People | June 18, 2015 11:28 AM EDT
50 Interesting Facts About ‘The Wolverine’ – Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman is a famous Australian actor, producer and singer. Hugh Jackman is famously known to everyone as “The Wolverine” with big claws, however there is much more to him than meets the eye. Here are some interesting facts about him -
- He was born as Hugh Michael Jackman on 12 October, 1968 in Sydney New South Wales, Australia.
- He was born to Christopher John Jackman (accountant from Cambridge) and Grace McNeil, both hailing from England.
- His parents migrated to Australia in 1967 under the “Ten Pound Immigration scheme”, where Ten Pounds were paid to adult immigrants and children travelled for free. This scheme was introduced to increase the Australian population and to provide labor for country’s booming industry.
- He has four older siblings and only the second of his siblings to be born in Australia. He also has a half sister from his mother’s remarriage.
- His parents got divorced when he was just eight. His mother returned to England and his father brought up five children on his own. Jackman’s early years were spent with his godparents.
- Jackman, in his childhood, liked outdoors. He used to spend times in beaches, on camping trips and traveling all over Australia. He would always spend nights with atlases. His childhood dream was to become a chef on a plane. He thought there has to be a chef in board to provide food and be able to travel around the world.
- He started his primary in Pymble Public School and went on to Knox Grammar School on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. He even played in musical drama “My Fair Lady” in 1985.
- He graduated in 1991 from University of Technology, Sydney with a BA in Communication. In his final year he took drama course for extra credits. He was the lead in the drama “The Memorandum”. He stated that he felt more connected to the people there for the first time, since starting his graduation.
- That was the time when he contemplated acting as his career rather than just a hobby. He was of the opinion that acting and music were to round out a man. When he reached 22, he made up his mind to become an actor for a living.
- He joined a one year course “The Journey” at the Actors Centre in Sydney. After completing that he was offered a role in soap opera “Neighbours” but turned it down. He attended “Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts” of Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.
- On the night of his Academy graduation performance he received an offer for a role in “Correlli.” It is a ten part drama series on ABC. Although it lasted for only one season, it was his first major job.
- Jackman went back on stage in Melbourne in 1996, playing Gaston in Walt Disney production of “Beauty and the Beast.” He also played as Joe Gillis in “Sunset Boulevard.”
- He started his film career with “Erskineville Kings” and “Paperback Hero” in 1999.
- In 1998 he played the lead role of Curly in the stage production “Oklahoma” by Royal National Theatre in London. He was nominated for Oliver Awards for Best Actor in Musical. This made him famous outside of Australia.
- He was one of the presenters at 2002 Academy Awards. He now has a second thought of doing it again. According to him, he would rather be with friends partying all night, drinking to the brim instead of speaking few lines and sleeping for merely an hour.
- His first major hit was in the movie X-Men in 1999 as Logan or as Wolverine he is now known as. He was cast in the last minute replacing Dougray Scott. Scott was busy with Mission Imposible and required extension of two more months.
- He found it very tough to portray Wolverine as it had very few lines and lot of emotions to convey. To prepare for that he watched Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry Movies and Mel Gibson in Road Warrior.
- He was adamant at doing his own stunts for the movie. He even studied Martial Arts to work better on Wolverine’s movement.
- He watched Mike Tyson fights to capture the animal rage mike possessed during the fights. This was also helpful for Wolverine character as he needed to demonstrate same kind of rage.
- For the movie he practiced wearing the claws regularly. He got injured wearing them at home, which he attributed to him being very clumsy.
- Jackman at 6ft 2.5 inches is 30 cm taller than the original comic hero. To portray him as a short man, director had to shoot him at various angles and sometimes showing only half of his body. His co-actors in the movie had to wear platform soles to look taller than him.
- Jackman was nominated for best Actor in Golden Globe Awards for his role as Leopold in 2001 movie “Kate and Leopold.”
- He also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2001.
- He had not watched any episode of “Saturday Night Live” before he hosted it. The producers sent him tapes of the show so that he may have an idea about it. His favorite was the one hosted by Conan O’Brien.
- In 2004 he won Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor. He won this for his role in the Musical “The Boy from OZ” portraying an Australian songwriter “Peter Allen.”
- He also hosted Tony Awards in the year 2003, 2004 and 2005. For his performance as a host in 2004, he received Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performer.
- Jackman co-starred with Daniel Craig in a play “A Steady Rain” in 2009 at Schoenfeld Theatre.
- He again returned to Broadway for a show “Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway” at the Broadhust Theatre in 2011.
- He returned to Broadway again for a new show “The River” at the “Circle in the Square Theatre” from October 2014 to February 2015.
- He played the role of famous Monster Killer Gabriel Van Helsing in the movie “Van Helsing” in 2004.
- He was selected to play James Bond in “Casino Royal” in 2006 but eventually the role went to Daniel Craig.
- He was appreciated for his role as Robert Angier in the movie “The Prestige” in 2006. He co-starred with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Scarlett Johannson in the movie.
- According to him, he accepted the role only because he wanted to act alongside Musician David Bowie who played as scientist Nikola Tesla in the movie.
- Jackman had stated that “The Fountain” was his most difficult film so far. He had played three different characters in that science fiction movie.
- He had to completely shave off his head and chest hair for the last few scenes in the movie “The Fountain”.
- Jackman played the role of Jean Valjean in the movie “Les Miserables” an adaptation of the musical in 2012. He lost 15 pounds for the character and again gained 30 pounds as per the script to mirror his character’s newfound success.
- He won Golden Globe for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013 for his performance in “Les Miserables.”
- In 2008 he was named as Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine. He was also rated at the top of Most Powerful Actors List by Forbes in 2013.
- He is a Global Advisor for Global Poverty Project. With Hugh Evens, the founder of the project he visited the UN for the cause in 2009.
- He is a longtime supporter of “microcredit”- providing small loans to prospective entrepreneurs in poor countries. He is an avid supporter of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer of microcredit.
- He has once stated in an interview that he is a huge fan of “Friday The 13th.” He became an actor as he wanted to play the character Jason.
- He met his wife Deborra Lee Furness on the set of TV show "Correlli." They got married on April 11 1996 in Melbourne.
- His wife had two miscarriages. This prompted them to adopt two mixed race children, Oscar and Ava.
- He is a non smoker in real life and finds it very difficult and horrible to smoke in the movies.
- He holds the record for playing the same comic book character more than any other actor. He played as Wolverine in seven different movies. Christopher Reeve has played as Superman in 4 movies.
- He credits his good friend Russell Crowe for his stardom. When Russell Crowe turned down the lead role in X-Men, he recommended Jackman to director Bryan Singer personally.
- Jackman along with Daniel Craig have raised $1549953 from their Broadway drama “The Steady Rain,” in the 21st annual Gypsy of the Year competition and contributed it to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fund in December 2009.
- He continued his support and raised nearly $1 million during his run of Hugh Jackman: back on Broadway, in the year 2011.
- Jackman has a number of films in the pipeline including the much awaited Wolverine and Pan, a story that revolves around the back-stories of J.M. Barrie's characters Peter Pan and Captain Hook, in which he will play the villain Blackbeard.
- In case of the upcoming Wolverine sequel, Jackman has claimed that it will mark his final movie as Wolverine. He posted an image to Instagram featuring three of Wolverine’s claws with the caption: “WOLVERINE ... ONE LAST TIME. HJ.”
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