FITNESS Magazine - July, 2009

Hugh Jackman’s trainer Gunnar Peterson, CSCS, gives M&F an exclusive look at how the Aussie A-lister gained and maintained his mutant physique.

INSIDE FILM Magazine (Australia) - June, 2009

Also featured HUGH JACKMAN in 4 page "X-Men Origins: Wolverine Welcome To The War" story with 8 photos
^^Looks interesting.


ENCORE Magazine (Australia) - June, 2009

• SOUTH AUSTRALIA
• CAPTIONING
• DUNGOG AND SYDNEY FESTIVALS
• WOLVERINE
• ERIC BANA

SHORT LIST Magazine (UK) - April, 2009

Hugh Jackman- Special promotional Cover on Wolverine Origins and lengthy article on comic book heroes inside.


URBAN LIFE Magazine (UK) - April, 2009

Hugh Jackman- Cover and in depth article with portrait and interview with Dominic Monaghan on the new Wolverine movie.


FRIDAY XTRA Magazine

Hugh Jackman vs Spock Movie preview for some of the summers big movies, great cover as it has Wolverine facing off Spock


DOLCE VITA Magazine

Cover and interview

Hugh Jackman: Hollywood Superhero

June 5, 2009 by Stephanie D'Angelo

Blazing back to the big screen after a successful Broadway stint, Hugh Michael Jackman resumes his popular role of Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine – and the ride is wilder than ever. The latest addition to the X-Men saga tells the story of Wolverine’s epically violent and romantic past, the ominous Weapon X program, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed, played by Liev Schreiber. Along the way, Jackman’s alter ego encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.

A stage and screen actor of remarkable versatility, Aussie Hugh Jackman holds the title of one of People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive,” while also maintaining fandom among legions of comic book enthusiasts. Such a diverse following is a testament to the actor’s unaffected charm, leading-man looks, and classical stage training that has equipped him to alternate between great displays of theatricality and calculated reserve. Since the start, audiences have embraced Jackman, as his rare talent quickly secured him a spot as one of Hollywood’s favourite actors. Today, fans are as gaga as ever, cheering his portrayal of edgy mutant Wolverine, swooning over him in Baz Luhrman’s sweeping period drama Australia, and honouring him with a Tony Award for his portrayal of ostentatious songwriter Peter Allen in the Broadway musical, The Boy from Oz.

As the youngest of five siblings known to clown around for attention, the 41-year-old actor has always been destined for Hollywood. Thankfully, the child’s play paid off in a big way when Jackman landed a role on the Australian prison drama Corelli. He powerfully played violent and manipulative prison inmate Kevin Jones opposite Deborra-Lee Furness, who starred as the title criminal psychologist. The couple’s budding romance on-screen led to a behind-the-scenes relationship and, eventually, a longtime marriage. This launched Jackman into a whole new role; father to the couple’s two adopted children, Oscar Maximillion and Ava Eliot.

A long way from his humble beginnings, Jackman has starred in over 30 Broadway hits and box-office blockbusters, as well as hosting the Academy Awards this past February. With a thriving career under his belt, Jackman has earned respect and recognition in his field, winning a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Kate & Leopold.

Now a household name, the Australian heartthrob has proven his versatility in roles such as Kate & Leopold, in which he played a courtly gentleman well-versed in the old-fashioned politics of romantic love, and Australia, a historical epic co-starring Jackman and Nicole Kidman as unlikely lovers who meet under the duress of World War II. Radically different from Jackman’s previous roles, these films helped solidify a major female fan base. However, fans and critics agree that Jackman really shines when he trades his romantic threads to don the sideburns and claws of Wolverine.

An actor who’s quickly rising to the top, we can rest assured that there is much more to come from Hugh Jackman.

HUGH JACKMAN INTERVIEW EXCLUSIVE
Q: WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOU IDENTIFY WITH WOLVERINE?
A: I can always identify with that feeling of being alienated, being different; about having things about yourself that you don’t understand. There is a lot of pain underneath that, and there is not a person on this planet that doesn’t mask some kind of pain that comes out in behaviour in some way. We all have that, and as a youngster I had a bad temper.

Q: HOW DID IT FEEL TO JUMP BACK INTO THE ROLE OF WOLVERINE WITHOUT THE OTHER X-MEN?
A: Actually, to be honest, it took me a couple of days before I got into it. But after that, it was great. I did miss Halle Berry though.

