Hugh Jackman: Australia was privilege from start to finish
Hugh Jackman: Australia was privilege from start to finish
Also In The News
|
An 18-year-old man convicted of the murder of Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones will serve a minimum of 22 years in jail. |  |
Wednesday, 17, Dec 2008 11:53
Being named the Sexiest Man Alive hasn't exactly reinforced Hugh Jackman's macho credentials - as well as provoking his wife to ask 'Brad Pitt didn't get it??' - but the storming new Wolverine trailer is likely to allay fanboy fears that Weapon X has gone a bit soft.
And with the trailer released just ahead of Australia, Baz Lurhmann's sweeping new epic, hitting the cinemas, Jackman will soon have cinemagoers split on which of his characters they'd rather be - an invulnerable mutant or a stoic Outback cowboy who cops off with Nicole Kidman.
inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley listens in as the 2009 Oscars host discusses fainting and filmmaking.
Film Trailers from Filmtrailer.com
What aspects of Baz's script resonated with you?
There's parts of this movie which are playing on the stereotype of 'Australiana', but the centre of the story about the stolen generation is something that at high school I'd never heard about. I went to a high school that had no Aboriginal kids, but I went to university when I was 19 and started learning, then spent some time up in the Outback in this region, and that's when I really started to understand the culture and had Aboriginal friends. This film really deepened the whole experience for me on a very profound level.
The whole thing felt like a privilege from beginning to end. To work on a Baz film, set in Australia, was an inconceivable thing.
And is it true you were the first person to suffer from the Outback heat during filming?
Yes, I was the first to faint on set! It was unfortunately on the first day of filming on location, which was not the most macho way to start, particularly when we were filming in the Outback and there were many of the 'real deal' out there. It was incredibly hot and it was a massive wide shot of all the cattle as they come into Darwin.
I was waiting on my horse ready to go and about half an hour later, I asked if we were going to shoot, because I was getting pretty hot, in a woollen shirt, leather pants, an all-weather jacket with lining in it and a horse that got particularly spooked by umbrellas. They told me it'd be five minutes. About 45 minutes later, I felt a hand in my back and said: 'What are you doing?' And the reply came: 'What am I doing mate? What are you doing? You're at a 45 degree angle on a horse!' Some extra was holding me up on the horse!
You've said the Drover is a 'dream role' - what about the character attracted you?
There's so many boxes that were ticked in this whole process - from working with Baz and Catherine Martin, to the subject matter, to where we shot, to the actors we were with, to the type of movie it was.
But the role itself combined many of the iconic images and screen archetypes of the characters I grew up in love with as a kid. And there were shots in that film that were opening referencing those characters in those films.
Baz gave me and Nicole and all of us, the opportunity to do in one film what we'd be lucky to do in five.
How crucial is the relationship between the Drover and the character of Nullah?
That's one thing that's really resonated with me and a lot of my mates who've seen the film - once they've stopped giving me crap about the Sexiest Man Alive thing!
For Australian people my age, the generation above us were quite emotionally removed. So that side of the story is something I'm thrilled is in there. The idea of being an ultra-masculine character and tightly wound is erroneous to me and I think it's actually more manly to be more vulnerable, to show your emotions. This character starts off archetypically macho and shut off and gradually becomes more involved and vulnerable. To be able to play that on film, in this scale of movie, I was thrilled with.
How would you describe Baz's style of filmmaking?
It was bold in every way, in terms of drama, action and romance. Even the first kiss between me and Nicole - we did it and Baz told us to do it even slower. And I'd thought it was slow as it was - and when I saw the film with my wife it seemed even slower!
But it's what I think is great about Baz - he pushes the boundaries and has made a film that traverses so many different genres.
Lewis Bazley
Australia is released on Boxing Day.