Hugh Jackman

by Anthony Bunko

  But the studio didn’t leave him entirely alone with a microphone. He worked with a fantastic woman called Susan, who would read opposite him in New York or in the UK. She was a rare talent and at every session she would read every part, going from Toad to Rita, to Sid to Whitey, with so much ease that it really helped him get to grips with the situation. Jackman also enjoyed being able to ad-lib and play around with the character a bit, although he admitted he wasn’t half as good as the master himself, Woody Allen.

  To make the actors feel at home, the writers included as much as they could get away with from past roles. In one scene, Roddy is looking for an outfit to wear and he goes into the wardrobe and picks up a Wolverine costume. Then, in another clip, Rita (voiced by Kate Winslet) watches her boat sink in the same way as Rose does in Titanic.

  The voiceover work was exciting for Hugh, and for the first time ever he really appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to sit through hair and make-up everyday. As with most animation projects, videotapes of the actors performing with their voices in the booths are shot so the gestures can be incorporated into the character drawings. Hugh was amazed when he saw the final result: ‘I did see some similarities. It’s a little frightening to see yourself looking like a rodent, but it’s an adorable one, right? A pampered pet, shall we say. But no, there are some things definitely and they were filming it all the time. It was great going back in to see how these scenes were evolving, to see how they were using that. Anyway, it was interesting.’

  Flushed Away collected $64 million in the United States on its release, which was below the average of other CGI films from DreamWorks, but a healthy $111 million from international markets to give a worldwide total of $176 million. It was the second of two Aardman-produced films released by DreamWorks, but things didn’t work out and Aardman’s experience with DreamWorks during the making of the movie led to a split between the two studios.

  Last, but not least for Hugh in this phenomenal year was the release of the long-awaited Warner Bros animated film Happy Feet, which was set deep inside the icy land of Antarctica. This was an American-Australian computer-animated comedy-drama with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio, Animal Logic.

  The storyline was simple, if not a little wacky. Two emperor penguins have a baby named Mumble, who develops an amazing skill for tap dancing, even though this is not acceptable for penguins. Even worse, he can’t sing, unlike the rest of the emperor penguins. As a teenager, Mumble is torn apart from his mom, dad and best friend Gloria, and ventures off into the icy landscape only to be rescued from a leopard seal by a group of Adélie penguins. They take him to their home and discover that all their fish is being taken by an unknown ‘alien’ source, so they ask Lovelace, the unwise and cocky leader of the Adélies, to help them. Unfortunately, he proves no help at all, which leads to an incredible adventure as they try to discover the threat to their food source and their survival. Using courage and bravery, Mumble teaches everyone that uniqueness isn’t a burden, but a gift to be treasured.

  Hugh plays Memphis, Mumble’s father and wannabe king of rock and roll: ‘I’m a penguin who thinks he’s Elvis.’ He found it bizarre and said he had no intention of doing more Elvis-style work. ‘I don’t want to raise your hopes too high because when I first went in there, the character’s name was Elvis and the second session I went in, all of a sudden this character was called Memphis. I said, “George, is this a reflection on my ability?” He goes, “Oh, I was only ever after the essence of Elvis, really.” I’m like, “Thanks, mate!”’

  The film opened at number one in the United States on its first weekend of release (17–19 November) grossing $41.6 million and beating Casino Royale to the top spot. It remained number one for the Thanksgiving weekend, making $51.6 million over the five-day period. In total, the movie was the top grosser for three weeks, a 2006 box-office feat matched only by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. As of 8 June 2008, Happy Feet had grossed $198 million in the US and $186.3 million overseas, making about $384.3 million worldwide against the production budget of $100 million. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, an award presented by the International Animated Film Association.

  With two animated films in the bag, Jackman was now hooked on voice work and couldn’t wait for his next opportunity in the strange, but fascinating world: ‘I loved it. I wouldn’t say it was easy. It was actually difficult, the acting part, but it was lovely to go to work. You walk into the studio, they turn on a button and you record everything. There’s no hair, no make-up, no nothing, and for four hours you can do the entire script. You ad-lib, you play around, you do things and you get a lot done. It’s sort of easy in that way but I really enjoyed it and I love these movies. Look, I’ve got a six-year-old and a one-year-old, so probably almost at least twice a week I’ve got an animated movie of some description playing in my house. It’s good to be actually involved in one of them. I think I’ve seen Shrek a hundred times.’

  Within 12 short months, he had achieved more than most actors do in a decade. It was also rumoured that he actually turned down the role as James Bond before it was offered to Daniel Craig. He later said he wasn’t offered the role directly – the Bond people don’t do things like that – but it was floated in his direction. However, he floated it back and asked to see the script first. Again, the Bond people just don’t hand out scripts and so after some contemplation, he decided against the role: ‘Part of me thought, I’d love to play him. It was a childhood dream, but the other part of me wasn’t passionate enough about it.’

  ‘When he’s on set with the baby, Hugh is just like he is with adults. He’s interesting. He cares. He’s full-bodied with people.’

