Hugh Jackman Opens Up About His Volatile Childhood In 'Parade'
Hugh Jackman is dapper in a suit on the cover of Parade magazine’s October 2015 issue!
Here’s what the 46-year-old actor had to share with the mag:
On whether Pan is special to him because, like Peter, his mother left him: “Yes. [But] I was more sensitive about its connection to my two adopted children. In scenes at the orphanage in the beginning of the movie, the nun talks harshly: ‘Your mums are not waiting for you. You’re not going to see them again.’ I actually read this to my wife and talked to [director] Joe Wright about it. I went, ‘Hang on. This is dealing with adoption and orphans. I want to make sure that this movie is not something my kids are going to feel weird about. Every movie I do, I think, My kids are going to see this. When it’s a movie about adoption, I want to make sure that they don’t feel uncomfortable.”
On his volatile childhood: “I was volatile. My mum left when I was 8. My anger didn’t really surface until I was 12 or 13. It was triggered because my parents were going to get reconciled and didn’t…There was this perfect storm of hormones and emotion. I’ve never said this before: We had metal [school] lockers and, half in fun, we used to head-butt the lockers until there was a dent in them…In playing rugby, my rage would come out, rage that I identify as Wolverine rage. I’d be somewhere in a ruck in rugby, get punched in the face and I’d just go into a white rage.”
On how he felt when he first met his wife Deborra-Lee Furness: “We met on a TV show [the Australian series Correlli]. I was terrified when I realized I had a crush on the star of the show. I was like, ‘My first job, the leading lady. Embarrassing. She’s going to look at me like this young little puppy.’ I didn’t talk to her for a week. Finally, she said, ‘Have I done something to annoy you?’ I said, ‘Look I’ve got a crush on you. I’m sorry.’ And she said, ‘Oh, I’ve got a crush on you too.’ And that was 20 years ago [laughs].
Also pictured: Hugh hitting the red carpet with co-star Levi Miller and director Joe Wright at the premiere of Pan held at the Roppongi Hills on Thursday (October 1) in Tokyo, Japan.