Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman.

That's a bit overwhelming.

He's very famous.

I personally don't find him that sexy.

I do think he's handsome, of course. But to me, he's that guy you're JUST friends with. He's the one you fear might one day decide he's attracted to you. You don't want that, because you know you'll never be attracted to him. I had a friend in college like that. I didn't have one ounce of attraction to him...not even a half an ounce.

There was another guy that made me feel that same way...at least for a few weeks. Then I suddenly started to become attracted to him. I waited and hoped for the feelings to be mutual. He spent so much time with me...followed me around like a puppy dog. I figured it was only time before he confessed to being madly in love with me. Instead he confessed that he was gay.

I have seen a few movies with Jackman. I saw two of the X-Men movies. I saw this movie with him that I didn't like. It was about time travel. I think it had something to do with an elevator. Maybe Meg Ryan was in it?

I've probably seen other movies that he's been in, but they don't come to mind right now. I'm sure I'll think of it later.

My favorite thing about Jackman is the story of him peeing in his pants (or tights) during a production of Beauty and the Beast. I think he told the story on Enough Rope, or maybe Rove. He was on stage and had to pee. There was no way he could hit the high note he needed to hit and still hold on to his bladder. I love that story. It's inspiring. I think we should share it with children who pee in their pants at school or wet their bed at a slumber party. If you pee in your pants, it is NOT the end of the world. Jackman did it, and he's a huge famous celebrity. He even hosted the Academy Awards.

All right. I guess I shall start my research.

Baby Hugh was born on 12 October 1968. I think that would make him a Libra like my sister.

The Birthday Website says I'm right.

He's a 1 in numerology. So, we're back to the 1 people. It seems I had a few days break from them.

The birthday website says his lucky day is Friday.

What's my lucky day?

Thursday.

Well, that's cool. I like Thursday. That's the day that Friends and Seinfeld were on.

Baby Hugh was born in Sydney. He was the youngest of five kids. The three eldest siblings were born in England. His family emigrated to Australia before he and the second youngest sibling were born.

When Jackman was eight, his mother left the family. That's fascinating, and very sad. I wonder what happened there. Jackman stayed with his father and siblings. I guess his father eventually remarried. Jackman ended up with a younger half-sister.

Jackman went to Knox Grammar School. It's a Presbyterian boy's school. Hugo Weaving went there as well.

Jackman participated in theater there. He starred in My Fair Lady. We did that play in my high school too! I wasn't in it though. I was one of the backstage people.

After high school, Jackman did a gap year in England. I love the gap year thing. I was about to say I hope Jack does a gap year. But the kid is homeschooled. His whole life is a gap year.

For his gap year, Jackman worked at a school in England called the Uppinham School. I wonder what he did there.

Lord Wiki actually answered my question in his entry about the school. Jackman was a teaching assistant. I wonder if he planned to go into the education field.

Maybe not. Lord Wiki says he then went to school at the University of Technology in Sydney. His major was in communications. There is the chance that he had planned to go into teaching, but his experiences at the school made him change his mind.

After he graduated from the University, Jackman did a one year course at the Actors Centre. Lord Wiki says he did the journey program. There's either a mistake here, or the class has changed. The website of the school says the program is 2.5 years rather than one year. I don't know what the deal with that is.

Jackman made a different decision than Amanda Harrison made. He too went to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Like Harrison, he was offered a job; a role on Neighbours. Well, he was offered it before he even started going to the school. Harrison quit school to take a job. Jackman declined the job offer and went to the school. Wow. I'm guessing that school is very prestigious. I can't imagine turning down an actual acting job like that to attend a school.

Well, I guess things worked out for Jackman. So for him, maybe that was the right path.

Maybe Jackman was against soap operas. That could have been a factor. Hopefully I'll learn more about this later.

Jackman did theater work in Melbourne. He played Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. I bet this is where he peed in his tights.

He was also in Sunset Boulevard. YouTube has a clip of him singing one of the songs.

I'm going do what I did with Cate Blanchett; skip Lord Wiki's film and TV stuff. I'll read that on IMDb.

For now, I'm going to read the other extra stuff Lord Wiki says.

Jackman and his wife have their own production company.  Seed Productions. Their main location is Los Angeles, but they also have a Sydney office. It was this company that produced X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

As for charity work, Jackman supports the microcredit thing. This is where people give loans to people in undeveloped countries. We participate in one of those. What's the name again? It's the popular one. It starts with a K....

