Hugh Jackman is one of Hollywood's biggest stars today, thanks to his years playing Wolverine
in the X-Men film franchise, but he wasn't always a grizzled, adamantium-clawed hero.
Here's how a lanky Australian teen went from teaching gym class to ripping people to shreds.
Teaching P.E. in England
Hugh Jackman was eight years old when his mother left and moved to England.
A few years later, his two sisters moved there as well, leaving Jackman to grow up in Australia
with his father and two older brothers.
Jackman admitted that the event left him feeling "volatile", with a lot of pent-up anger, which
he channeled into sports at the all-boys school he attended.
After he graduated, Jackman wound up in England at age 18 and was hired by the prestigious
Uppingham School in East Midlands as an assistant housemaster.
While he spent a good deal of his time teaching physical education and coaching sports teams,
part of his duties also included tutoring freshmen in English and drama.
His first leading role
When Jackman’s gap year in England ended, he returned to Australia and enrolled in the
University of Technology in Sydney as a journalism student, a change in course that would soon
prove short-lived.
During his final year at university, Jackman needed a few extra credits to graduate.
He wound up enrolling in drama because he'd heard it was "easy to pass".
Little did he realize a lead role in his university’s production of The Memorandum would put him
on a path to pursuing acting professionally.
After he graduated in 1991, he enrolled full-time at the Actor's Centre in Sydney, because according
to him, he "didn't have the drive" to be a professional journalist.
Almost an Aussie soap star
Not long after Jackman signed with power agent Penny Williams in the early '90s, he was offered
a role on the popular Australian soap opera Neighbours.
The show's long been a launching pad for many future stars, including Kylie Minogue, Russell
Crowe and Chris Hemsworth.
It seemed like Jackman's big break had arrived, but he'd also recently interviewed for the
Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts' acting program, leaving him with a dilemma.
While the promise of a two-year contract on a major TV show was pretty alluring, Jackman
ultimately turned it down in favor of continuing his drama education for a further three years.
Jackman loved his time at WAAPA, where he was immersed in all aspects of training from
9AM to 6PM every day.
Jackman told The Telegraph:
"We'd do Shakespeare, then circus skills and singing and dancing.
It is a quality that seems to tap into my surname, Jack of all trades."
Making his major debut
The same night he finished his last performance at the drama school in 1995, Hugh Jackman
got a call offering him a role in an Australian TV crime drama called Corelli.
The show centered on a criminal psychologist named Louisa Corelli who gets sent to a men's
prison to work with the inmates and winds up forming a relationship with one: a hardened
criminal named Kevin Jones.
Jackman was cast as Jones opposite established actress Deborra-Lee Furness, and though the
series was ultimately a failure, it wound up changing his life.
Jackman fell in love with Furness, much to his embarrassment:
“I said, ‘Aw, I’ve got a crush on you Deb, I’ll get over it.
I’m sorry.
It’s embarrassing.’
And she goes, ‘Oh.
‘Cause I’ve got a crush on you too.’
And I was like, ‘Right.
What?’”
The couple married a year later in 1996 and are still going strong.
A West End star
Thanks to a critically acclaimed performance in an Aussie production of Sunset Boulevard,
when it came time to cast the new West End production of the classic musical Oklahoma!,
producers had only one actor in mind for the role of cowboy Curly.
Despite fumbling the words while singing "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" during his audition,
producers were completely enamored with Jackman.
Oklahoma! was a big hit in London, transforming Jackman into an international star.
Reviews of the actor's performance were beyond glowing, and he received an Olivier nomination
for Best Actor for his work.
The production was filmed for television and aired both in the U.K. and the U.S., where
American audiences were introduced to the charismatic Jackman for the first time.
Joining The X-Men
Fellow Aussie actor Russell Crowe was on a hot streak in Hollywood when Bryan Singer
offered him the role of Wolverine in his upcoming film adaptation of the hugely popular X-Men.
But the actor turned Singer down, having just finished Academy Award-winning epic Gladiator.
Instead, Crowe told Singer to take a look at his longtime friend Hugh Jackman, who was
in London doing Oklahoma!
Jackman's West End show schedule made the process a little tricky.
The actor had to run over between performances for his initial audition, and the X-Men team
were a little put off by his appearance.
Jackman told The Evening Standard,
"They basically said, 'Interesting, but lose the perm and the Southern cowboy accent.'"
But the audition went well enough they wanted to fly him to America for a second round.
Jackman hesitated due to his commitments to Oklahoma!
Eventually, they agreed to send him on a Concorde jet to America, where he impressed producers
once again.
Six months of radio silence followed.
20th Century Fox execs really wanted Scottish actor Dougray Scott for Wolverine, but the
actor was in Australia filming scenes for Mission: Impossible 2.
Disaster struck when Scott was injured in a motorcycle accident while filming, so with
Scott unable to film and production rolling, producers had to find someone else quickly.
Jackman was hired last minute, and a superhero was born.
Roughly two decades later, Jackman has clawed his way to the top of the Hollywood heap.
Jackman recalls an opening weekend conversation with his wife, telling her, quote:
"I think this is going to change everything."
Was he ever right.