THE FRONT RUNNER

[mamaleh]

That podcast with Scott Feinberg is wonderful, so revelatory and candid. We've heard aspects of many of HJ's stories, but he goes deeper here. Thanks for posting, Jo.

Ellen

[jo]

Ellen,

Yes, it is such an insightful interview! I actually listened to it only now when I did have the free time and full attention ( I didn't want to rush it -- I was going to watch the Aussie Tennis Open with Nadal when I first saw the THR alert).


*I wish Feinberg did not edit out two parts which made the continuation a little awkward and did not put the revelatory aspects in better context ( one was when he told PW that he had made a commitment for another film and may have had to back out of the first XMen film ...and the other was cutting abrupty the rest of what happened at the LesMis audition)


*But it is good to read the more complete picture on his relationship with Patrick Whitesell. I think we have read PW's role in Hugh's professional career exactly right based on some bits of insights from past interviews. My first insight on their relationship was when Hugh mentioned during TBFO interviews then that it was only his agent who encouraged him to do what he feels he needed to do artistically-speaking... and not follow the objections of others who viewed his accepting the role as detrimental to his rising career in Hollywood. In a way, Patrick's faith in him was vindicated when he shared the success story that was called THE BOY FROM OZ when he was there at the Imperial ( with all of us) for the closing show!

I also think now that he sang MACK THE KNIFE at PW's wedding because it was his backhanded tribute to someone who does not act like a typical agent ( also called " sharks" by the cynics)! PW has a long-run perspective ( he said that he is going to manage Hugh's career for the next 50 years - ha, we have 30 more years to go!) and also has that viewpoint from an upbringing in a small town with its good values and people-oriented relationships. Also interesting that a political science major has given PW the right perspective with dealing with different kinds of people with different kinds of outlooks and goals! Now I fully understand why he calls PW a close friend!


*Hugh has always been such a great one for acknowledging other people's contributions to his success(es). It is very gracious of him to give that tribute to Michael Gracey's role in bringing The Greatest Showman to its eventual unexpected successes! It is amazing to know that when he thinks he is stumbling, he takes someone else's perspective wholeheartedly - such as when he talked about how Michael talked him out of giving up on Greatest Showman (and " came out pregnant" ) ... It brings to mind some instances when he felt personally at a low point in his artistic pursuits and Deb filled in the role of Chief Encourager ( Is there such a word?). Maybe this is where his background when he was young and had to deal with personal family trauma comes in that has made Hugh somewhat discouraged when things won't turn well sometimes? As Feinberg has said, the early family drama may have had an impact on how and what he eventually became?



What seems to solidify in my mind is that Hugh Jackman has this unbelievable thirst for learning! He does it for the knowledge as well as the stepping stone to find himself in the right path! What an insightful outlook in life! That it is always a continuing saga of learning about oneself and those who impact on his life. And his path seems not only to focus on his lifework but also on his personal goals, and other life advocacies and beliefs!


Will re-listen to the podcast again at some time!


Jo

[jo]

Feinberg rattled off Hugh's films that hit # 1 at the box office when they were released.

Not sure, but did he fail to mention LOGAN?

From Box Office Mojo --

Domestic Summary
Opening Weekend:
$88,411,916
(#1 rank, 4,071 theaters, $21,717 average)
% of Total Gross:
39.1%

Jo

[jo]

He did acknowledge SONY as he introduced THE FRONT RUNNER --

[jo]

Saying ARIGATO ( Thanks) to Tokyo --

http://instagram.com/p/Bs_2EpbndIi

If he as left, I wonder where he is bound for now?


Jo

[jo]

More insights on this interview, with the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Front Runner opens on January 31 in Australia --

'It's not an easy thing to do': Hugh Jackman dances in the dark world of politics

By Michael Idato
26 January 2019 — 11:45pm


While preparing to take on the role of one-time potential American presidential candidate Gary Hart, actor Hugh Jackman received an unexpected call: Hart and his wife Oletha invited the 50-year-old Australian actor to come and stay at their home in Colorado.

As an actor, Jackman knew meeting the man he was about to play in The Front Runner was a risky move. Even Jackman's wife, actress Deborra-Lee Furness, pressed him on the point. "Deb asked me about that, before going," Jackman says. "She was like, are you sure? And I said, 'I have to.'"

Hugh Jackman stars as one-time presidential candidate Gary Hart.
Credit:
Sony Pictures


Hart had been described as an enigma to Jackman, "and a part of me wanted to experience it", he says. "But if I'm really honest, I mainly wanted him to know, when I looked him in the eye, that the person entrusted with telling the story of the worst three weeks of his life cared and was going to do everything in his power to do him justice."

