Hugh without his claws

SEOUL — I didn’t want to take chances, so very carefully (and surreptitiously), I kind of checked if it was safe to sit down with Hugh Jackman for this Conversation at a function room of the Grand Hyatt located at a mountain with a sweeping view of the city.

When Hugh broke into a wide smile and said “Hi!” I heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn‘t wearing those lethal claws that make his character Wolverine so scary and, surprise, not a vein was bulging on his neck and arms. He was charming even if he must be having a jetlag because he flew in from New York only at 4 o’clock that morning.

His well-toned body was relaxed and cool, clad in a deep-blue long-sleeved shirt tucked into black pants, his bearded (for the movie he’s currently shooting) face lit up by an eternal smile, the same one he flashed during our first interview in Tokyo in December last year for Les Miserables where he did a memorable performance as Jean Valjean.

Yes, besides that smile, he was equipped with an infectious sense of humor (showcased when he hosted The Oscars three years ago) that made you feel good, so accommodating that, again, he agreed to have my picture taken with him to accompany this piece (to disabuse some readers’ suspicion that I don’t actually interview those Hollywood bigwigs in person but only by phone).

In The Wolverine, a 20th Century Fox movie directed by James Mangold (showing nationwide starting on Thursday, July 25), the clawed X-Man battles ninjas and the yakuza in Japan and, as usual and as expected, he does get wounded and heals himself all at once and emerges winner in the end, claws intact. In the hit franchise inspired by the celebrated Marvel comic book, Hugh plays Logan, the century-old mutant known to the world as Wolverine.

In our interview for Les Miserables in Tokyo late last year, you confirmed that you shed 35 lbs. for the role of Jean Valjean. You’re back in shape. How did you do it?

“It’s like this: While I was doing Les Miz I had a trainer who trained me from the beginning of the shoot. I had to keep training in the gym while I was playing Valjean. I was very lean but I was still quite strong. So as soon as I started eating again, the muscles on my sides came back quite quickly. At my age (44), it was quite difficult. I began training for two hours in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon, then as we went close to the filming of Wolverine I had more than enough time of doing muscle art training as well. Oh, by the way, I actually spoke to Dwayne Johnson (ex-The Rock) and I got tips from him.”  

A trivia question: How did you feel about that bathtub scene?

(Laughs and laughs) “It was shot after I did an action scene and my skin was sore. I was hurting because the two women, the extras who were asked to play those parts, didn’t know to find those sore spots. There were extras in the house walking around. Jim (the director James Mangold) brought the men and I was very shy and very nervous and very timid. Jim whispered to me, ‘You’re very smelly and very dirty; you need to be cleaned!’ I was very clean after that bathtub scene!”

Another trivia question: In another scene, you and your leading lady (Rila Fukushima, a Japanese model-actress) are shown in what the natives call a “love motel.” Have you ever been to a “love motel”?

(Laughs some more) “No, I haven’t. I didn’t even know that it existed until I read the script. And then when we shot in Japan I saw them everywhere. Everywhere! There’s a lot of them! I think if I were younger I would have gone there, hahahaha!”

This movie was shot almost entirely in Japan. Any chance for the next one to shoot some scenes in other Asian countries, maybe the Philippines?

“Sounds great to me. Ah yeah. My father has been in Manila a lot of times for work. I love being in Asia; Australians love Asia. We love Asia a lot, so come on, send in an idea and I’ll be in Manila right away.”

The action scenes are non-stop, leaving us preview audience breathless. Would you say that this is the ultimate, definitive Wolverine movie?

“Yeah. We gave it that title for a reason. Our goal was to make a movie where the audience will really get to know who Wolverine is, not just the tough Wolverine but also the very human side of him, that rage within him and why it’s there, the disappointment and sadness over the loss of the ones he loves.”

 What was the hardest scene to do?

“The bullet-train sequence was the hardest — you know, the one showing me and my co-star fighting on top of the speeding train. It’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in movies. It took us several days to shoot. There was a wind blower and the first time I turned it on I literally slid off the train. It was pretty intense.”

Oh, life-threatening!

“Uhm, there was one guy who got a little messy although nothing really bad happened to him.”

Before doing “life-threatening” scenes, do you have to tell your wife and your kids about it?

“No, I don’t. I tell them about it when I get home after the shoot, hahahaha! My wife is very supportive.”

You’re so lucky to have a wife like her.

(Tongue-in-cheek) “I describe her as a lioness. You don’t cross my wife, I warn you. She will take you down. You know why I call her a lioness? You see, if someone says anything bad about me, she immediately leaps to my defense. When she reads something bad about me on the Internet, she will rip up that computer.” (Adding with a laugh) “So you better be careful with what you write about me, or she will rip you up. So be very afraid! Hahahaha!”

