Clawing Through to Wolverine's Softer Side

Hugh Jackman loves his "X-Men" character but says he's a philosopher at heart

By Kevin Sessums
PARADE

"To get down to the quick of it, respect motivates me, not success," says Hugh Jackman when we meet for a late lunch in Beverly Hills, Calif. Bronzed and brawny, the 40-year-old Australian wears a blue polo shirt that fits him as comfortably as his ready smile.

Jackman has the respect of serious theatergoers as well as movie fans, who flock to see him as Wolverine, the half-animal/half-human mutant in the wildly popular "X-Men" movies. The first three films have grossed $1.2 billion. The fourth, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," opens May 1.

Check out photos from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine 

"To make films like 'X-Men' work commercially -- and also have some class -- is one of the hardest things there is to do," Jackman says. "I want to be seen to be able to cross lots of genres and still be 'fair dinkum,' as we say in Australia, which means genuine and true and, well, unique."

Jackman is certainly an original. Although his biggest success is as an action hero, he also shone as the host of this year's Oscars. And he feels at home in musical theater, having starred in "Beauty and the Beast" and "Sunset Boulevard" in Australia, and in "Oklahoma!" at the National Theatre in London. In "The Boy From Oz," on Broadway from 2003 to 2004, he portrayed his flamboyant, openly gay fellow Aussie, Peter Allen, a kind of Down Under Elton John. The performance won him a Tony Award. Jackman is currently being taught to accomplish Harry Houdini's most daring feats of magic so he can star in a musical based on the illusionist, whom Jackman describes as "the first rock star."

Ask anybody in Hollywood who has worked with Jackman to comment on him, and the two words that keep popping up are "nice" and "lovely." So what continues to draw him to the dark character of Wolverine?

"My favorite play in drama school was 'The Bacchae,'" Jackman says, surprising me. Why would he choose this most gruesome of Greek tragedies as his favorite? "It's about a king who literally gets eaten alive by all the women in the play in a kind of orgy -- it's related to the word 'bacchanal' -- and I loved that idea of animalistic chaos and following our own desires," Jackman says. "I think Wolverine represents that in its most allegorical sense. He's a man who battles between the animal and the human, between the chaos in him and the self-control he must have. We all deal with this to some extent. At which point should we let go and do what we want to do? And when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me."

Next page: the philosophical nature of Hugh Jackman