Hugh Jackman Being Hugh Jackman | Extended Interview | The Graham Norton Show

I did. Oh, okay. But... Is that the whiskey one? Yeah, good. It is New Year's Eve, and I'm slightly regretting it. I think my Australian passport might be revoked any minute. Now, I feel very confident tonight. It's a sofa full of hosts. Yes. Because, Mr. Crystal, was it nine times you've hosted the Oscars? I've been accused of that, yes. Have you ever read where, as you travel the world, that's what you recognise even more than the movies you've been in? A lot of times, yeah. They'll call me Oscar. Because, Hugh, you've done it once. Once, yeah. But can you enjoy it? Or is the whole evening just spent doing, oh, my God. You know, the worst thing about, I don't know if you've found this, when I went for my first production meeting, they said, great, Hugh, we're very excited, and they gave me a one-sheet page to talk about the show. It had segment one, Hugh Jackman, opening, seven slash eight minutes, question mark, commercial break one. Segment two, I'm like, okay, can we just stop there for a second? What do I do in those seven, eight minutes? They said, don't worry, it's up to you. And I was like, okay, you know I'm not Billy Crystal, right? And when I'd sort of sorted out that first seven, eight minutes, then I kind of enjoyed it. It's daunting when you walk out and you see, this is a great audience, but imagine that it's all gigantic movie stars with big heads. Right. Because they all have big heads. Meryl Streep, gigantic heads. Jack Nicholson, all head. They're all, everyone's got huge heads, they do. That's so true. Did you ever, did you have a... It did cross my mind, yeah. It's true, movie stars have big heads. All the way back to Jimmy Cagney, Chaplin had a huge head, Tiny Bonnie, the camera sucks it up, this big, big head. Can I just say, how did you feel about seven or eight minutes? Uh, well, I did a song. I did a bit of a... Did a song and a car check. Yeah, no, I took Billy, yeah. I'll never forget, it was Valdez, the stage manager, and he was like, Hugh, you're on in 30 seconds. And it's a billion people you're about to go out to. Exactly what he said to me. He goes, you're on in 25, there's a billion people out there. You hosted, was it New Year's Eve you hosted in Australia? Oh my God, I don't believe you know that. The first thing I hosted, this was back when I would do anything for money, I was asked to host the Australian New Year's Eve fireworks special. I was like, fantastic, $3,000 I'm in. So I went and I hosted it. It's this act, Kylie Minogue singing, blah, blah, blah, doing all this stuff. And, of course, the centrepiece of New Year's Eve is the fireworks show. And they said, now, this is the most difficult, you've got 45 minutes and you have to commentate the fireworks. And I was like, I know nothing about fireworks. And they said, don't worry, there's four pages of notes here, you know, there's 120,000 tonnes of dynamite, there's five barges, you'll be fine. Just go for it. So finally we go through the show and all of a sudden Kylie puts the detonator, the fireworks start, and the producer goes, and go. And I said, and I look over at the guy. Now, by the way, the entire crew are drunk. Everyone's drunk. They're not missing out on the fun. He's got the notes and he's lighter. And he's up in smoke. 45 minutes and I'm looking at a monitor. The colours are extraordinary. I can't believe just the explosiveness. The worst 45 minutes of my life. Which, that's why I turned that down. Now, talking of the Oscars, I think we know someone who might be singing a song at the Oscars. Because you've been given kind of the Oscar song, haven't you? The composers of Les Miserables, I've written their names down. Alain Boubile and Claude Michel. Oh, oui. Très bien. They've done the... Because when they film a musical, they tend to do one new song so they can be nominated for an Oscar. You seem very cynical. No, it was very important for the story. My bad. You'll get to sing it at the Oscars, won't you? Fingers crossed. We'll see. Wow. And the movie, it doesn't come into theatres until January the 11th, but I've been lucky enough to see it and it is just stunning. Thank you. You guys must be over the moon with this thing. It's just fabulous. You know, it's a big risk. Musicals are not done very often. Big musicals even less. And, you know, it's the role of a lifetime. I'm a big Les Mis fan. And all of us just felt really blessed to be in it, really. And so, you know, I'm very grateful they did it. Thank God they waited 27 years. I would have been very unconvincing as an 18-year-old about a genre. But, you know, it's definitely the role of a lifetime. I think the fascinating thing about the movie is they sang live. It wasn't pre-recorded tracks. They sang to a piano accompaniment, right, in an earwig. So, you're getting a real performance. We're plugging this movie. Thank you, man. I thought it was amazing that it was, that Hugh Jackman is so incredible in it. It's a true ensemble piece, but Hugh shines in it. Your co-star, Russell Crowe, it seems ridiculous to kind of assume Australians know each other, but you guys actually are friends, aren't you? No, we are. We do all know each other, all 20 million. There's four Australians here today, all my good friends. 