"I was an a**hole at times." 6 things we learned from Hugh Jackman's latest profile.

Hugh Jackman is continuing to prove his performance prowess as he enters his mid-50s.

The local star, beloved by all Australians, is about to star in the new film The Son. Oscars buzz is already surrounding the family drama, which also stars Laura Dern.

While Jackman’s most notable roles aren’t usually in the realm of family dramas, he’s revealed in a profile with Variety that his father’s death, and his own children, seemed to help give him the skills to pull off his latest role.

Chatting to journalist Ramin Setoodeh, Jackman discussed the loss, the film, and what’s to come, as he reprises one of his most famous characters. He also reminisced on his early Hollywood and Broadway days.

Here are the six biggest takeaways from the article.

1. He was grieving his father while he filmed The Son.

Jackman lost his father, Christopher John Jackman, in September last year. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s for 12 years, and Jackman admitted in the interview that he had known he was “nearing the end”.

“He was ostensibly gone, mentally. He would still smile a bit. I didn’t know he was going to physically pass away, but I knew it was kind of a goodbye,” he told Setoodeh.

Despite his grief, Jackman continued work on The Son, feeling it was what his father would have wanted.

“My father never missed a day of work,” he said.

“I could feel him. I knew if he could talk to me, he’d be like, “You got to go to work! What are you talking about?” I felt his presence on set.”

He also described how he would often bring his father to movie sets, where he would sit behind the monitors and complete crossword puzzles while Jackman worked.

“I had an image of him on set, standing behind the action. My father worked incredibly hard - looking after five kids, the weight of the world on his shoulders. I had the feeling of him being completely free,” Jackman said.

“That really helped me.”

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2. He might be up for an Academy Award in 2023.

Jackman’s new film, The Son, is slated for a November release, but premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year. It received a 10-minute standing ovation and launched Oscar’s buzz. It’s the second film from Florian Zeller, whose directorial debut, The Father, which received two Academy Awards in 2020.

It’s a new direction for Jackman, who is best known for his more rugged, action-packed films. The movie focuses on Peter, played by Jackman, who is attempting to help his teenage son, Nicholas, as he struggles with depression. 

Jackman admitted to crying after he read the screenplay.

“I had to play this part. As a son, as a father, I found it to be devastating, truthful,” Jackman said.

“It felt like a compulsion that I long for as an actor,” he added, going on to list how he felt connected to the character of Peter through his own fears as a parent to his two children, Oscar, who is 22, and Ava, who is 17.

“The subject matter was really hard,” he admitted. “Many days, crew members would say, ‘I need help’. Some of them would leave for a few hours.”

3. The Son has changed him.

“The movie itself did change me as a parent,” Jackman shared. “I’m more vulnerable in front of my kids emotionally. I’m more verbal about stuff I’m going through, even if it’s stuff to do with them.”

He also said he hoped The Son starts a dialogue about the underlying signs of depression.

“We’re in an epidemic. We don’t have the skills about how to have these conversations.”

4. He will play Wolverine again.

It was recently announced that Jackman will reprise his role as Wolverine, the iconic superhero character who helped launch his career in film.

“It’s been brewing for a long time. It just took me longer to get there,” he said of his decision to reprise the role in the third Deadpool film, alongside his good friend, Ryan Reynolds.

He called Reynolds at the end of August to tell him he would do it, after Reynolds spent years pleading with him.

“I think, actually, he’d given up,” Jackman admitted in the interview.

“A little part of me now thinks I’d be better at it,” Jackman said of playing Wolverine. “Is that arrogance of age or something? Wolverine’s a tortured character - more tortured than me. But I always get the feeling of him being comfortable in his own skin,” he said.

“And I feel more comfortable in my own skin now, even though it’s messier.”

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5. He missed out on the role in Miss Congeniality. 

Jackman spent a lot of time talking about his early Hollywood days, and how he has evolved since then. 

He began his Hollywood career at the tail end of the 1990s, when he starred in a West End revival of Oklahoma!, which got him noticed for the role of Wolverine, which he first played in 2000. But he still had to build up his career, and was sent by his agent to audition for Miss Congeniality, the famous Sandra Bullock film. He wanted to secure Jackman the role to give them negotiating power for another film he had been offered with Ashley Judd.

“No one knew X-Men yet… I was a nobody,” he said.

He recalled thinking “‘Holy shit! She’s amazing! And so quick and fast. I’m not even vaguely up to speed here.’ I was pedalling as fast as I could, but I didn’t know the script well enough.”

“That’s humiliating, when your agent says, ‘I don’t want you to get this job, but just go get it’. And then you don’t get it.”

6. He thinks he was an ‘asshole’ at times.

Jackman admitted to being a bit of an ‘asshole’ at times in the early 2000s, as his career sky-rocketed.

He starred as Peter Allen in the broadway musical The Boy From Oz, which he said was “the most fun he ever had”.

During an improvisational scene, he used to drag audience members on stage and roast them during the second act.

“Once I was 50 or 60 shows in, I felt completely free to do whatever the hell I wanted. I was an asshole at times,” he said.

Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen with Sarah Jessica Parker at the 2004 Tony Awards. Image: Getty.

“I brought up Barbara Walters and Matt Damon, and made Matt Damon give Barbara Walters a lap dance, which turned into me giving Matt Damon a lap dance. And he didn’t punch me,” he explained.

He performed as Peter Allen at the 2004 Tony Awards, and called Sarah Jessica Parker up on stage to dance with him, while she was wearing a tight ballerina top.

“I really felt for her that night,” he said. “As soon as she got up on stage, I could tell those boobs were about to come out.”

Feature Image: Variety/Getty/Mamamia.