The trip was memorable. Hart's wife was recovering from hip surgery so the couple were sleeping in the living room of their home and offered Jackman use of their upstairs bedroom. It broke the ice and they became friends.


"It's not necessarily an easy thing to do," Jackman says. "I'm friends with Gary now, and [since filming] I heard some things that I didn't know about. I ask myself, if I had the chance, would I have done it again? And I'm not sure. Because it can make it somehow harder."

Based on the 2014 book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid by Matt Bai, The Front Runner is the story of Hart's fall from grace: a political sex scandal in which an affair with an alleged mistress was made public, forcing Hart to resign.

Jackman stars as Gary Hart is confronted by reporters in
Credit:
DALE ROBINETTE



Compared with modern political scandals, it seems relatively tame: Hart, a US senator with presidential ambition, made a run in 1988 for the Democratic party candidacy. Rumoured to be a "womaniser", Hart said at the time candidates "don't get to the top by tearing someone else down".

And Hart's riposte to the media – "Follow me around, I don't care. I'm serious, if anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead, they'll be very bored" – proved to be his undoing. The press did tail him and in so doing exposed an alleged affair with then-actress/model Donna Rice. Within weeks Hart's presidential ambitions were in flames.

In The Front Runner, director Jason Reitman saw a story which asked the question: how did we get here? And by here, Reitman meant the turbulent and divisive politics of the US and Australia, the UK's Brexit and the clash between the media and political establishments.

Jackman talks to director Jason Reitman on the set of
Credit:
Sony



Reitman also felt the film was a chance to explore topics such as gender politics, the line between a public and a private life and the relationship between politicians and journalists, topics which now often get mired in the noise of social media argument.

"I think in terms of that line, where we are today, I would highlight the relationship between the press and politicians," Jackman says. "This was not the only defining moment, clearly Watergate is a big moment, and there are many, many moments along this path. But this is a previously ignored three weeks of American politics.

"This was the advent of 24-hour news and the voracious appetite of the news cycle, and so it was certainly a change, and I think what Jason has smartly done is make a movie not so much about a man, but about this moment and seeing it from many different points of view."





Politician and actor, though both may protest, are perhaps not so different.

Both come with a noble ideal – the politician to realise policy, the actor in pursuit of art – but both are exposed, in the execution, to a giddy rush, whether it's the applause of the audience, the fame that goes with the gig or the glory of great success.

"Of course there's some similarities in terms of the pressure-filled moments that you have, whether it be an opening night or hosting the Oscars, there's a sense of, I've got to be on my game now," Jackman says.

"But as much as I like to say my job is really important, the job of a politician, and what is the stake, it's far greater," he adds. "If I fail at my job, people just go and watch someone else's movie, but if a politician fails, or it turns out their ideas or their ability to carry out those ideas are bankrupt, then it has real repercussions for many, many people."

Going into The Front Runner, Jackman was hesitant to judge Hart. In the lead-up to the film's release, one newspaper headline proclaimed Jackman was unwilling "to say if Hart was a villain or hero".

Jackman was hesitant to judge Gary Hart ahead of
Credit:
Frank Masi SMPSP



For his part, Jackman says he was tempted. "But I think as an actor I instinctively try to make the audience understand them, sympathise, really," he says. "As an actor you have to be inside of it and I want an audience to share that with me.
"I think it's not so much my discipline, but it's Jason Reitman's discipline to not make a partisan movie," Jackman says. "[Rather], it's a movie which is about a whole bunch of humans in a very sort of pressure-filled situation.

"We unveil the curtain, have a look behind the reality of the critical campaign, and I think ultimately, let the audience decide, let the audience have conversations and not to manipulate them into feeling a certain way or the other."

Jackman once described Hart as "a very private person running for the most public job in the world". It's a potent contradiction.

And despite it, Jackman, for his part, believes that had Hart survived his own campaign he could have survived a presidency. "I think he could have and I've spoken a lot to the campaign team, too, who feel there was a path forward for him," he says.

But for Hart, Jackman adds, "protecting his family, protecting the sanctity of the process, was also very important for him, arguably more important than saving his own political skin [and] I would say that quality alone probably would make him a very compelling candidate as a leader."

Which leaves us with a challenging question about how history will deal with Hart. In the wake of such political scandals, some men have elected to walk away, while others, such as former US president Richard Nixon and, in the present day, one could even argue US president Donald Trump, have chosen to stay.



History, Jackman says, is always kinder to men like Hart. "Definitely the person who leaves by choice, if we agree with the reason," Jackman says.