  John Travolta

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Film from Oz

  For the third time in his career, Hugh found himself taking over the role of a leading man in a big production when Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann cast him to replace Russell Crowe in his much-publicised film, Australia. It co-starred Nicole Kidman in an epic tale that galloped through his native country’s dusty wartime history.

  Crowe, Luhrmann’s first choice originally, accepted the part and even went so far as to build a set of stables on his own sprawling ranch to house the massive herd of horses, before production delays and talk of possible budget cuts alienated the A-list star. All of which proved good news for Jackman, who, as a native of Sydney was desperate to be involved in the ambitious project. ‘Of course, for me to be part of an Australian movie on this scale, that’s the most important thing, to tell a story that looks at its history.’ And in typical Jackman-style he remained very philosophical about again handling a script that had someone else’s fingerprints on it: ‘No problem at all. That’s like saying I’ll never do Hamlet because Gielgud did it 500 times. When people watch the movie, it’s your role. Maybe I’m arrogant, but I can’t audition unless I feel I’m the right person for the part. I don’t compare myself to anyone else: Russell would have been different in Australia, Brad would have been different in The Fountain. I don’t mind coming off the bench to pinch-hit.’

  Luhrmann had talked to him three years previously about the then untitled film. He explained the story as if they were two friends sitting comfortably around a campfire, but never sent Hugh the script. Later, Hugh met Nicole Kidman at a Super Bowl party in the US, where she told him that she had overheard that he was going to be in Luhrmann’s new movie. Hugh hesitated and replied that he hadn’t even read the script yet and didn’t know anything about it. ‘Nor me,’ Nicole answered, ‘but it’s Baz… just sign on.’

  And that was what Hugh intended to do, given the opportunity. So later, when he received a call from the director, he quickly blurted out, ‘Man, I’d love to be part of it.’ He genuinely couldn’t wait and on talking to the rest of the cast, discovered that they also felt the same
when invited to star in the epic. The crew and everybody just wanted to be a part of it, knowing that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

  In the role, Hugh plays a tough, independent cattle drover, who reluctantly helps an English noblewoman in her quest to save both her philandering husband’s Australian cattle station and the mixed-race Aboriginal child she finds there. The drover, the Australian version of a cowboy, is a man of few words who expresses everything through the flicker of an eye or a purse of the lips, like a Clint Eastwood character from the great spaghetti-western days.

  The tale centres on Kidman’s character, Lady Sarah Ashley, an aristocratic English woman who travels to the Outback on the eve of World War Two in search of her missing husband. Learning of his demise, she sets out to claim her family inheritance: a huge cattle station spreading out over a territory roughly the size of Belgium. Ashley is then forced to team up with Jackman, known only as ‘the Drover’. Together, they embark on an arduous journey, driving a herd of 2,000 cattle across 500 miles of harsh terrain towards Darwin until they get caught up in the bombing of the Northern Territory capital by the Japanese.

  ‘Movies on this scale, these big, epic romantic adventures simply don’t happen very often,’ said Hugh. ‘It eclipses anything that has ever been done down there. Baz has been very open about it, making comparisons to Out of Africa and Gone with the Wind. And if you put those epic films in a melting pot, I think you’ll understand the relationship between the two lead characters pretty well. It’s been a laugh working with Nicole. She and I have known each other for almost 15 years; she’s best friends with my wife.’

  The cast and crew read like a Who’s Who of Australian talent. It included Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown and David Wenham. There was even a place for Rolf Harris and his wobble board on the end credits. But the real star, however, was the spectacular scenery of the Northern Territory and the outback of Western Australia with its wild and mysterious landscapes. Tourism Australia spent $40 million on a campaign, with commercials, directed by Luhrmann, linked with the release of the motion picture in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and South Korea. It was all part of the plan to help halt the recession and combat fluctuating international fuel prices. Tourism Australia worked with Luhrmann and Twentieth Century Fox on a publicity campaign called, ‘See the Movie, See the Country’, based on movie maps and location guides to transform the film into a real-life travel adventure.

  The tourism industry hoped that Luhrmann’s film would deliver visitors from all over the world in the same kind of numbers that came to the country following the 1986 release of Crocodile Dundee, or to New Zealand after the release of the Lord of the Rings films. Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said, ‘This movie will potentially be seen by tens of millions of people and it will bring life to little-known aspects of Australia’s extraordinary natural environment, history and indigenous culture.’

  The opening scene set the background for the most expensive and most eagerly anticipated Australian film ever produced. When Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), the uptight English aristocrat, arrives in Darwin in the Northern Territory in search of her husband, Maitland Ashley, his drover (Hugh), swaggering in moleskin trousers and a battered Akubra hat, is sent to meet her. They stop at a bar, where Drover gets involved in a pub brawl. In the chaos that ensues some of Lady Ashley’s luggage (designed by Prada for the film) is ransacked; her underwear, corsets, brassieres and stockings all thrown up in the air like confetti. ‘Welcome to Australia,’ the bloodied Drover replies, leaving the audience with a taste of what is to come.

