Hugh Jackman really is a man of many talents whether he’s throwing a few punches, showing off his singing chops, or bringing audiences to tears. Some of the best Hugh Jackman movies have been dramas like Prisoners, Les Misérables, and The Fountain. Snagging the lead role in his new movie The Son involved a sweet way the Australian actor pitched himself while other actors were looked at for the part.
This dramatic film was written and directed by Florian Zeller based on his own play. Known for the 2021 Academy Award-nominated movie The Father, The Son is about a teenage son battling mental illness who 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 Hugh Jackman when he told Good Morning America the sweet way he pitched himself the role.
So Florian Zeller, who wrote it and directed it. Did The Father, won the Oscar for The Father with Anthony Hopkins. I’d seen the movie, I was going to do one of Florian’s plays because he’s written a lot of plays. So, I read the script and knew I had to do it. I had also heard a couple of other actors had been talked about so I had this awkward moment where I emailed the director because I felt an urgency to play the part. It’s a rare thing to happen. It’s one you look for.
Well, this proves that if a role really means that much to you, there’s nothing wrong with actively seeking it. At least sending an email to the director you want to work with was more harmless than when the Australia actor made himself bleed during his pitch for The Greatest Showman. After being told he had skin cancer, he had to get 80 stitches in his nose to remove it and was told by the doctor not to sing. But of course, he can’t pitch himself for a musical film and not sing. So after singing a few lines, he made his nose bleed. Luckily like his X-Men character, Jackman has the ability to heal quickly too. And some auditions came more naturally to him like his twenty-second audition for X-Men. Based on the reading of his original audition to play Wolverine, he was able to successfully get in tune with the emotions of the metal-clawed mutant.
But, the story’s not over yet. Hugh Jackman may have been persistent in wanting to take on the role of Peter Miller in The Son but was open to others being looked at ahead of him.
I emailed him, I said sorry if you’re dancing with someone else. If you are, I’m not the kind of guy to cut in. But if you aren’t I’d love to play the part.
His efforts really were a job well done that other actors could take note of…depending on the director, of course. Jackman had the chance to work with Anthony Hopkins who accepted the Oscar for Best Actor for The Father, another movie of Zeller’s. For all we know, The Prestige actor should end up being nominated in that category too as The Son received a 10-minute standing ovation with Jackman’s performance being called “the most impressive dramatic performance” of his career. The 54-year-old actor revealed on Good Morning America that Zeller clearly has a natural ability to bring fresh performances out of his actors that he didn’t believe in rehearsals for this very reason.
We can learn from Hugh Jackman that if you want something, you go for it. It took him one email to send to a director to land him in the play adaptation drama The Son. Jackman hopes that movies like this will inspire a dialogue for more conversations to occur about mental illness. You can watch the new movie release of The Son in theaters on November 25th.
