Hugh Jackman on His Skin Cancer Scare and Wearing Sunscreen

How are you? I see you're sporting a bandage. All good, almost completely healed. It's another basal cell carcinoma. Everything's fine. It is a cancer, but the least dangerous form of it. So it's just something I have to get out. And being an Aussie, or with English parents, growing up in Australia, it's sort of the new normal for me. But everything's fine. And people have been so lovely. Thank you. Wear sunscreen. Hang on. Wear sunscreen and get checkups. The problem is that I think for our generation, sunscreen was still like experimental. I don't remember. I don't think it was invented when we were younger. I remember zinc. It was invented, but I remember like actively, like there were rumors that it caused cancer. So you did not put it on your skin. So it was like, okay. So here's the thing. One sunburn, you're susceptible to cancer. And all of this is 25, 30 years after the doctor told me. So this is all me as a kid. I mean, our rule as kids growing up was you get burnt and peel two or three times, then you're set. That was your base. Your base coat. I mean, it was crazy. Thank God our kids have knowledge that we are that generation where there's the hole in the ozone and it's burning us. And now our kids don't have to go through that. Because you must lather them up. I lather them. Is that the hardest thing on the planet? But it's also tough. I mean, do your kids sit and take it? Like, I have to literally wrestle my children down. Yes, running, singing songs with them, doing it, literally racing after them doing that. Thank God for the spray. Love the spray. That invention is great. I remember I used to, before they invented the spray, I used to, this is how we would do it. You just hold the arm and then you walk in a circle as the child is walking away from you. You're just sort of lathering them in a circle. As a kid, I remember, I don't know if you guys remember this, you were not allowed in the pool within 30 minutes of eating. Do you remember that one? Yeah. You'll die. Sure. Nothing about sunscreen. You'll sink to the bottom. You'll sink to the bottom and die. You'll get a cramp. You would sit there in the sun. Where did that come from? Right. Or like, go outside and sit in the sun. It will cure your acne. I remember that. Does anybody else remember that? Yes. I remember people putting baby oil on themselves. Oh, yeah. And that's like, what? Yeah, just to accelerate the process. Yeah. It's so true. Yeah, yeah. I'm friends with Nicole Kidman. Sorry for dropping names. But, you know, she's... Oh, let's get that back. There's Nicole Kidman. Oh, there you go, Nicole Kidman. Sorry. Nick. With Nick. Yeah. We call her Nicky. She said to me, like, because she always grew up and was very, very conscious and, you know, she had pale skin. And she said people used to make fun of her. But now, thankfully for our kids, it's kind of cool. It's not, you don't have to be sort of, you know, brown, super brown to be cool. You can be your own skin. I'm so happy for my kids. It's all changed. Yeah.