Hugh Jackman is an Australian actor who portrayed Wolverine in X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Logan and in Deadpool 2 as a cameo, with the use of archive footage. He also reprised his role as Wolverine for a cameo in X-Men: First Class and portrayed X-24 in Logan.
Biography
Deadpool
Deadpool would keep a magazine cover featuring Hugh Jackman and later cut the actor's face out of it in order to disguise his disfigured face.
X-Men
In 1999, Jackman was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000), replacing Dougray Scott. His co-stars included Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Ian McKellen. According to a CBS interview in November 2006, Jackman's wife Deborra-Lee Furness told him not to take the role, a comment she later told him she was glad he ignored.
Wolverine was tough for Jackman to portray because he had few lines, but a lot of emotion to convey in them. To prepare, he watched Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies and Mel Gibson in Road Warrior. "Here were guys who had relatively little dialogue, like Wolverine had, but you knew and felt everything. I'm not normally one to copy, but I wanted to see how these guys achieved it." Jackman was adamant about doing his own stunts for the movie. "We worked a lot on the movement style of Wolverine, and I studied some martial arts. I watched a lot of Mike Tyson fights, especially his early fights. There's something about his style, the animal rage, that seemed right for Wolverine. I kept saying to the writers, 'Don't give me long, choreographed fights for the sake of it. Don't make the fights pretty."
Jackman also had to get used to wearing Wolverine's claws. "Every day in my living room, I'd just walk around with those claws, to get used to them. I've got scars on one leg, punctures straight through the cheek, on my forehead. I'm a bit clumsy. I'm lucky I didn't tell them that when I auditioned."
Jackman, at 6 feet 2.5 inches (1.89 m), stands a foot taller than Wolverine, who is said in the original comic book to be 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m). Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 300 pounds. An instant star upon the film's release, Jackman later reprised his role in 2003's X2: X-Men United, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, and 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He also cameos as Wolverine in 2011's X-Men: First Class.
Gallery
X-Men
X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Trivia
- Jackman is one of two actors (along with Samuel L. Jackson) to appear in seven Marvel films as one character. Wolverine and Nick Fury.
- Jackman is the only actor who appears in 8 Marvel films as one character.
- He also appeared as himself in Deadpool on a picture.
- Hugh Jackman is one of the actors to portray characters for both Marvel Studios and DC Entertainment. He portrayed Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo in The Fountain.
- He has three nieces and one nephew: Emma Jackman, Heather Jackman, Jacquie and Aidan Jackman.
- In Logan, X-24 was portrayed by Eddie Davenport as a stunt double for X-24's battles with Logan, Jackman played the rest of his scenes and his face was used as a digital reference using Motion-Capture.
- Hugh Jackman and Richard E. Grant have starred in a Dracula movie: Grant was in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and Jackman was in Van Helsing (2004).