Kiva. That's it.

Lord Wiki seems to be saying that's different from microcredit. I'm not going to read into it right now. I'm figure for the most part, they're very similar.

Jackman is involved with the Global Poverty Project. Their website seems a bit messed up.

Here's a commercial Jackman made for the organization.

Jackman is on Twitter. He told his followers that he would give a hundred thousand dollars to one person's favorite charity. I think I remember that. People had to post why they thought their charity was the best. Jackman ended up splitting the money between Charity:water and Operation Hope.

They both look like interesting charities. The first one seems quite important. Apparently, one out of six people in the world doesn't have clean water. That's really sad. They have to walk far distances to get the water. What the water charity does is help build wells in communities. That's awesome.

Operation Hope sounds great as well. They do the type of charity that goes beyond hand-outs. It's about empowering people. Their motto is from civil rights to silver rights.

Jackman plays the piano.

He likes sports.

He does Yoga.

He is the member of an organization called The School of Practical Philosophy. This I have to look into. It sounds interesting. I wonder if I'd like it.

It sounds a bit like self-help type stuff. It's taking philosophy, and applying it to our daily lives. That's pretty cool. Philosophy is pretty easy to read, write, and talk about. It's much harder to actually live it.

Jackman and his wife have two adopted children. The family lives in NYC.

That's it for Lord Wiki stuff.

I shall go now to IMDb.

Let's start at the bottom of his career list.

His first appearance on the screen was in 1994. It was a TV show called Law of the Land. It was filmed in Victoria. Jackman did one episode. He would have been about twenty-six years old.

Later, he had a more substantial part in a TV show. Actually, it looks like he was the main star. This was Correlli. It was a prison drama. His wife (Deborra-Lee Furness) starred in the show as well. I guess this is where they met.

Here's a fan video made about the show. What is that song? I know I've heard of it before....

Well, the info was sitting there right in front of me. "Written in the Stars" from Aida.

I think it's very romantic when people fall in love with their co-stars. I was delighted to recently learn that Anna Paquin is dating her vampire in real life.

It is a little troublesome when the person is already married, though. Then it's still romantic but shitty for the spouse left out in the cold.

In 1996, Hugh Jackman was in a TV show based on The Man From Snowy River. Guy Pearce was one of the stars of this. It went on for sixty-five episodes. Jackman was in five. I'd guess he'd be a recurring guest star. Here's a scene with him in it. Does one of those women have an American accent, or am I imagining things?

In 1999, Jackman was in a romantic-comedy about a romance novelist. This was called Paperback Hero. Here's the trailer from the movie. That was one of those I-saw-the-trailer-so-I-don't-need-to-see-the-movie. Most trailers these days are like that, though. They seem to give too much away.

Another 1999 movie with Jackman was Erskineville Kings. It seems to be a family drama type thing. Here's a clip/tribute thing. Jackman does some pretty good acting here. Well, he says fuck a lot. That word can often improve a scene.

The movie is basically about adult kids dealing with the death of their abusive father. I'm sure that's very hard to deal with.

Jackman starred in a British TV production of Oklahoma. Here's a scene. It's fun to see British and Australian people doing southern accents. I've actually never seen Oklahoma. That's kind of sad. I should watch it one day. It looks fun.

X-Men came out in 2000. I'm guessing this is when Jackman became known to most of us Americans. He starred in that movie with my new favorite celebrity...Anna Paquin. I am TOTALLY loving her lately.

I'm going to look at the movie's trivia page.

Hugh Jackman took cold showers to help give himself that look of rage. I went through a stage of doing cold showers. I have a bad habit of staying in a hot shower too long. So I started taking freezing cold showers. It definitely shortened my shower time. But after awhile, I couldn't do it anymore. Now what I do is shower every other day. Yeah, it sounds a little gross. But it's not that bad actually. At least I don't think so.

Jackman got his testicles caught in the harness when filming a scene near the Statue of Liberty. Ouch.

Many other actors were considered for Wolverine....Mel Gibson, Russel Crowe, Viggo Mortenson, Edward Norton, and Keanu Reeves. I wonder why they decided on Jackman. Was it written in the stars?

