Hugh Jackman takes his final outing at Wolverine on the big screen this week with the release of Logan, so here we share some facts you probably didn’t know about the actor.
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Family life
Jackman was born to English parents who had immigrated to Sydney, Australia in the late 60s. He's the child of his parents, and the second one to be born in Australia. The actor also has a younger half-sister, who was born when his mother remarried.
School and education
Hugh attended a Grammar school in his early years, and whilst there he starred in the school's production of My Fair Lady. But this didn't really spur him on to become an actor. Instead, he studied communications at University with a focus on journalism.
In his final year, he took a drama theory class and this reignited his love for performing. After university, he enrolled in the Western Australian Academy of Arts.
He says it took a lot of courage for him to pursue acting and turn it into a career.
Before he acted
Of course, there were plenty of jobs before he came a huge star, he worked at a gas station, and was also a clown who performed at birthday parties.
He says he was pretty terrible at it too, because he didn't do any tricks.
Family life
On his first TV job he met his future-wife, Deborah-Lee Furness. This was in 1995. The couple had two miscarriages before they decided to adopt and now have two children, Oscar and Eva.
Hugh and wife Deborra s_bukley/Shutterstock.com
And his son uses his father's fame to his own advantage, using it as a line to pick up girls that his dad is Wolverine.
Celebrity friends
We've heard his amazing voice on-screen now, and he even sang at the wedding of friends Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
The roles he didn’t take
The most iconic role that Jackman passed up on has to be James Bond, he was offered the role for Casino Royale, but couldn't do it because it conflicted with another job. When asked about it, he said in 2011 that he was just ready to shoot X-Men 2 and the role in Wolverine had become such a huge part of his life. He said he didn't want to have the pressure of two iconic characters at once.
He was nearly in The Dark Knight too, playing Harvey Dent/ Two-Face.
Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock.com
The role of Wolverine
Taking on Wolverine was easily the best career choice to date for the actor, and it ensured he was known all the world over. But the role wasn't actually supposed to be for him, it was written for Russel Crowe, but Crowe suggested Jackman for the part.
Jackman's wife wasn't the biggest supporter of the role, however, saying that he shouldn't take it because it was ridiculous.
When he arrived in Toronto three weeks before filming was starting, he admits he had no clue about wolverines and the fact it is a real animal. He thought that Wolverine made reference to Wolves and spent time studying them instead.
He was insistent that he would be doing his own stunts for the film, and for it, he studied martial arts, as well as watching Mike Tyson fights, especially his early ones because he says Mike had an animal rage that he wanted to channel for Wolverine.
To get used to wearing the claws, he'd wear them at home, and because of that, he suffered many of injuries, with scars from punctures on his leg, cheek and forehead.
Jackman is 30cm taller than the Wolverine described in the original comic books, so when they were shooting the film they'd film him at unusual angles or from the waist up so he'd look shorter than he really is. Not only that, but his co-stars had to wear platform soles too so they'd all look taller.
The actor clearly puts in a lot of effort in the gym when preparing for the role, and when it comes to the shirtless scenes he has them planned 30 days in advance, working specifically for them, with 36 hours of dehydration before so he looks his most ripped.
Onset
When he's filming a movie, he will buy the entire cast and crew a lottery ticket each Friday, it's something he started in a bid to get everyone to know each other better and boost teamwork amongst everyone.
During the first X-Men movie, Jackman accidentally stabbed the Mystique stuntwoman in arm. She didn't seem to mind too much though, after look at the whole in her arm she exclaimed, Yes, I've been stabbed by Wolverine.
Random facts
When Jackman first discovered a mark on his nose in November 2013, he thought it was a spot of blood caused by his Wolverine claws. It was much worse. He was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, one of three types of skin cancer. He’s been struggling with the disease ever since. To raise awareness about how sun exposure can lead to serious complications, he launched a line of sunscreen for kids.
We've all seen the lengths that Jackman will push his body to for the role of Wolverine and it turns out he asks The Rock for tips on bodybuilding. The former wrestler star calls Jackman Wolverine too.
Jackman was also supposed to have a cameo role as Wolverine in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, but they couldn't find the suit when he was in New York.