--- title: 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman | TIME description: Actor Hugh Jackman talks to TIME about his new film "Prisoners," overcoming his childhood fears, and why his son thinks he's not cool canonical: https://time.com/video/rknX77tb/ og:title: 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman og:description: Actor Hugh Jackman talks to TIME about his new film "Prisoners," overcoming his childhood fears, and why his son thinks he's not cool og:url: https://time.com/video/rknX77tb/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rknX77tb/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman twitter:description: Actor Hugh Jackman talks to TIME about his new film "Prisoners," overcoming his childhood fears, and why his son thinks he's not cool twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rknX77tb/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Hugh Jackman](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rknX77tb.m3u8) (6:33)  _Published 2013-09-11. Actor Hugh Jackman talks to TIME about his new film "Prisoners," overcoming his childhood fears, and why his son thinks he's not cool_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:43 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Chappie TRAILER \(2015\) Hugh Jackman Movie HD](/video/oxZHfR2V/) ### Chappie TRAILER (2015) Hugh Jackman Movie HD [Hugh Jackman: My Son Says I'm Not Cool](/video/98Gu4XXj/) ### Hugh Jackman: My Son Says I'm Not Cool [Great Performances 2013: Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman](/video/SdTY8acy/) ### Great Performances 2013: Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman --- ## Transcript Hugh Jackman is that rare individual who can pull off being an adamant teen, reinforced super hero and a Broadway darling. And I'm delighted to say, he's here with me today to discuss his new film, Prisoners. Mister Jackman, welcome. Hi babe, you cannot call me Mister Jackman. [ LAUGH ] Hi Hugh. No, thanks. Ok, so, Prisoners is a little darker, am I wrong, than your usual film? Is that a conscious choice? Yeah, it's probably darker than most films. I can't find them. Anna? Joy? Where, I checked the entire house. They're not here. What in the world did you do? Someone has to make him talk, or they're gonna die. I know you know where they're. Where's my daughter? So Keller Dover ends up, he's, he's a great guy, a nice guy, but he ends up, not giving away, like, pretty much torturing the guy. How did you get your mind into that space? I just have to try and imagine that situation, imagine that character in that situation. I mean, I am in a way in life, very different from Keller. Keller is a survivalist. He doesn't have faith in any of the institutions. He doesn't, he's ready for anything. He doesn't believe people are gonna look after him. I'm a typical actor, you know. Someone picked me up in the morning, they, they give, give me something to wear, they tell me what to say, they, they feed me, and they send me home. So, I'm very sort of trusting in the world [ LAUGH ]. But you must have some protective instinct that kicks in when say, you are on the street in New York and you. Oh, yeah. There's photographers and you've got your kids. How do you deal with that? The whole time I've been with paparazzi and with my children. I'm constantly trying to see their point of view at the situation. So I'm trying to imagine, if I start flipping the bird or taking, you know, punches, throwing punches, how frightening that would be for them to see their parent that angry. So I'm constantly sitting on it, but I, am I angry? Yeah. You have spoken in the past how you were quite a fearful kid. Yeah. What were you afraid of? Afraid of heights, I was afraid of the dark. There was a period of time where I, I was always the first one home and there'd be no one at home, and I would not go into the house until someone else was home. I just hated being inside on my own. I, I actually actively kind of got over those fears. I had to work at it, you know, like I went to the school diving board every lunch time and jumped off the one meter board, the three meter board, the five meter board, just to get over that fear. Now I love it. Now I have no fear, which is probably a bad thing. Recently, you tweeted a picture of yourself lifting what the Internet tells me [ LAUGH ] was about 405 pounds. [ SOUND ] yeah, I did. I, I don't know, it just made me laugh when I saw it. Yeah, it's a dead lift, and it's probably the thing. Was that your heaviest? yeah. It was a, you see, my ego is a little heavier than that, just for the record. But, that was probably my [ CROSSTALK ], that was my heaviest. Oh, 415? Come on. That was your heaviest, no gloves. People were impressed, no gloves. no, cuz gloves make it harder. But there was chalk for those who were, as aficionados, yes, yeah. So, the school you went to in Sydney, which is down the road from the school that I went to Sydney, was famous for its bagpipes and kilts. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Were you a bagpipes and kilts guy? I was a kilt guy, but not a bagpipe guy. And actually had to endure endless ribbing on the train stations and buses, probably from you and your colleagues. The other thing that that we did as kids, was that you and I went to the same camp at Lake [ INAUDIBLE ]. Yeah. That's right. That's right. And I was a little older, and in fact, still a little older. [ LAUGH ] And and we used to, I think it's just important as, you know, as a leader, that I just check in on the camp songs. Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay, so I'm gonna start. Yeah. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ LAUGH ]. Ok, final. Final? I remember the tune. All right here we go. [ MUSIC ] Ok, Alright [ CROSSTALK ] yeah, that's true. You were my leader. I was. Yes. So there's you, there's Russell Crowe, there's Sam Worthington, there's those, those Hemsworth brothers. That you're a leader of? No, no! [ CROSSTALK ] [ LAUGH ] I'm on a whole new subject now. Whole new subject. Australia has, it has this sort of a macho thing going on. Why, what do you think that's from? Because as we know, there are plenty of accountants. We know. [ LAUGH ] Like my dad [ LAUGH ]. The thing is, I, Russell, Chris, Guy, we all do our daggy roles when we're younger. We do roles, not me, I got my first job when I was 26. But we grow up on TV and film, not in front of an audience here. So they don't see that, or we're introduced as men, hopefully. I think that's part of the reason. You've done a particularly tricky thing in that you are, you do pull off these macho roles, and you know, the big Wolverine, you know, the badass. Can I interrupt you a sec, cuz I just overheard Oscar, my son, who's 13, who had a friend over who was very, kind of, I think he was a bit impressed. And, he was like, oh, your dad this and that. And I overheard Oscar going, please, enough about my dad, alright? The truth is, he's nothing like Wolverine, he's not cool, he's not tough, he's nothing like that. [ LAUGH ] I was in the next room laughing my head off. Anyway, you were saying? So I was saying, yes, you, you do this, this sort of superhero thing. Hm. And yet, you can do this Broadway darling thing. You could say to anybody, oh, I'm doing Les Mis on Broadway and there'd be a line around the block. What gave you the idea, what gave you that idea that you could pull that off? I think growing up in Australia, and learning to act in Australia. Everything was about variety. There's no luxury of genre in Australia. You can't make a living by doing film. You can't make a living doing action movies, or I'm gonna do this. You have to be versatile or you don't pay your rent. So that's, that's one reason. The truth of the matter is, that's what I love. Maybe I'm a little bit ADD, but I like the variety. I was never good at sticking at one particular thing for a very long period of time, but the idea that I could jump from one to the other was always my dream. I never thought in a million years it'd be possible to achieve. I just thought, I am gonna keep trying to open doors and wait for them to slam shut. And so far, some of them have slammed shut, [ LAUGH ] but a lot are still open. Hugh Jackman, thanks very much. 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