Hugh Jackman Shares His True Feelings about Ryan Reynolds and Why He Loves 'The Music Man'

What's your favourite thing to have for lunch? My favourite thing to have for lunch? Martinis. Is that wrong? I am Australian. My favourite thing for lunch? My favourite thing to have for lunch? A burger. I'm going to go burger. Burger and a beer. That's not going to make it. It's so new to martinis. First movie I ever saw was The Wizard of Oz. Take your army to the haunted forest and bring me that girl and her dog. And I was traumatised by those monkeys. I remember hiding behind the seat. It's amazing how things have changed. Because my father brought up, so we were there with five kids and I'm the youngest and I'm absolutely traumatised and I just remember hiding behind the seat. And there was no like, let's leave the theatre. I'm sure he was like, alright, you'll be fine kid, let's finish watching the rest of it. So there's that. Clearly still traumatised by it. My favourite superhero movie? Growing up, the first Superman. That was a game changer. Dick Donner movie. Christopher Reeve. I'm going to say I'm thinking one of the Nolan Batmans. Dark Knight? I'm going to go Dark Knight. I thought my jokes were bad. Scariest movie I watched growing up? Salem's Lot. I don't remember it was a huge hit but my brother watched it with me and then he played this game. We used to share a room where he hid under my bed literally for a month every night before we'd go to sleep. He would just do a little thing and it was something slight but I'd seen that movie and I was terrified until finally I was like, this time I had to look and of course he was there. Salem's Lot. And my brother. Hi! Hi. How are you? You have questions? Yes. I had a lot of questions. I'm sure you had a lot of questions but rest assured we're going to answer them. Ryan Reynolds is blank. Ryan Reynolds is blank. Blank's a great word. Ryan Reynolds is Ryan Reynolds takes up so much air in the room. It's crazy. It's just an insatiable need vat of needs and wants. If I give you more I'll get a whole store of them. I can't even say the guy's name, Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds I think you should change his name. Ryan Reynolds. He's ubiquitous and it's annoying. I'm bored. Just bored talking about him. Sorry. Can't you show up here with no warning? What's the problem? Has something happened? Yes. Getting the role of Peter in The Son was unlike anything I've ever done before. I heard from my agent that the movie of The Son was going to be made and I'd just seen The Father and absolutely loved it. And I had been in talks I was going to do one of Florian's plays about six or seven years before but it didn't work out timing wise so I knew Florian's writing. I immediately got The Son as a play and read it that day. I rang my agent and said I have to do this part and she said well I think there's a couple of other actors being talked about and I said okay. Well I'd really love to contact Florian because is there definitely other actors involved? She said I'm not sure. I said okay. So I just got Florian's email and I wrote to him and I'm a massive fan. You don't know me. We've never met and I don't want to be presumptuous. If you're dancing with another actor I'm not the kind of guy to cut in on a dance. So please just go and make a great movie and ignore this email but if for some reason you're not I'd love to play the part. I got an email back about three hours later and it says no it's not true I'm not talking to anyone. We love to talk. Why don't you answer me? I do answer you. The look in his eye is disturbing. She wants to turn us against one another. Then the next day we met on Zoom. I remember being equal parts terrified to get the part and terrified not to get the part. My heart was, I was already invested. I really wanted it. It's hard to get rejected when you really want something that doesn't matter who you are. But I also knew the role and the film itself would be very challenging and take me to places that I had not had the opportunity to go to before as an actor. He said he had no intention of offering me the part but he just had a gut feeling. So that was a very, very, very happy day for me. I feel like a complete failure. If I'm like this it's your fault. What have I done? What's my fault? Haven't I always done everything for you? I have the right to reinvent my life! I would probably say I'm the type of actor because of my training where I can leave a part behind as I go home. It's never a hundred percent. Whether it's the part or just your mind or heart thinking about the work you've done that day or what's coming up the next day or this particular role and this particular film and my approach to it I really struggled to let it go. I remember my wife saying that, she goes you're kind of a hot mess. Like I wouldn't use those words to describe you but I wasn't sleeping very well. I found myself really experiencing emotions I'd never really had. Offset, incredible vulnerability, a restlessness. I was moved by the work we were doing and I found it hard to get out of that space. Part of me didn't want to get out of that space. I was with my family so anyone, actually anyone alive, because we're all part of a family are going to see this movie and it's going to make you want to talk and hug and be with your family even more. So I was going home and a lot of it was replaying and I felt a lot of turmoil inside and I was lucky enough to have my wife there that I could share it with her. Oren didn't want to rehearse, which is unusual. He's a theatre guy. I'm a theatre guy so we're used to rehearsals but he said I just want something organic and I want to dive into every scene and I don't want to know where we're going to start and I have no idea where we're going to finish. Let's just go for the ride. So I think leap of faith that that required made me feel excited, scared, vulnerable. It was a weird thing but I felt at the end of Venice, I'll be honest at times it's a little awkward because that's a long time. If you want to try it, just get someone at home to clap for you for ten minutes and see what it feels like. It was so wonderful to be sitting there with Florian to have my wife obviously, Laura Dern and Vanessa and young Zandi McGrath in his first movie. To be there with them felt incredibly humbling, gratifying. We were all nervous as anyone is at a premiere, particularly at a place like Venice with such a long history and to get that reaction was very special. This year on Broadway has been a year I'll never forget. It's been incredibly special, particularly doing The Music Man which is literally just two and a half hours of joy. It feels like on stage, backstage, the moment I walk into the theatre. As I walk to the theatre, I actually get out of my car every night and walk because I'm getting really excited and I like to feel that anticipation and the audiences. I can feel the collective sigh of relief and the celebration of what Broadway is because we had the pandemic, it was devastating to our industry. We are back together, sharing stories, sharing experiences and celebrating the best of, I guess, of what the theatre can do which is through music and through great storytelling bringing us together. If anyone knows The Music Man, I have more lyrics in one song I think than almost anyone in theatre history so I used to go over it constantly to make sure I had it but I find myself singing songs that I don't sing. I find myself hearing songs from the quartet or Marian songs or other songs that go through my head all the time but not 76 trombones, thankfully for my wife. I do sing in the shower every day. It's really boring. Right now I go brrrrrrrrrr, just to check I've got a voice. If I'm not doing a show it's come fly with me. The most fun I ever had was playing Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. There was roughly ten or twelve minutes of every show that was completely ad-libbed and once I was 50 or 60 shows in and I felt completely free to do whatever the hell I wanted. Man, if I look back, I had a blast. I was an asshole at times. I was a complete, oh my god, some of the things I did because I was acting, terrible. I brought up Elvis Costello, I brought up Barbara Walters and Matt Damon and made Matt Damon give Barbara Walters with me a lap dance, which I then turned into me giving Matt Damon a lap dance and he didn't punch me. It was extraordinary, but I'm going to pay for all of it.