The Source Magazine was invited to an intimate press conference where the cast of “The Wolverine” reflected upon the journey they took together to make the film out tomorrow, July 26. Aside from Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and the Wolverine himself (Hugh Jackman), additional conference attendees included director James Mangold, Japanese superstar Hiroyuki Sanada, along with newcomers Rila Fukushima and Tao Okamoto.
Things got kicked off with a couple laughs as Jackman talked about what it’s like to have been playing the character for so long. He quipped, “You know, in 1953 I got the part. It sometimes feels like that! It was in the past century in 1999 and it’s weird, I actually am enjoying playing him more than ever. And I was kind of reflecting on that in a sense of “why would that be?” And I don’t know, Wolverine is somewhere between the ages of 150 and 300. And on some of the 4 o’clock mornings I felt 300 years old!”
Jackman also talked about his past experiences working on the “X-Men” franchise as he recalled a story about how “X-Men” director Bryan Singer didn’t allow any of the ensemble to read comic books on set as he didn’t want the actors to “come onto set with an over the top performance and that their perception of comics was two dimensional…but we were handing them around and I remember being handed this comic book (the story that inspired “The Wolverine”) and it was like contraband!”
While discussing the intricacies of Wolverine’s character, Jackman ironically enough discussed how Wolverine always seems to be surrounded by women. Jackman is regarded as one of the most handsome actors in the business, so this segment of the conference came off pretty naturally for him. “One of the things in the comic books, as some of you may know, the thing is with women with Wolverine. It’s sort of his Achilles heel in a way.”
And speaking of women, Jackman was full of praise for his costars Fukushima and Okamoto. During his elucidation about the cast’s camaraderie he remarked, “And I just want to point out these two. It’s a very daunting thing to be in your first film, but when your first film is as big as this, and as you all know there’s a lot of pressure, I am so proud of what both of these women achieved.” It was clear to everyone in attendance that Jackman took on the “big brother” role for his fresh costars.
The troupe love didn’t stop there however as Jackman began to talk about his experiences within Japan itself. He brought up his astonishment at both Sanada’s star power as well as his humility. “As we were finishing the set one day, I saw the line up of all the extras and they were lining up and I thought they were handing over some prop or something. And when I craned my head around and (he) was out of sight from everybody, was Hiro. And he’s done 60 films (in Japan) and is an icon there. He stood to the side and one by one, shook the hands and bowed and thanked every extra on the film…The humility, the respect, and the generosity with Hiro was there with the girls and made a huge difference.”
And speaking of Japan, Jackman also shared some stories of what he did in his off time there. He recalled how he and his son actually climbed Mount Fuji while there, and even had a hilarious anecdote from when he went into an onsen, which is a traditional Japanese hot spring. He said, “They hand you a towel, a small wash cloth. And when you get in the onsens there are eight different types of tubs, different heats different temperatures. And one of them was cold. So I’m getting so hot and of course I’m using the towel they gave me to dip into the cold water and putting it on my head. And I was getting very strange looks from everybody. This is at the base of Mount Fuji, every night in Tokyo I was the only white person there. And they were looking at me and I thought maybe this is not cool, maybe I’m not meant to be there. I was getting uncomfortable and finally this guy in a tub, he’s looking at me, goes (points at Jackman then at the tub). Then finally I realized that the towel was meant to be covering my privates! I’d spent about an hour waltzing around the place with this towel in my hand and a beer in my other hand!”
“The Wolverine” comes out July 26th.
-Jagpal Khahera
