Embarrassing moments. I'm sure we have all had a scattering of them in our lifetimes. However, few of us have had our most embarrassing moment on a public stage, but the X-Men Origins: Wolverine star Hugh Jackman has, and it’s a "doozy" of a story. As Jackman just revealed, he once "pissed" his pants while on stage.
As the award season begins to heat up, British Vogue gathered 30 of the world’s biggest stars to celebrate the roaring twenties by sharing everything from their successes, on-set memories, secrets, and most embarrassing moments. The line of questioning prompted the Greatest Showman actor to tell a humorous anecdote of either wetting himself during an onstage performance of Beauty and the Beast or not singing. The actor humorously recalled:
I pissed my pants on stage. It’s the doozy of all doozies. The doctor told me I was dehydrated so, following direction, I drank so much water that by the time I was doing this number – in red tights, as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast – I basically had a choice of pissing my pants or not singing.
A bit of a Sophie’s choice, indeed. I would have chosen not to sing, but that’s just me. Of course, that's easy for me to say because I have a terrible singing voice and impeccable bladder control.
This isn’t the first time Hugh Jackman has told this story. In a 2008 telling, he added that he couldn’t see anything after he finished relieving himself, so he assumed the Gaston tights were waterproof. However, to his horror, the audience's laughter soon signaled to the actor he was very wrong. Jackman told Playboy via People:
When I finished, I immediately turned upstage, looked down, and couldn’t see anything. I thought these red tights must be waterproof. I was laughing as if I had gotten away with it. But the audience was looking at me funny. It had seeped through, and my pants were completely wet. The audience could see it.
That is a horrifying event, but The Prestige actor is a constant professional who handled his bathroom mishap with grace. Aspiring performers out there may want to take notes.
More recently, Hugh Jackman’s most recent film, The Son, was met with a 10-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last fall. However, general critic reviews of Jackman's movie were somewhat mixed. The family drama was written and directed by Florian Zeller (who is perhaps best known for the 2021 Academy Award-nominated movie The Father), who based the screenplay on his original play of the same name. The story focuses on a teenage boy battling mental illness, who also moves in with his father and new partner. The role of the boy’s father, who’s confused about how to manage his son’s depression, really meant a lot to Jackman, who sweetly landed the role by pitching himself to the director.
The Les Misérables actor has shown himself to be a dedicated performer who's willing to go the extra mile for a role he believes in. He famously made himself bleed for his pitch to play P.T. Barnum. And though embarrassingly, the star admitted to not knowing what a wolverine was before taking on the part of the Canadian-based mutant with a healing factor, he never the less threw himself all in for the role. He did a ton of research on wolves, which he mistakenly thought the superhero was based on, and visited the local zoo for insight into his character.
Despite mediocre reviews, most highlighted the X-Men star’s performance as a stand-out. While Anthony Hopkins accepted the Oscar for Best Actor for his work in Zeller’s previous film, only time will tell if Jackman will be considered this award season. With The Son’s polarizing reception, it’s uncertain if the movie belongs in the best Hugh Jackman movies. However, if the Australia actor finds himself on that Oscars stage, let’s hope he takes plenty of bathroom breaks to avoid repeating his most embarrassing moment.
The veteran star's latest, The Son, is playing in select theaters and will have a wider opening on January 23 as part of the schedule of 2023 new movie releases.
