Hugh Jackman On Mental Health, Musicals And Marvel

The affable Australian film star opens up about how his new film, The Son, changed him and why people loving his films and characters means so much to him

- James Mottram

THE PINK-WALLED EXCELSIOR Hotel, on Venice's Lido, is more than used to famous film stars mingling on its terraces. Since the Italian city's celebrated film festival began, it's played host to everyone from Greta Garbo to Clark Gable. Today it's the turn of Hugh Jackman. The genial Australian star is, depending on your tastes, famed for the razorclawed superhero Wolverine in the X-Men films or barnstorming, Broadway-sized performances in musical movies like 2017's The Greatest Showman.

We're seated in the downstairs restaurant, overlooking the sun-dappled waters of the Adriatic Sea. Jackman, 54, sporting a navy suit and white shirt, is trim and toned. We've met sporadically over the years, right back to 1999 when he starred in a little-seen film, Paperback Hero-playing a truck driver who writes romance novels. He'd just come off a breakout turn as Curly in an Olivier-winning revival of Oklahoma!. "Hollywood to me is not a Holy Grail," he told me, earnestly. But Wolverine was waiting in the wings, the role that would turn him into a star.

Between showtunes and superheroes, Jackman has never quite managed a role like his new film, The Son. It comes adapted from the 2018 play by Florian Zeller, who previously exploded onto the movie scene with another take on one of his own stage dramas, The Father. While that dealt with Alzheimer'ssomething Jackman's own father lived with for years this looks at another mental health issue. Jackman plays Peter, a workaholic divorcee whose world implodes when his adolescent son begins to suffer from debilitating bouts of depression.