You are so attractive and women fall all over you. Is there anything that your wife ever complains about?

“Oh yes, a lot! She will say, ‘The only thing handy about me is that I’m close by.’ But I’m quite a strict dad. I had to go to Montreal to shoot for four days and I overheard my daughter say, ‘Daddy, you’re going.’ I said, ‘I’ll be gone for only four days.’ She said, ‘It just makes me really sad and happy.’ I asked, ‘Happy? Why would it make you happy?’ She smiled, ‘Why? Because you’re pretty strict, Dad, and I can get away with a lot when you’re not here.’ Isn’t it funny?”

Are your kids old enough to watch Wolverine (or any of the X-Men movies)?

“Yes, they are now. In fact, I saw the movie at 7 a.m. before doing press; that’s the only time I could see it. They are into their early teens and you know kids that age, they don’t really want to get up early. But they got up as early as 6 a.m. because they really wanted to watch the movie. And they love it!”

This movie shows the vulnerable side of Wolverine. In real life, what makes you feel vulnerable?

“Oh my gosh! Hmmm, I think that being an actor, vulnerability is important. Every time you do something, on a film set or on a stage, hosting the Oscars or whatever it is, you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable situation…you can’t go wrong. Just thinking that things could go bad, could go wrong, just that risk alone is a position of vulnerability. As a family man with two kids, I feel vulnerable all the time. Every time I walk out the door, I feel whatever they are feeling I feel, twice as much. So I think vulnerability is not necessarily a bad thing. In many ways, I kind of look forward to it because, I think, that fear of vulnerability pushes you to be better prepared, pushes you to work harder to become better and stronger.”

The movie also tackles the idea of immortality. It reflects people’s fear of death. How would it change our lives if people become immortal?

“Wow! It wouldn’t be good for the environment. Over-population! We’re all struggling now. I think the lesson of the movie is that quality of life is far more important than how long you live…what counts is how well you live. At the start of the movie, it says that living to, say, a hundred years or 300 years, that longevity wouldn’t be good after all because the quality of life would deteriorate. A man who lived that long would be lonely. So living for a long time is a hard thing.”

It’s your sixth time to play Wolverine. Does it get easier or harder?

“You know, physically, it gets harder and easier. But then, it has become more fun. I’m enjoying it more now than I used to. Maybe being a little older helps. But I really love the script, especially now that we’re focusing on the human side of Wolverine. The character has more complexity so there’s more to play actually. In the first Wolverine, there were so many mutants around and it was difficult to focus on just one. There are even more mutants in this movie now.”

Any memorable experience during the shoot of this movie?

“I’ve been to Japan at least 10 times and the longest I stayed was for 10 days. But this time, I stayed longer because we had to shoot there for months. And we got to climb Mt. Fuji which was incredible! I’ll tell you a little funny story. We slept on the eighth station which was near the top and we still had four hours to walk in the morning. I slept on a bag of rice as a pillow, but I couldn’t sleep at all, none of us could. And every time I had to wake up and walk around, I would see all the Japanese climbers, three rows of them, and I saw them lying down and texting. They would close their eyes, still holding their celfones, and then they woke up six hours later and continued texting. Amazing! Hahahaha! That should make another X-Men character…the ability to sleep anywhere.”

Do you have any problem getting sleep?

“Not really. I’m a good sleeper but my wife says that I run marathons in my sleep.”

Aside from Wolverine, do you have other favorite superheroes?

“Can I call Indiana Jones a superhero?”

Of course, you can!

“Yes, as I was growing up Indiana Jones was my favorite superhero but I also love Superman. When that Superman movie came out…was it in 1977?...I was like nine years old and I fell in love with Superman.”

How long do you think or do you want to be playing Wolverine…until you are a hundred years old?

“I don’t know, I don’t have an idea. What I know is that the character will run for long. Do you want to see Wolverine with grey hair on a wheelchair? Hahahaha! I’d be kind of happy if the character lived that long. Sometimes, I wish that they would just let him lose the muscles and get a little fat and hang around. But we’ll see…In the next movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past (directed by Bryan Singer) will be in a time-travel story set in the past and in the future. Some of the stars in the earlier X-Men movies (Halle Berry, et al) will be in it.”

What other risks are you willing to take for the sake of realism?

“Uhm, that’s a good question. I think that as I get older I really have to think about things twice. I have to make sure that it’s worth it because I want to be around for my kids and for my grandkids. There are some stunts that I do, but some that I wouldn’t do.”

Would you like to be immortal like Wolverine?

“It’s so tempting to think about, but at the end of the day going on vacation is fun if the vacation was never-ending. But I think that more than immortality, there’s something about life that we all must enjoy every moment of. As I’ve said, it’s the quality and not the longevity of life that really matters.”

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