‘The Son’ Star Hugh Jackman On Why Love Is “Not Always Enough” & Bringing Back Wolverine In ‘Deadpool 3’: “This Idea Was Lurking”
29.11.2022 - 21:23
/ deadline.com
In The Son, Hugh Jackman plays Peter, a man struggling with parenting his teenage boy, while attempting to break the chains of generational trauma he inherited from his own father, played by Anthony Hopkins. Writer-director Florian Zeller brings this, his second in a series of his plays, to the screen, having debuted The Father, also starring Hopkins, last Oscar season. In taking on this role, Jackman became the crux of a story so eviscerating and personal, he says it affected the way he parents his own children, while at the same time, he felt the presence of his father, who passed away during the shoot.
DEADLINE: First off, I just wanted to tell you, I love that in your early career, you had been up for a part in the Australian soap Neighbours and you turned it down.
HUGH JACKMAN: I have to tell you, my sister was living in England at the time and she was 12. At the [show’s] height. When I got offered it, it was not long after Kylie [Minogue] and Guy Pierce [were in it]. And she went to school and told everybody that her brother was going to be in Neighbours and no one believed her. She goes, “You’ll see!” And about a month later, I got the offer to go to Perth, and I turned it down. And she was like, “No! You have to do it! You have to do it!” She said she got so much shit at school.
DEADLINE: You ruined her high school life.
JACKMAN: Totally. Literally in her first year of high school.
DEADLINE: I was personally so affected by this film. I’m still thinking about it. Had you seen the play The Son before taking this on? Obviously, you must have seen the film The Father.
JACKMAN: First of all, thanks for saying that. It reminded me, Florian used to say, when they did the play in Paris five years ago, people would