44 Aussies here today. And we all know each other well. And you're all going to meet me at Billy's place afterwards, right? Listen to this. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. There you go. Well, he's getting scousers in. Moron. We travel. No one's from the Bronx, I guess. Yeah. Well, we are actually great mates, have been for a long time. In fact, I owe my career to Russell because he turned down Wolverine and suggested me. No, no, no, that was only after Billy turned it down. Yes, Billy turned it down. I don't want to be typecast. So, that story's true. It is true, and he mentioned me to the director. Well, look, he was sort of doing me a favour because I'd turned down Gladiator first. That was a joke, sorry. No, that story is true. Now, one of the other great things about the film is, because when you see a stage musical, no matter how you do it, in a chorus there'll be, what, 20 people max. In this, there's just hundreds of people singing. Now, we've got 600 souls in our audience tonight. This is the bit, okay. You'd better be good at it. So, we wondered what a big number from Les Mis would sound like being murdered by 600 drunk, tone-deaf people. All right, now, they all practised earlier, so they're going to have a... Come on, hang on. No Aussies rehearsed. You guys were here and you rehearsed? Okay, so, Sandy and the band, are you ready? Yep, we are. Okay, Sandy and the band are ready. Now, you, Hugh, I wondered, would you be willing to lead them in a chorus? So, if you do a chorus and kind of get down in front of them, and then they can join in on the second chorus, and then they've got flags and stuff. Look at them, they're all so excited. Okay, no touching! Okay, he's in, he's in. Okay, are you good with Sandy and the bandie? Yeah, but I can't even see the band. They're stuck away. Hi, band, how are you? Where should I go, down here? Well, there's a big T, there's a big... So, here we go, here we go. Look, they've got the words up everything. Oh, I say, very good! Sandy, here, mate. Okay, okay, Sandy, are you ready? Okay, here we go. Oh, that'll be my flag, there we go. Do you hear the people sing? Sing the songs of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums. There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. Come on, let's move! We'll be joining up. Sing the songs of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums. There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. You've made their lives. Smells of beer. You'll remember 2012 now, won't you? Yes, I've sung with Hugh Jackman, actually. It was quite good, it was quite good. Because, Mary, Mary, if you look to your left... I mean, I love to look to the left. A Hollywood star who likes to cook. You like to cook, don't you? I do like to cook. So what do you cook? Breakfast is my thing. Well, because it's easy, right? Yeah. But when you were wooing your wife, didn't you cook for her? Yes. Very good, Graham. I actually did crêpe Suzette flambé. For breakfast? No, this was a good one. We like to start early in Australia. Mary's in. Okay, yeah. Yeah, and it worked. You know, it really worked because I needed some help and I was sort of courting her and she'd had a few wines and said, if you could come in and help me in, you know, cooking the crêpes and getting the thing going. Did you flambé it? We never actually got back to the table. We flambéed it at about 11 o'clock. No, I'm sorry. Go away, you're Australian. Australian man doesn't do that. He goes, come here, Sheila. No, but I have to say, Mary and Paul, the amount of innuendo when you're tasting, you know, things like soggy bottoms and, oh, it's so moist and it lingers and all that sort of stuff. So what we've done is we've got some genuine lines, these genuine lines that Paul and Mary said on the show. It's from a meringue masterclass and various other bits and pieces. So if we read it out, Billy, if you want to be Paul, these are Paul's lines, and Hugh, if you want to be Mary... I'll be Mary, sure. You be Mary. OK, so you've got your lines there. Now, let's just sex it up a bit. I'll stand you in the band. Are you still there? Yeah. OK, so if you kick in with some kind of, you know, sexy music... All right. Go you, yeah. So, first of all, squeeze your bag. Is it trickling down? No. Nothing. Did you give it a bit of a shake? I did give it a bit of a shake, actually. You've got to beat it until it's really stiff. Mary! Load of moisture in there. That's why it wets the finger. If it's leaked... If it's leaked, you will get wet. You need to oil it up. Because you're going under. Remember, when I've done this before with you, one thing you love to do... is put it over my head. And one day... it will come all over me. I'll say I've done almost everything. I've done Shakespeare. Now I've done this.