  The film was shot in destinations all around Australia, such as Sydney, Camden and the Queensland sugar town of Bowen. Bowen was considered an ideal location to recreate Darwin because of the two huge vacant lots near Bowen’s Wharf and also because the local government provided Luhrmann with $500,000 to film there. About 600 Bowen residents were cast as extras and another 100 worked as volunteer guides for tourists visiting the town during filming over the year.

  In addition to increasing tourism in the country, everyone involved with the movie hoped that it would become the one to represent their native country, doing the same for the people Down Under as Braveheart did for the Scots. Luhrmann meticulously researched the entire history of Australia for the film, even prior to the European settlement. He put together detailed notes that he made available to the actors on request; he also read every book about the country that he could find and settled on two dark and unappreciated points in history on which to base his work. The first was during the Japanese attack on Darwin, which was, surprisingly, twice as big as the one on Pearl Harbor. Japan actually attacked Darwin 64 times. Strategically, it was an important target due to the amount of oil that fed the American war ships. Casualties were reported to have reached 3,000 yet Aboriginal people were never officially put on that list, so the toll was actually a lot higher.

  This led to the real heart of the movie, and the second and probably most significant point in Australian history in the film: the social injustice to the Aboriginals and their culture. Indeed, the film’s strongest storyline lay with the character Nullah, a mixed-race Aboriginal boy played brilliantly by thirteen-year-old newcomer Brandon Walters. Nullah was trying to escape the cruel fate of forced separation from his Aboriginal family. Unbelievably, up until as late as 1973, Aboriginal children were snatched by the authorities and brought up in church missions to ‘breed the black out’, thus becoming known as the ‘Stolen Generation’.

  For Hugh, like many others who grew up in the country, the Stolen Generation was something he had never learned about in school, but he found out about it later when he spent some time working in the Outback in his late teens: ‘To go out there and meet those people and work with them was wonderful. It gave me a great appreciation for how tough life is and about the indomitable spirit that the Aboriginal people have always possessed.’

  Interestingly enough, the Australian government, which had never really apologised for the indignation, did so the year the film came out.

  Australia was the first time that Hugh had teamed up with Nicole Kidman in a film. She also just happened to be best friends with his wife, Deborra-Lee. In fact, when Nicole first moved to Hollywood, she lived with Deb just before she made Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise. It was Deb who answered the phone when Tom called to ask Nicole out on their first date. ‘So it was a great situation because, although we knew each other, there was still quite a lot of mystery there,’ Hugh said, mentioning also that although it’s easier to work with people you know, this can also present a problem: ‘It’s one thing you’ve got to watch when you’re working for a long period of time; familiarity breeds contempt in terms of the camera. If you really like each other you can become too comfortable and for this movie our relationship had to have tension and passion to throw us together. If you’re too laid-back, somehow all the air goes out of the room. With Nicole you’re never quite sure what’s coming, which is fantastic. She’s like that in life too and she’s an amazing actor.’

  The film’s success depended largely on the chemistry between the pair. Hugh recalled: ‘I don’t think there was a day we shot where there wasn’t a moment of magic and it’s the thing we all live for, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, so the result was something beautiful.

  ‘While it’s never particularly comfortable making out with someone in front of 70 people, it was not the toughest day at the office! When I saw the movie for the first time, my wife was next to me, and just after the very first kiss, Deb went, “That was great!” So if your wife gives you the thumbs-up, you know you’re on the right track!’

  He remembered one particular kiss that he and Nicole shared. It was really hot and his lips were dry. When they parted a bridge of saliva spanned between them and kept going and going until it broke, causing everyone to burst out laughing.

  It wasn’t just their friendship that made the love scenes awkward. Hugh explained that it was because the scenes
were so highly choreographed by Luhrmann. The couple got confused trying to align what they were doing with what the camera wanted: ‘He [Luhrmann] wants it to be beautiful and sensual and that takes choreography with the camera. He didn’t necessarily give me tips in bed, but he did tell me where to put my arms and how to arch my back, for example.’

  During one love scene, Nicole saved Hugh from a poisonous scorpion – for real. She was about to join him in a sleeping bag when she noticed the scorpion crawling up his leg. She calmly instructed him not to move, scooped it into her hat, and walked over to the woods and released it. Everyone applauded and when she was asked why she hadn’t just stamped on it. She said, ‘I would never kill an animal. Every creature here has its purpose. This one just didn’t belong in Hugh’s bag!’

  She confessed that she was a big fan of Hugh’s work and that working with him was a ball: ‘He was such a movie star and so fantastic to work with. There was a lot of mystery to Hugh, which was good. He was tough and romantic at the same time. Australian men are a different breed. They’re rugged and they sweat.’

  Although she had worked with the talented director in the past on the musical Moulin Rouge, it was the first time for Jackman and it took a while for him to get used to his habits. Hugh said, ‘With Baz, as soon as you arrive on set, even in costume fitting, you’re in character because there could be a camera on you at any point. Apparently in Moulin Rouge there were quite a number of shots from the costume fittings that made the final film. For him there is no separation. He would talk to me as the Drover, which helped create a bit of mystery. Baz is also a perfectionist and it’s not uncommon for him to do 30, 40 or 50 takes, but because of the way he does it, I don’t find it annoying.’