Q: HOW DID YOU TRAIN FOR THIS ROLE?
A: I train every morning when I’m doing the role, and really, if you ever saw me in [the gym] you would be a little frightened and think, ‘That’s not Hugh.’ I turn up Godsmack or Metallica and start screaming, yelling and swearing like there is no tomorrow and lift weights as though I’m at that breaking point. I always feel that you have to think that [Wolverine] is on that point where at any time he could snap and just go “berserk,” as they say in the comics. So I do practise that. It’s good therapy.

Q: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HOW FAR YOU’VE COME?
A: If five years ago you asked me where I’d dream to be in five years, it would be this. I love the Wolverine character and franchise. I’ve worked with Woody Allen, Darren Aronofsky, and Christopher Nolan. This is where I hoped I would be.

Q: WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT THE FIRST X-MEN MOVIE, DID YOU KNOW THAT IT WAS ALL GOING TO TURN OUT THIS WAY?
A: No one did. I’ll be honest with you, when I finished the [first] film there was no sense of, ‘Oh, this guy is really coming up with something. This is the guy to watch.’ Trust me, there was none of that. I never even thought that. So when the movie opened it shocked everyone, and trust me they were drunk at Fox for about a week! No one was expecting the success that we had. I think that they underestimated the fan base for it and how happy the fans were for the movie. So it did kind of change over night, and then all of a sudden my agent was getting calls rather than calling people.

Q: YOU’RE ALSO A DEVOTED FAMILY MAN AND FATHER. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF THROUGH FATHERHOOD?
A: Oh, yeah, it makes you learn a lot about yourself. I think it also makes you learn about your own parents. Sometimes my wife will compare me to my father because the things coming out of my mouth sound exactly like my dad – those things that I swore on my life that I would never do [or say]. It’s the most annoying thing and it’s sort of bizarre. So, in a way, yes, you do learn about yourself. I’ve also found that your marriage goes to a whole other level. Not only do you fall in love with your wife in a whole different way, but you’re also kind of forced to pull together your own philosophies about parenthood, even though you might’ve grown up in completely different environments. Somehow now, you’ve got to become this united front. But children are just the most pure reflection of the truth at any given moment. For example – not that I’m trying to bring it
up – but I was labelled with something that I never thought would happen (Sexiest Man Alive). My son Oscar, who’s eight, goes: ‘You? You’ve got to be kidding me.’ And I thought, ‘There’s the truth.’

Q: WHAT IS IT LIKE KNOWING THAT YOUR KIDS ARE GROWING UP IN A WORLD OF CELEBRITY THAT YOU NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH?
A: It’s scary. There is definitely a worry there, a huge one to me. It’s one of the reasons that I base myself in New York as opposed to L.A., because I think that in L.A. the traps are even bigger and everyone is somehow described by their relationship to the business, whatever it is. And to be Wolverine’s son can be a huge burden. I mean, my dad was an accountant and so no one cared. I thought it was cool. I thought that the fax machine was cool or whatever, but no one is like, ‘Hey, your dad did a big case with the World Bank. I loved it. He’s doing great.’ So there is a normalcy that I was used to that they aren’t, and I am thinking about that all the time.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR PARENTS?
A: Usually my answer to that is how annoying it is that everyone has advice for you, and it becomes more of a burden than anything else. But I can tell you something that I got from Super Nanny. I’m shameless. She is so good. When you’re kid is about nine months, she says that you should start to put them in a cot, and sit next to the bed at bedtime but don’t look at the child. You look down, don’t say a thing and every two minutes you move away to the door. So the child is seeing you and is crying because they’re pissed off that you’re not holding them, but they’re not scared. I tried it with my daughter and within three nights she was sleeping and waking up happy. My son would never go right. We tried everything. That’s the only advice I have. Super Nanny – click her on. If she has a book, buy it because that chick is unbelievable.

Q: HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO BALANCE YOUR WORK SCHEDULE
AND FAMILY LIFE?
A: When I’m not working I hang out with my family. It’s not like I’m playing golf or that. Well, I do play a bit of golf. I think that’s they key: Never really grow up. Keep the child alive in you forever.

SOURCE LINKS: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

 

[narrows101]

Thanks Retro! Love the photo on the Dolce Vita magazine.

 

[Retroman]

Thanks Retro! Love the photo on the Dolce Vita magazine.

No prob.