What Was Hugh Jackman’s First Movie Role?
Before Hugh Jackman was a professional actor, he worked odd jobs while in school. For some time, he was a clown while struggling to get his breakthrough role. However, he got bad reviews from the children due to a lack of magic tricks. Fortunately, he did not have to endure being a clown for much longer. With some luck, the actor’s first film role launched him into stardom. Now, for over two decades, Jackman has achieved massive success in the industry.
Hugh Jackman has his origins in theater
Hugh Jackman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and he had his first taste of acting at a young age. According to his page on Britannica, his first gig was a play called Camelot. Jackman portrayed King Arthur, and he was 5 years old at the time.
While Jackman got a degree in communications, he took a drama class in his senior year. He later took some courses at Actors Centre Australia. He received an offer to appear in a long-running soap opera, but the aspiring actor turned it down to study drama more. Jackman’s early roles include several various stage productions and TV shows.
In 1994, he appeared in 10 episodes of a prison drama titled Correlli. A year later, Jackman starred as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Other plays he starred in include Sunset Boulevard and Carousel. His performance in the former project led to him going to London’s Royal National Theatre to act in another production.
In 1996, Jackman appeared in a few episodes of The Man from Snowy River. While the actor primarily works in film, he would return to land roles in more conventional theater productions.
Hugh Jackman’s first big movie role made him famous
In 2000, Hugh Jackman made his Hollywood debut with the superhero film X-Men. The movie is an adaptation of the comics of the same name from Marvel. He played the lead role of Wolverine, and he returned for the next two sequels of the trilogy.
Before filming, Jackman got a warning against taking on the role. The reason was that people were not into comic book movies, and he was better off auditioning for another project. Jackman did not think he had a shot at X-Men anyway and proceeded onward. It turns out his performance established him as a talented star.
Jackman also reprised his role for many other X-Men films like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Needless to say, fans would continue to associate the star with the mutant superhero. He even made a small cameo in X-Men: First Class, where his character appears in a bar.
Eventually, Jackman felt that it was time to say goodbye to the franchise. He completed his journey with his character’s send-off in Logan.
What the actor has been up to since ‘X-Men’
Since X-Men, Hugh Jackman has landed roles in other hit films. He showed off his range in romantic comedies like Someone like You and Kate & Leopold. The actor also lent his voice in Rise of the Guardians, but many people remember his performance in the musical film adaptation of Les Misérables. Jackman was a Frenchman named Jean Valjean and left prison after finishing his 19-year sentence for stealing bread. The period musical earned Jackman a few award nominations.
The star also was in another critically-acclaimed movie musical, that being The Greatest Showman. In The Greatest Showman, Jackman portrayed an ambitious entrepreneur named P. T. Barnum. Barnum begins a circus in the hopes of gaining money. More recently, Jackman played Nick Bannister in Reminiscence and starred in the Broadway musical The Music Man.
Fans can expect to see more of Hugh Jackman soon, with a few other projects lined up at the moment.