"There's no doubt, as complex a character as Gary is, he, three months after leaving, was polling at 44 per cent and his nearest rival, Jesse Jackson, was at 16 per cent," he adds. "So there was a compelling case for him to stay politically."
Hart chose to leave, Jackman says, because he believed in preserving the "sanctity of the process", as he called it. "In hindsight, you can look back and go, that was changing anyway, perhaps you should have stayed," Jackman says.

"I certainly know that for him, protecting his family mattered more. His biggest fear of this movie was how his family would be portrayed, and the first thing he mentioned to me was how happy he was that his wife was not a victim at all, but portrayed as very strong."




For Jackman, who lives in New York with his wife and the couple's two children, Oscar and Ava, the gift of success is having a choice, as a storyteller, of the stories he gets to tell.


"Some stories are more classic hero-mixed stories, in the Joseph Campbell sense, or Logan [from Wolverine], or P. T. Barnum [from The Greatest Showman], these stories evoke emotion and bring us together, celebrate human qualities we wanna emulate," Jackman says.

"And then there's other stories like The Front Runner, which is not one plus one equals two, but more one plus one equals three, and we're gonna use this story to try and convince you that it's three. And I really sort of loved being part of that."



Jackman compares the experience of making The Front Runner to walking into a room with the lights off.
"It felt like, OK, I'm not 100 per cent sure where everything is here, and I really have to rely on Jason. I never really had that feeling of, yeah, nailed it, and that was good. It was more nebulous and harder to define."




Returning to the stage will, likely, be easier. Jackman is about to embark on a world tour with Hugh Jackman, The Show, performing with a live orchestra, singing hits from The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables, The Boy From Oz and other Broadway shows.

"It started as me just wanting to put together some material for a charity gig because I had no charts for anything," Jackman says. "It turned out to be a Broadway show, which I then wanted to bring to Australia, and then we decided to take around the world. It's been a surprise."


Jackman, pictured as P. T. Barnum in
Credit:
Niko Tavernise



In that sense, there are two well-defined sides to Jackman: the Hollywood film actor, whose work ranges from lupine superhero Wolverine to P. T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman, and the song and dance man who cut his teeth with Beauty and the Beast and Sunset Boulevard, and went on to The Boy from Oz.

There was a time, he says, when a dramatic role was sought to give distance from the Broadway stage. Or a song and dance part was chosen simply because it reminded people of what he was capable of.

The hardest times, he says, were those when he would be told he could not audition for movie roles because he was too well known for musicals, or vice versa. "So there was something a little more defensive, I think, and a little more strategic early on," Jackman says.

"It's more instinctive now," he says. "I'm a lot more confident about where I'm at so I don't feel so much I have to prove things as opposed to, that's a big challenge, that scares me, I haven't done that before. [Now it's more] that's a great script, that's a great story, this is a top director."

The Front Runner opens on January 31.

[jo]

Special feature on the BluRay release ( February 12) --


gentnews.com/index.php?m=entertainment&d=viewvideo&id=121535

[jo]

He seems to be handing out certificates of recognition and giving hugs to boot

[jo]

Hugh Jackman Day!

The Odyssey Cinema, St Albans
34 mins ·
The Odyssey Cinema is declaring HUGH JACKMAN DAY on Saturday February 16th! 🐺🎩🇦🇺
Get ready for Hugh's latest film, The Front Runner, at 7.00pm,
preceded by the ludicrously successful The Greatest Showman (singalong) at 2.00pm!
Dressing up as your favourite character portrayed by Mr Jackman is very much encouraged! 🎭

St. Albans is fairly close to London!



What character/costume would you consider wearing for such a mini-Hugh-festival?


Jo

[jo]

www.instagram.com/tonyjamesfilmmaker/p/Bt10e99FYMa/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=w5u9z3hf5jgk


My copy arriving tomorrow, according to Amazon. It took the first available flight to Manila


Jo

[jo]

What can't Hugh Jackman do

[jo]

Matt Bai is the author of the book on which the movie THE FRONT RUNNER is based from.

[mamaleh]

Looks like THE FRONTRUNNER is making its cable TV debut tonight at 8 on STARZ Network--unless I've missed earlier airings.

Ellen

[jo]

Jun 15, 2019 16:46:06 GMT -5 mamaleh said:

Looks like THE FRONTRUNNER is making its cable TV debut tonight at 8 on STARZ Network--unless I've missed earlier airings.

Ellen

It looks like he's watching it on TV --

Hope people realize what they missed that played on the big screen... and look forward to new Jackman movies which deal with unusual dramatic subjects.

[jo]

Feb 28, 2021 18:54:19 GMT -5 jo said:

I don't remember seeing the FULL interview --