Jackman won a Saturn Award for best actor. I'm guessing that's a science fiction thing. Here they are. They do science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Speaking of horror.....

Last night I dreamed about Freddy Krueger. He came out of the dream and was calmly chatting with his potential victims. They stood there talking, like people mingling at a party. Since he was not in a dream, he couldn't harm them. The catch was that as soon as they fell asleep, he could kill them.

The actor to get the Saturn award recently was Robert Downey, Jr for Ironman. I'm sure he deserves it. That guy is an amazing actor. He's probably one of my favorites. Heath Ledger won some awards too...also quite deserved.

Here is Jackman and Paquin promoting the movie. Paquin has such an interesting accent. Is it Kiwi, or Kiwi-Canadian?

I guess by the time X-Men finished in the theater, Jackman was a big star. Was he big in Australia before that, or did he become well-known to Australians at the same time he became well-known in America?

In 2001, he was in another American movie. It was a romantic-comedy called Someone Like You. I don't remember it. It was directed by Tony Goldwyn, the villain from Ghost.

I'm having trouble following the plot description on IMDb. I'll just watch the trailer.

I don't think it's something I'd like. I don't feel any pull to watch it.

Also in 2001 was Swordfish. I've never heard of this movie either. It's a hacker crime movie.  Not my thing.

Kate and Leopold. That's the Meg Ryan film I didn't like.

I feel like I'm being negative here. Sorry. I don't mean to be. I guess I just don't like Jackman's 2001 movies. I don't have anything against Jackman. I promise. I liked X-Men.

In 2003, Jackman was in the sequel to X-Men. I saw that. I can't remember if we saw it at the theater or on DVD. We did have a toddler at the time. I think it was rare for us to go to the theater. Still. We might have managed. Yeah. I actually do think we saw it. I remember sitting in the theater, and thinking I didn't like it as much as the first. There was that feeling of we wasted a babysitter on this?

I'm skipping a few things here.... Sorry.

In 2004, Jackman was in Van Hensling. Is that the Dracula character? I thought Anthony Hopkins played him. Maybe I'm thinking something else. No, wait Hopkins played Van Hensling in the Dracula with Gary Oldman. I'm getting myself all confused.

Van Hensling is a vampire fighter...like Buffy, I guess. It's funny. Wolverine went on to fight Vampires, while his friend Rogue ended up dating one.

I'm reading the trivia for the movie. Jackman accidentally broke an extra's hand. Oops. I'm sure that extra had fun stories to tell at her next family reunion. It would be a great Facebook update...Twitter too!

Here's a trailer of the movie. It looks somewhat fun....better than Someone Like You.

In 2006, there was another sequel to X-Men. I don't think I saw it.

Skipping more stuff....

I've seen parts of The Fountain. I forgot Jackman was in it. I think it's about reincarnation.  Maybe? Or it hints toward it. I saw the storyline with the guy who has a dying wife. I guess that would be the present day story. It might go along with the Jane Robert's type ideas.  Parallel lives. This belief kind of combines time travel with reincarnation. The idea here is that time isn't linear. We lives multiple lives; not separately, but at the same time.

Part of the movie was filmed in Australia. Queensland and Sydney.

The trivia page says that originally the stars were supposed to be Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Here's a trailer. Rachel Weisz is very pretty. What's she from? The Mummy. I remember that movie.

Another 2006 movie was The Prestige. Remember when those two magician movies came out and it was hard to remember which was which. I STILL don't remember. One has Christian Bale. One has Edward Norton. Or did those two star in the same one?

Okay. The Prestige is the one with Bale. I'm pretty sure it's the one where they hint that a magician might be using REAL magic...occult stuff. I think it has supernatural elements, or maybe they lead you to THINK there's supernatural elements, but in the end it's all a trick. I don't know. I saw some of the movie, but not the end. I think Tim tried to explain it to me, and I got all confused.

Here's the trailer. The trailer looks Harry Potterish.

I'm going to play a game with Jack. He wants to do some kind of geography thing. I'll do that, and then I'll come back and continue with Jackman.

I'm back. We had fun.

I'm starting to think Jackman isn't just that guy back in school I wouldn't date. He'd also be the one I'd keep neglecting. It seems for most of his movies, I either have never heard of them, or I've heard of them (maybe even SEEN part of it), but I forget that Jackman was in it.

