31 Spectacular Facts About Hugh Jackman We Bet You Didn’t Know Before

For the last decades, Hugh Jackman has been the picture of Wolverine, wowing the audience with his impeccable performance. Aside from being the Wolverine, he has taken all kinds of roles on screen from the emotional role of Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” to P.T. Barnum in “The Greatest Showman.” He had managed to excel in everything earning the title “Hollywood’s baddest good guy.” Still, there are so many things to know about the actor, which is listed below:

1. His character of Bronson Peary in “Eddie the Eagle,” is said to have been created especially for him in the movie, as it did not exist in real life. Producer Matthew Vaughn had called Hugh, who is a huge Eddie the Eagle fan, and sent him the script. Hugh loved the idea of doing the movie and was ready to sign on immediately.
2. Before the filming of the 2018 movie “The Front Runner” commenced, he was invited by the real Gary Hart to stay in his own house, in an effort to get better acquainted with each other.
3. He even got to stay in the master bedroom and sleep in Gary’s own bed, as Gary had to sleep downstairs with his wife, who was recovering from hip surgery.
4. His co-star Rebecca Ferguson from “The Greatest Showman,” admitted that Hugh was the person who encouraged her to perform a song in the film, in which she had to sing in front of a full audience and the crew. She had been really nervous, but Hugh had helped her overcome her fear and perform the song.
5. For the movie “Logan,” Jackman’s co-star Sir Patrick Stewart deliberately lost around 21 pounds to play the elderly and sick Charles Xavier, which made him a bit week. In the scenes where Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, is carrying Professor Xavier, Jackman made it a point to genuinely hold Sir Stewart.
6. His performance as Frank Tassone in the 2019 movie “Bad Education,” was praised by the real Frank Tassone, who claimed that Jackman had done a very good job in the portrayal of the character, though the movie gets only about 40-50% right.
7. He uses his natural Australian English accent for his role as Vincent Moore in “Chappie.” However, he admitted that he had trouble keeping up with phrases from his home country, and that he had to Google for their particular slang.
8. In preparation for his titular role in “The Wolverine,” he reportedly contacted Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for advice on bulking up. Johnson had advised Hugh to gain a pound a week over a period of six months, with the intake of six-thousand calories every day. The diet consisted of an awful lot of chicken, steak and brown rice.
9. Even for his gaunt appearance of prisoner Valjean in “Les Misérables,” he lost weight and went 36 hours without water. He also had to grow a real scraggly beard. However, the scenes of prisoner were shot first, after which he was able to gain weight and shave of his beard for the portrayal of Valjean as a wealthy man.
10. His 2017 movie “The Greatest Showman,” had been his dream project since the year 2009. He was even mentally preparing himself for the role. When the project was finalized, he reportedly read some three dozen books on P.T. Barnum, in an effort to perform the title role better.
11. To get the best look for the scenes of Wolverine being shirtless, Jackman went on dehydration for forty eight hours, losing the water weight in his entire body. He had clearly mentioned to his fans that it is a very dangerous method and it should be attempted at home.
12. His co-star Garrett Hedlund from “Pan,” claimed in an interview that he was very much inspired by Hugh, while training together for their action sequences. He went on to say that Jackman gives 110 percent into everything he does, including fitness, and that the star works out very hard.
13. In the scene from “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” in which his character Logan wakes up in 1973, the script called for waking up wearing boxer shorts, but Jackman insisted that the character should wake up nude, saying “In Australia, if you’re next to a really good-looking girl, you’re not getting out with boxer shorts on, or briefs, or anything!”
14. While filming a scene from “Australia,” a poisonous scorpion had crawled up his leg, which was noticed by his co-star Nicole Kidman, who saved him at the right time.
15. After the filming of “Les Misérables” was completed, he reportedly bought a lottery ticket for all the extras in the movie, in an effort to thank them for their hard work.
16. Hugh had met director Michael Gracey during a commercial shoot, and told him that he wanted to work on a movie with him. However, the director had come across many famous celebrities claiming the same thing with no action, so he took it with a grain of salt.
17. But, to his surprise, within a few weeks from the meeting, Jackman sent him the script of “The Greatest Showman,” and asked him if he would work with him on his dream project.
18. In the movie “Logan,” in the scene where Charles Xavier suffers from seizures, he was actually held back by a rope, pulled by two men, in an effort to give an even more realistic performance of being restrained.
19. He had been attached to the project “Prisoners,” when Antoine Fuqua was hired to direct the movie. However, both of them dropped out of the project due to different reasons. Years later, when the movie was still in the development stage, Hugh returned to play the lead role.
20. Hugh Jackman wanted to be “as ripped and cut as possible,” for the shirtless scenes in the movie “The Wolverine,” and went on the dehydration diet. He stopped consuming any kind liquid for 36 hours, before filming the scenes, which gave him the exaggerated muscle definition and vascularity. But that also made him feel headachy to the extent of fainting.
21. Actually this was the physique he had been envisioning for the character of Wolverine, but was not able to achieve for the previous movies. He had never had enough time to get in shape for the previous movies, but with his movie, he had ample time to finally do it.
22. For his role as Leopold in the 2001 movie “Kate & Leopold,” he underwent etiquette lessons with 19th-century etiquette expert Jane Gibson. He also had to attending ballroom dancing classes and train in riding a horse for the movie.
23. While his dream project of “The Greatest Showman” was in the development stage, he had to undergo a surgery on his nose to remove skin cancer. He had to acquire 80 stitches, and was advised by the doctors to not sing.
24. He very keenly followed their advice, but could not resist himself from singing the last song in the musical “From Now On.” Halfway through singing the song, he noticed that his nose had started to bleed.
25. He retired from portraying the character of Wolverine in the “X-Men” franchise, with his last movie being “Logan.” While he cited his age and skin cancer to be the real reason, he claimed that a discussion with Jerry Seinfield was an important reason for the decision.
26. In their discussion, Seinfield had mentioned about the point in which audience becoming weary of seeing him again saying “Oh, it’s you again.” Jackman wanted to ensure that never happened with his Wolverine character and is set to avoid it at all cost.
27. However, he had two lingering regrets about this retirement – one that he had never been in an “Avengers” movie, and two that he had never been in a “Deadpool” movie. In fact, he said he would surely reprise his role, if there is a crossover between “Deadpool” and “Wolverine.”
28. The scene from “Prisoners,” in which Holly asks his character Keller Dover to drink a little more, was actually improvised by his co-star Melissa Leo, who felt that Jackman had not been drunk enough for the scene to look believable.
29. For the movie “The Wolverine,” almost all the promotional materials featured a shirtless Hugh Jackman, although he appears shirtless only in a few scenes in the entire movie. It was reported that the producers wanted to emphasize the superior shape Jackman had achieved for the role, and thus had it in the promotional materials.
30. Hugh shaved off all of the hair on his head and chest for the scenes in the last third of the movie “The Fountain.” He even had agreed to work at a reduced rate for this movie, when he was approached by Director Darren Aronofsky.
31. Hugh Jackman Net Worth: $55 Million