Hugh Jackman: It’s a tall order being me

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When Hugh Jackman tried to crack Hollywood it quickly became apparent that he had a BIG problem… literally. “They told me I was too tall!” he says. “I’m 6ft 2in, and when I first came, everyone said, ‘Oh, man!’ They listed all the big movie stars and all of them were shorter than me! Maybe it’s for the girls, I don’t know.

“But I do know that when I began, I spent my time with my shoes off doing half a squat for whole scenes – hey, when you get your first Hollywood job and they tell you to look shorter, you say, “Absolutely! Twelve hours? No problem!” Besides, squatting’s good for your legs!’

He adds, with a laugh, that when he finally got his breakthrough role, of the feared muscle-clad superhero Wolverine in the Marvel comics series X-Men, his height was an issue even then.

“I met (Sony Pictures chairman) Tim Rothman and everything went well, and then when I was actually leaving his office, he said, ‘Oh, there’s just one issue – in the comics, Wolverine is 5ft 5in. I said, “It’s not a problem!” and literally walked out of his office with my knees bent!’

He was 32 when Wolverine made him famous and says now he is grateful that success didn’t come sooner.

“I’m fully aware that I was over 30 when I did it,” he says. “I didn’t really have any profile in Hollywood until then, and I’m glad of that because, hopefully, by the time you’re 30, you kind of know who you are, what you stand for, what’s important to you. I’m sure there are some actors who find being famous suffocating and unbearable. But for me, I went into it with my eyes wide open, so I’m doing OK.”

An enviably versatile performer who is able to move from the world of superheroes in the X-Men films to singing in Les Misérables, dancing in The Greatest Showman and gritty fare in movies like Prisoners, he is exploring his more serious side in his new film, Reminiscence.

It’s a sobering science fiction drama about a scientist who discovers a way to re-live people’s pasts, and uses it in a potentially disastrous quest to reunite himself with his lost love.Although admittedly not an expert on matters scientific, Hugh says he found the topic fascinating.

“I was not really a science kind of guy when I was in school, so it’s surprised me how much I’m getting into it. And in fact it’s kind of frightening where we’re at as a human species. We’re at a point where we understand the instruction book of what it is to be human, and now we can create whatever sorts of humans we want. It’s all happening so fast and hopefully, it will be a powerful engine for us to fix our problems. But we do need to be careful.”

He has no need of science to create the sorts of humans he wants in his own life: blissfully married for 25 years to fellow shorter say,

Australian-born actress and producer Deborra-Lee Furness, he is proud father to their two adopted children, Oscar, 21, and Ava, 16, and head of one of the happiest households in show business.

Ask him how he has managed to keep his family intact in his notoriously family-unfriendly profession, and he only smiles.

“When Deb and I got married, we made a pact that at every turning point, we would look at each other and ask ourselves, ‘Is this decision good or bad for our family?’ It seems a simple question, but it’s not necessarily an easy answer because there are four of us and, for instance, there may be something that would be good for my career but a bit of a sacrifice for the family.

“On the other hand it’s important for the kids to see their parents doing the things they love, so there’s a balance to be found.”

He says that when he’s struggling to find that balance, there’s only one person he can turn to – Deb. “She’s unbelievable like that,” he says with pride. “I can tell you at least seven or eight times in the years when my eyes have lit up with, ‘Oh! This opportunity! That opportunity!’

“And I just look over at Deb and she would just give me a look like, ‘No, this is not the time’. She is the best barometer for that, and I’d never figure it out without her.’

He is quick to add that there has been at least one occasion where Deb has generously set aside her own interests in favour of his.

“There’s a time no one knows about when I was offered the opportunity to do Oklahoma! in London, and at the same time, she’d been offered a spot at the directing school at the Victorian college of the Arts in Melbourne which is very prestigious and almost impossible to get into.

“Now, Deb has always wanted to direct and that was a big moment for her, and I said, ‘Well, we’ll stay in Australia so that you can take the course,’ and she said, ‘No. You need to do this. You need to do Oklahoma! and we need to go to London’. I’ll never forget her selflessness in saying that.” The Jackmans live in New York city, and although they are hardly what you’d call poor, Hugh insists that he is not especially interested in living an extravagant lifestyle.

“Although a pair of handmade shoes is pretty luxurious,” he concedes. “I’ve got a couple of pairs of those and putting those on is fantastic.

“Otherwise, I’m not a very materialistic person. Probably my most prized possession is a couple of journals that Deb gave me when our children were born that was one of the greatest gifts she ever got me.”

Since they were tiny, Hugh has been writing in the diaries, telling his children stories about his travels and his life, ready for them to read it all when they were old enough.

“I was flying somewhere a couple of years ago and I waited a long time for my bag to come out with the luggage,” he recalls. “And at first I was, like, ‘whatever, fine’, but then it dawned on me that the two journals were in there and I went into a cold sweat. It did come out eventually, but if I lost either of those journals, I’d be very upset.”

He keeps himself on an even keel by meditating. “I’ve done it for 25, 30 years,” he says. “For me, it’s about accepting that the surface of the water which is our daily life can be calm and tranquil and beautiful one day, and it can be rocky and treacherous the next, but no matter what is on the surface of the water, there is a calm to be accessed underneath, which is what meditation gives me.

“And that helps me a lot because I do worry – not so much for myself, but for my kids, especially with the strange life I have. I’m OK with being famous because I went into it knowingly: my kids were born into it without a choice, and so I try my hardest to protect them.”

Even when he’s not making a movie, he finds time to sing and dance every day.

“A little bit of work keeps me sane,” he says cheerfully. “I have one or two days off, but for five or six days a week, I sing every day and I dance every day.

“Do you know the great author Oliver Sacks, who famously inspired the Robin Williams film Awakenings? He used to take a pair of flippers everywhere he went. He said, ‘You never know when you’re going to be near water, and I love water, so I need flippers’. Well, for the same reason, I have tap shoes in my bag everywhere I go.

“Because you never know when that dance floor is coming.”

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