Hugh Jackman is not only well-regarded as an actor, but also as a performer. In addition to his many big screen roles, the actor has done a lot of acclaimed stage work, involving lots of choreographed song and dance. This clearly made his a great fit for the new musical The Greatest Showman, but Jackman did recently recount a time during production where he was a bit less than graceful. Said the actor,
I just sort of had to half-run, just to get off the camera. So I'm off camera and I'm just jogging and I tripped, literally on hay like it's nothing. And I just slow motion fell and bumped my head straight through this fake Egyptian obelisk. It was made out of like strong Papier-mâché. And my head went right through it. Of course, everyone is singing and dancing and I'm trying to get my head out of this thing. I am very clumsy.
It was while speaking with Yahoo! that Hugh Jackman recently revealed his behind the scenes foibles during the making of The Greatest Showman. From his description it sounds like he may have managed to not ruin a take through his weird accident, but one does kind of wish that this actually happened on-camera so that we could see what it looked like when the performer best known for playing Wolverine got his head stuck in a piece of set decoration.
As we saw multiple times in 2017, on-set accidents are sometimes no laughing matter, but this is certainly an exception. It sounds like Hugh Jackman can laugh now about P.T. Barnum's personal battle with a fake Egyptian obelisk, and apparently he wasn't actually hurt in the ordeal. The same can't entirely be said for Jackman's Greatest Showman co-stars, Zac Efron and Zendaya. The two stars have a musical sequence in the movie involving riding stage ropes attached to pulleys and sandbags, and more than a few times it saw them crashing into one another:
Zac Efron: We'd get a perfect one in the bag and be so ready to level up for the next take. And then the next time we'd be just a little bit off and [collide]! They'd have to lower us down.Zendaya: You can't shoot something like that and be flawless all the time. But It's worth it after get to see the finished product.
Given the speed at which Zac Efron and Zendaya move within the Greatest Showman sequence, it's kind of amazing that neither of them were seriously injured - but that's perhaps a tribute to the skills of those working on set making sure everything is as safe as possible.
Speaking of the finished product, you can see it for yourself now. The Greatest Showman, which also stars Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Keala Settle, and features music from the Oscar-winning songwriters from La La Land, is in theaters everywhere.