Jackman is the guy I often fail to notice.

Maybe after writing this post, that will change.

I think I'm totally bonding with him now.

Jackman was in Flushed Away. Again, I heard of that movie. I didn't know he was in it. Jackman played a rat that is flushed down the toilet. How cute. No, seriously. I like that premise.

Here is the opening of the movie. I personally don't like the look of the rat. He doesn't look realistic enough to me. He's like half-human/half-rat. It's kind of creepy. He's as much rat as Goofy is dog. Actually, he looks like he could be the same type of animal as Goofy.

Jackman also lent his voice to Happy Feet. Hugo Weaving and Nicole Kidman are in it too. Is it an Australian movie?

Well, IMDb says it's American and Australian. I guess it's like a mutt.

Well, it was filmed in Australia. I'd say it was more Australian than American.

The film is dedicated to Steve Irwin. Oh. He's also in the film. I didn't realize that.

Here's the trailer.

I bet my friend Suzanne would love this movie. She's a fan of penguins. I'm sure she's already seen it. I'll have to ask her someday.

The movie won an Oscar for best animated film.

I get that movie confused with the other famous penguin one...the one with Morgan Freeman.

What was that?

I can't find it. Was it not Morgan Freeman?

Wait. I found it. IMDb was being difficult. It's March of the Penguins, and it DID have Morgan Freeman. Oh, I get it. Never mind. IMDb wasn't being difficult. I just didn't read the info right. As-self-performances are listed separately from acting performances.

I'm skipping some stuff that looks boring to me. Sorry.

In 2008, we have Australia.

You know what bothers me most about that movie(which I've actually never seen) The title. They make it sound like it's THE story of Australia. But it's not. It's about the bombing of Darwin. And yeah, that's important to Australia history. It's not the defining point of Australia history, though. At least I don't feel it is.

I would have had more respect for the movie if they had chosen a different title. We didn't call the Pearl Harbour movie, America!

If I was going to do a movie called Australia, I think I'd base it on the Bruce Woodley's song. OR I'd do a movie about Bennelong and Jorn Utzon. Although, I'd probably call it Sydney rather than Australia.

The trivia page says that Russell Crowe was originally supposed to be in the movie. The movie people needed to lower his salary and he wasn't happy with that. I don't know if Crowe was greedy, or just looking for an excuse to escape.

Both Jackman and Kidman agreed to do the movie without seeing a script. They did it became Lurhmann was directing. They should have looked at a script.

I'm being so negative, and I've never seen the movie. That's wrong of me. Sorry. It just LOOKS bad to me. And I've heard people say it's bad.

Who knows though. One day I might accidentally watch it. It could end up being my favorite movie. I'll have to eat Crow....but not Russell Crowe.

The movie did fail to win any big awards. It was hardly even nominated for anything. It was one of those movies that LOOKED like it could win awards. Beautiful on the surface but crap underneath.

I do love this trailer for the movie. It's very clever. The best part begins at 1:08.

Recently, we had the Wolverine movie. It came out in May. I didn't see it. I wonder if Tim saw it...probably not. I would notice if he went to the movie theater, probably. I don't think it's on DVD yet. If he rents it, maybe I'll watch it with him. Did it get good reviews?

I'd probably want to watch it more if Anna Paquin was in it.

Oh! You know who's in it? Dominic Monaghan. I love him. Although seeing him will make me cry. I'll think of Charlie.

I'm going to watch the trailer. I actually don't think I've seen it before. When we watch TV, we usually fast forward the commercials. So unless I specifically seek out a trailer, I don't often end up seeing them.

Jackman reminds me of Mel Gibson at the end of the trailer.

Jackman has fourteen upcoming projects. Holy shit. One of these includes another Wolverine movie

This September, he'll be heard in another animation project filled with Australians. We have Ryan Kwantan (True Blood), Emile De Ravin (Lost), Hugo Weaving, Geoffry Rush, etc.

Then there's a bunch of movies that I can't learn about because I don't have IMDbPro.

I'm going to look at the IMDb trivia page now. Hugh Jackman is tall. 6 2" (1.89 meters). I always thought he looked short. That's funny. I see him as a little guy.

He was added to the X-Men cast at the last minute. A Scottish guy was supposed to get the role, but was busy finishing Mission Impossible II. There sure was a lot of people considered for that one Wolverine role.

