Friday April 10, 2009
Tough as adamantium
Stories by SHEELA CHANDRAN
Not even Sabretooth can stop Hugh Jackman from raving about his latest role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
FILLED with true fervour and determination – that about sums up how Emmy award-winning actor Hugh Jackman feels about reprising his role as resident bad-a$$ Wolverine in Gavin Hood’s latest sci-fi sensation X-Men Origins: Wolverine. From being part of an ensemble cast in the previous X-Men movies, it looks like the handsome star has firmly set foot in leading man territory, especially after landing the titular role in this upcoming flick.
Hugh Jackman: ‘Physically, I wanted to have an animalistic and veiny look for the role.’ “Wolverine is one of the most complex characters in Marvel Comics’s X-Men series. He is a good guy but never the nice guy,” said Jackman during a press interview and set visit at Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia, last May. “I grew up watching Dirty Harry, Indiana Jones and Mad Max and Wolverine is archetypal of that sort of role. Perhaps, that’s the reason I’m still drawn to the role.”
While the previous X-Men film series (X-Men in 2000, X-2 in 2004 and X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006) focused on the entire team, Origins – co-written by Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee and David Benioff – is a prequel that concentrates solely on Wolverine.
Naturally, Jackman is feeling the pressure.
“Other cast members like Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Halle Berry (Storm) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique) won’t be on set. Our challenge would be delivering fans a powerful experience to relate to Wolverine and if they don’t relate, we’re in big trouble,” he joked.
Delving into the past
In the comic book series, Wolverine a.k.a James Howlett/Logan is a rugged loner who has lived 15 years without any sort of memory of who he is. He possesses animal-keen senses, has retracting bone claws and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any injury.
During the interview, the Australian heart-throb was hesitant to divulge too much information about the movie. However, after much persuasion, he finally gave in to the reporters’ questions about Wolverine’s origins.
“In the comic book’s history, there is great debate as there are a number of versions to his past. Several artists had created different versions of the character’s background so it’s tricky to pin down his origins. Fantastic and tempting as it was, there’s no way of doing a true Wolverine story till you truly understand who he really is.
“The movie traces back to the time Wolverine was a 10-year-old kid with a mutation. It follows his relationship with arch-nemesis Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and his warrior days (as in the comic books),” he elaborated. In the Marvel world, the specifics of Wolverine and Sabretooth’s feud are undetailed. However, it is known that they were victims of the Cold War supersoldier program Weapon X and that Sabretooth saw Wolverine as competition and tried to make his life miserable. The two have been adversaries ever since.
Director Gavin Hood explained it was virtually impossible to condense years of the comic book writings into a two-hour movie experience.
“We tried to find great defining themes around Wolverine’s character. The comic books have evolved over 30 years and have been drawn by many artists and written by different writers. If comic book fans are honest, they would understand there isn’t one definitive stand alone story. Although different writers have covered Wolverine from different angles, there is always one central theme and eponymous catch phrase: ‘I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice.’”
The movie is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy, and focuses on Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine’s skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium.
Jackman explained the movie focuses on Wolverine’s conflicts and how he handles emotional pressure. It dwells on his revenge against Creed for the death of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Howlett (played by Alice Parkinson) and how he joins the mutant Weapon X programme lead by William Stryker (Danny Huston).
Co-starring with Jackman are Daniel Henney, Ryan Reynolds and Dominic Monaghan.
“It is about Wolverine battling between human and animal, anger and love. Although he appears as tough as ‘teflon’, there’s an immense amount of pain and darkness underneath his physical strength,” said Jackman. “Bryan Singer (who directed X-Men and X-2) revolutionised Hollywood movies by enabling viewers to relate to superhuman characters. He tried to root the whole character story line in reality. And that’s what I want to do as an actor. It’s not so much about how I get the claws out of my hand but really the human aspects of playing Wolverine,” he said, revealing that some of the movie’s highlights would be its fantastic fight sequences.
Juggling responsibilities
For the past 10 years, Jackman has slowly but surely carved a name for himself as one of Hollywood’s most attractive and talented stars. Born in Sydney, the versatile Aussie started off as a stage actor (with a resume that includes having acted in Beauty and the Beast, Sunset Boulevard and Oklahama!); with film (Erskineville Kings and Paperback Hero) and television credentials (Banjo Paterson’s The Man from Snowy River). In 2000, he was thrust into the limelight after starring as Logan/Wolverine in X-Men.
After X-Men, came a string of Hollywood movies including Kate & Leopold, Swordfish, Van Helsing, The Prestige, The Fountain and most recently Australia. Last November, People magazine called Jackman the “Sexiest Man Alive.” And in February, the three-time Tony Awards host, took centrestage as the master of ceremonies at the 81st Academy Awards. Next year, he is slated to be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
But despite his current success, the actor does not seem to be resting on his laurels.
“The moment I graduated from drama school, I never wanted to be in a position waiting around for the phone to ring. One needs to move forward and look for new things. If you have more leverage in business, you should attempt a chance at it,” he said.
True to his words, Jackman has taken on added responsibility as Wolverine’s producer.
“Being a producer means having to think of ways to better the movie or ways to go to the next level. As an actor, I have to think of ways to make the character four times fresher and how to fit that into the story.
“The thing I didn’t quite anticipate was when you’re the producer, you have to be ‘grown up’ which goes against the grain a little bit,” he admitted, laughing. “And there are times where you can’t be the nice guy especially when you have to say tough things.”
Fit as a fiddle
Despite having undergone a series of film shoots on the island at the time of this interview, Jackman seemed energetic and friendly throughout. Sporting blue jeans, denim shirt and boots, Jackman looked stunning. When queried about his trim and fit figure, Jackman confessed that it took lots of hard work and strict discipline.
In the movie, Wolverine’s action-packed role necessitates multiple combative scenes and hence, it was essential for Jackman to maintain both muscular size and definition without compromising athleticism. HealthandMen magazine stated that for his role in X-Men 3, the actor was benching 315 and leg pressing 1,000lbs in preparation. For this role, he worked much harder to look robust and athletic.
“Wolverine is laidback but, underneath it all, he’s as tough as a coil spring that’s ready to explode. Physically, I wanted to have an animalistic and veiny look for the role. In order to attain this look, I trained pretty hard.”
But the toughest part of all for Jackman was having to deal with the strict diet.
“I had to wake up at 4am and breakfast comprised egg white and a piece of dried whole meal toast. At 4pm, it was optional to go back to sleep. Then, it’s off to the gym for training. To maintain my shape and energy, I had to have protein in my body every three hours. It was tough but I feel I’m in better shape,” he said.
Jackman’s co-stars Henney (who plays Agent Zero) and Schreiber decided to follow suit and try out the diet. However, after a week, the duo gave it up.
Said Korean-Caucasian Henney, who co-starred in Korean hit drama My Name is Kim Sam Soon: “We tried the whole high diet and gym routine but we couldn’t stick by the strict rules. Liev threw up as he couldn’t consume saltless dried chicken. I couldn’t do it either but it was fun to try out.”
< X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens in cinemas nationwide on April 29.
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