EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Hugh Jackman
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Real Steel is a gritty, white-knuckle action film set in the not-too-distant future where 8-foot tall steel robots have taken over the world of boxing.
Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a once big-time fighter with a shot at a title, who’s now all but washed up. Charlie just about gets by from using scrap metal to create budget-bots that get him from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie’s life takes yet another nosedive, he joins forces with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a robot that has a shot at being a championship contender. As the stakes in the boxing arena are ramped up, Charlie and Max fight against the odds to get one last chance at glory.
Apart from the impressive robots on display, the star of Real Steel is Hugh Jackman, best known for his role as Wolverine in the successful X-Men franchise. Jackman’s career began down under in his native Australia with the independent films Paperback Hero and Erskineville Kings, and has stretched over more than 10 years, including appearances in Swordfish, Van Helsing, Kate and Leopold, The Prestige, The Fountain, Happy Feet, and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.
TNS caught up with Jackman ahead of Real Steel’s release on October 14th.
This is the first time you’ve worked with Director Shawn Levy. If you could describe him in one word, what would it be and why?
Phenomenal. He’s become a genuine friend, which is not easy in this business. You can probably count on one hand the amount of friends I have who I think of as real friends. He’s like omnipresent. He knows everything that's going on, from a producer’s point of view.
If I go up to him as an actor and have an issue, he’ll already know what it is. And I’m like, how can you be thinking that? He thinks of everyone and gets the best out of everybody. He’s very generous and hardworking. I think in this film he’s really taken his game to another level and full of heart. I can’t say enough good things about the man. I actually miss not being on set with him. He’s a rare breed. There are very few people like him who are as good at what they do and who are as nice as he is.
Were you consciously looking for a movie like this?
No, I wasn’t. It came to me as a film script and I read it and really loved it. However, when Shawn Levy came on board, that just strengthened it even more. I knew it was a big movie, but it wasn’t relying on me for action. It was almost the opposite. I get beaten up in one scene, but apart from that, there’s no people-action for me.
What was your first step to create your character, Charlie Kenton?
The first step was really getting in touch with the idea of someone who thinks he’s a failure, with a low opinion of himself. And what makes someone act in that way; what makes someone deliberately try to be almost unlikable. He doesn’t want someone to get close. That was the emotional side of him that I really worked on first.
There was his physical side too. I told Shawn that we should get some photos of me in boxing shorts so we can have that. Then I went and put on twenty pounds because I wanted Charlie to look like he wasn’t a boxer anymore. When I went for my first fitting, Shawn said, I think you went a little too far! You had a little too much fun! So I had to pull it back a little bit.
What was it like getting in the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard?
It was interesting. The first day we were working together, they had a film crew filming behind-the-scenes footage. He’s champion of the world, so he was just sparring with me pretending to punch my stomach…which kind of hurt! Because the camera was there, he just wanted to play around. He’s such a great guy; we've hung out quite a lot, and I really like him.
Did you find that your training in musical theater was good preparation for boxing choreography?


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