So, in Real Steel, you’ve got your shirt off yet again. What up with that?
It’s funny because I said to Shawn [Levy, director], “I just promoted a movie and everyone was asking me, ‘Is it in your contract to take your shirt off in every movie?’ and it really took me back.” So, he said, “Yeah, you’re right – no tank-tops, just T-shirts. When you’re boxing, you’ve got the hoodie on. This is not going to be about that.” But there was a shirtless scene in the script that we both forgot about. I remember the big print saying: “Charlie changes in the boxing ring because he’s got one bag of clothes and he lives in a truck. He has no bedroom, no house, no nothing.” We were like, “That’s a great story point.” I blew it again!
You’re currently working on the musical Les Miserables. Is the shirt staying on?
I actually told that story to [director] Tom Hooper, because one of the first scenes actually shows my character in the prison camp that he’s in, being punished and whipped, and stuff like that. I said, “I can tell you right now, if you have me with my shirt off, people are going to say, ‘You were just doing what Jackman demanded in his contract.’” And he said, “I don’t think we need to do it without your shirt.”
The Wolverine is due in 2013, where your most famous character makes his way to Japan to train with a samurai. Now, most people think wolverines are wolves, but they’re actually the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family.
Are they officially weasels? That’s not sexy. We should’ve called the movie Wolverine: The Rise of the Weasel!
Does Wolverine “manscape”?
No. His hair is just wild and reckless – very 1970s. Those ridiculous muttonchops! I don’t know why, but whenever I do these movies, the crew always ends up having a muttonchop competition. On the last X-Men, the construction crew all put money in, and I had to come and judge “Best Muttonchops.”
Do you trim a bit yourself?
I shave my face, but I don’t manscape. My old man does have a fair crop of back hair, so I’m thinking that it might be genetic. I asked my wife, Deb, to keep an eye on it.
In the X-Men films, Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey comes off as a dominatrix. Does that mean Wolverine is the submissive?
I can’t see him on all fours, to be honest. Or getting a spanking. He’s overtly tough and rugged. But maybe behind the bedroom door he’s wearing nappies – or something, you know, weird.
Do you tire of addressing those crazy rumours that wolverine is gay?
Well, I think he has a very long history. He’s actually over 100 years old, and maybe it was just a phase.
What brand of cigar does Wolverine like to smoke?
Cohiba. You’ll find him with a cigar in his mouth a lot, but at no point is it lit. There’s just too much pressure [from the politically correct] for him not to smoke it. And actually it’s a little clichéd: cigar equals tough guy. It feels like Acting 101.
Do Wolverine groupies exist?
At Comic-Con they do, en masse. But I run into them all over the place: customs officials, Vinny the maître d’ at Bubby’s restaurant in Manhattan. That guy’s entire back is covered with a Wolverine tattoo. He took his shirt off in the middle of the restaurant to show me. Some fans think Wolverine had become too soft by X-Men 3. They want him to be more badarse. He’s famous in the comic books for this berserker rage. I’m 6’2” [188cm], but Wolverine was meant to be 5’3” [160cm]. The comic has times when he just goes crazy and slaughters innocent people!
What’s the most danger you’ve ever faced on a movie set?
It’s really everybody else on the set who has to watch out. I’ve stabbed so many people by accident with my claws, and I stabbed myself in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in the thigh.
You were getting up at 4am every day to work out for that role. That’s pretty serious commitment.
When I first saw Wolverine with my wife, she kept saying, “Who is that guy?” I wanted him to look veiny and animalistic. I didn’t want him to look pretty. I wanted him to look disturbing – the way Robert de Niro did in Cape Fear.
How does all the gym time go over with your mates?
They give me shit about everything. Privately, quite a number of them have said, “Man, I really want to get into shape. What should I do?” And I say, “Those beers you had at breakfast this morning? Not a great start.”
Speedos or board shorts?
I remember doing a photo shoot down on the beach in LA when I was starting out. I had Speedos on. And just as the photographer was about to take my picture, my publicist ran up and practically tackled me to the sand. He said, “If that photo is taken of you, you’ll be gay for the rest of your life.” I said, “If you went down to an Australian beach and called guys wearing Speedos gay, you wouldn’t walk off that beach.” I know now I need to be wearing board shorts wherever I am in the world.
People magazine named you the Sexiest Man Alive in 2008. Who are the sexiest women in Hollywood?
Beyoncé, who I’ve performed with [at the 2009 Oscars]. Halle Berry is very sexy, too.
How was making out with Nicole Kidman in Australia? She’s one of your wife’s best friends, so was it a bit awkward?
It’s more awkward kissing someone you’ve never met before, because the moment “Cut” happens, you don’t have enough of a relationship to talk to the person afterward. It’s like being on a really awkward first date: You wake up in the morning, and you really don’t have anything to talk about.
Phoebe Eaton & Steve Nash
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