Hugh Jackman is used to playing heroes on the movie screen, but as it turns out, he's a pretty heroic guy in reality as well. Apparently, he recently saved Zac Efron from a burning building. The two have been filming The Greatest Showman together and one scene called for Jackman to carry his co-star out of a burning house. Except the staged fire got a little too intense and the set ended up actually burning down. According to Efron...
It started to get late, and some of the pyrotechnics got a little bit too hot. And that was when we burst out of the building. It looked great on camera. We didn't know it, but it was pretty intense. I watched playback, and he saved me from a burning building. It later exploded that night. It was a set, but it later burned down.
It doesn't appear that Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron were necessarily in a lot of danger as it appears the filming of the scene was over when the set actually burned down. Still, to know that you were inside that set while it was on fire and that the pyro was out of control enough to burn the place down has to be a little disconcerting. It could have just as easily happened earlier. Thank god Wolverine was there to save everybody's life. The way Efron tells MTV about the experience, it's hard to tell exactly how much time passed between the end of shooting and the set burning down. It doesn't sound like anybody was actually hurt, but one doesn't usually plan for things to burn down.
The image of Hugh Jackman carrying Zac Efron out of a burning building, is, of course, a hilarious one when you think about it. Efron isn't exactly your classic damsel in distress. The humor of the situation is not lost on Efron. He realizes that he's actually experienced the sort of thing that's a real fantasy for others...
Hugh Jackman saving you from a burning building; it's every girl's dream.
It's probably the dream of more than a few men as well.
Since it appears that all filming on the destroyed set was finished we will apparently get a scene in The Greatest Showman where Hugh Jackman carries a full grown man from a burning building. It's not clear whether the scene is supposed to be as funny as that sounds. The film will see Jackman take on the role of famous P.T. Barnum. It will also bring the actor about as far from Wolverine as you can get, the film is a musical that will also co-star Rebecca Ferguson.
We're glad that everybody apparently survived the set explosion, apparently without injury.
