Director, script, variety: how Hugh Jackman picks his roles
Versatile Australian known for Wolverine role in X-Men franchise plays capricious pirate Blackbeard in Peter Pan origin story Pan, and says he was drawn to role by film's 'visionary' director Joe Wright
Hugh Jackman was a little tired, but had given himself an energy boost by spending a few minutes meditating in the car on the way over to our interview on a recent Saturday morning.
“What happens in your brain when you meditate is a kind of rest you don’t get when you sleep,” says Jackman, a longtime proponent of Transcendental Meditation. “It doesn’t matter what race or religion you are. You don’t even have to believe in it, and it still works. It gives you more energy, creatively opens you up, brings down stress levels.”
On the eve of the global release of the widely anticipated Pan, starring Jackman, the versatile Australian actor will need all the moments of relaxation he can squeeze in.
Pan, directed by British director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), is a live-action prequel to the story of Peter Pan first published in 1911 by J. M. Barrie under the original title Peter and Wendy. It has since seen a multitude of adaptations – books, comics, radio shows, plays, TV versions, video games, operas – and, of course, movies.
The new film is not another reimagining, but is instead an inventive back story: How did Peter Pan become the boy who would never grow up? How did Captain Hook become so evil? And who, exactly, are the Lost Boys?