He has been in four movies with Halle Berry. I hope they get along okay.

His favorite curse word is bullshit. I like that word. I'm not sure if it's my favorite, though. I like bitch. I like all the main curse words actually. There was a recent article in Time Magazine about how these words alleviate pain. BUT, they suggest it won't work as well if you use them too much. You have to be selective about it. Otherwise, the words may lose their punch.

Jackman is near-sighted.

He likes Sushi. I like Sushi too; but just the vegetarian type. I wonder which roll Jackman likes best.

Okay. This is FUNNY. And this along with the pee-in-the-pants thing makes me love Jackman. He is a fan of the Friday the 13th movies. The reason he wanted to become an actor is he wanted to play Jason in the movie. That is too awesome. I wonder if it's really true.

He's a fan of Superman.

He's left-handed. My mom is left handed. My friend Tracey is too. They're also both Virgos. I mean my mom and Tracey....not Jackman.

In 2008, People Magazine totally disagreed with me. They voted Jackman the sexist man alive.

One of his dreams (besides playing Jason in Friday the 13th) is playing the Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I love that musical!

I think I like Jackman's personality. See, I'm not going to have any erotic fantasies, but I could have some delusional we-should-be-best-friends fantasies.

It seems Jackman and Twitter have somewhat parted ways. He hasn't posted anything since May 25. What happened there? Did he get bored with it like me? Maybe he's just been busy lately. He does have fourteen movies coming up.

No. Wait. It looks like he never really got into it. He only has 81 tweets. That's not many.

I'm looking at Google News now.

Jackman is going to be in a musical about P.T. Barnum. That will probably be interesting. The article mentions The Boy From Oz. I totally forgot about that. I have him singing "I Still Call Australia Home" on my iTunes.

Here's the Andrew Denton Interview. I'll read that. It was done in 2004.

Jackman says what Lord Wiki said. The Journey program at the actor centre is a year-long course. They must have lengthened it; probably wanted to charge more money.

Jackman says the other guys in acting school were more of the smoking brooding types. And he was the happy musical guy. That's cute.

There's the pee story.

He had a headache issue. His wife is into natural medicine and all that. It was decided that the headaches came from dehydration. She had Jackman drink a lot. So, that's why he had to pee.

He peed fifteen minutes before the show began but then soon had to go again. I can totally relate to that. I have these times where I have to pee about every twenty minutes.

That is a funny story. I wonder if the audience could tell what happened. I suppose those up front would be able to.

Jackman says, So I would have to say that is the most humiliating moment. But, funnily enough, I don't mind retelling it. What does that tell you?


Denton says it means he's an honest man. I agree with him.

I like people who can share embarrassing moments like that.

Well, that was the funny part of the interview.

Now we get to the tear-jerker part. I haven't even read the whole story yet and I already have a lump in my throat. Denton says that Jackman cried when he saw Peter Allen performing. Oh no wait. His dad started crying.

They heard Allen sing "I Still Call Australia Home". Jackman was there with his dad and brothers. His dad put his hand on his head. Jackman looked up at him and saw his dad's tears.

Now I have tears. It's like communicable tears...spread by Peter Allen.

His wife saw part of the script of X-Men and immediately told him not to do the movie. She kind of gives bad advice sometimes. Her advice led him into peeing on stage. And then she didn't want him to do the movie that made him famous.

Jackman had never heard of X-Men before the movie. I don't think I did either. Tim did. Tim and his sister pretty much know EVERYTHING about comic book hero people.

He says he has a healthy relationship with his mom. It's so hard for me to imagine. I can't imagine how a child survives that abandonment.

Jackman says she did visit him. That's good. He's private about why she left. I respect that because he's trying to be respectful towards his mother. She might have had some good reasons for doing what she did.

Oh. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story. It's about him and his wife. They were working together on a series and they went to a party. Jackman was a little drunk and confessed to her that he was in love with her. He said he had a crush on her but not to worry about it. Then she said it was okay because she had a crush on him too.

I love that.

It's so nice when there's a mutual attraction.

It's so awful when there's not. The one-sided stuff can be QUITE painful. But yeah. It builds character. Right?

Anyway, I think I'm going to quit here. Jack wants to play. It's almost 4 pm. I'm getting tired.