THE SON

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Check the second frame for the full clip of the Jackman interview with GMA!


www.hollywoodactu.com/hugh-jackman-parle-du-nouveau-film-the-son-hughjackman/


www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwvt9Vzf5s

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http://instagram.com/p/CkvViSBuEEX

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Another film blog (Awards Focus) writes about the screening and the Q&A at the AFI screening of THE SON.

Florian Zeller’s The Son Starring Hugh Jackman Premieres at AFI Fest
Matthew Koss November 9, 2022

Following the success of Florian Zeller’s The Father (2021), the auteur returns to cinemas this fall with its highly anticipated spiritual successor, The Son. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theater on Saturday afternoon during AFI Fest, with stars Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby on the red carpet.

Hugh Jackman stars in the lead role as Peter, a hard-working father who misses the signs of his eldest son Nicholas’ (Zen McGrath) mental health struggles while caring for his new infant child with his current younger wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby). Unhappy living with his mother and Peter’s ex-wife Kate, played brilliantly by Laura Dern, Nicholas struggles to find stability and purpose living with his father. As Nicholas’ deep troubles exacerbate the tension within the family, Peter is forced to confront the seriousness of his son’s emotional crisis.

The Son marks the second film to be based on Zeller’s trilogy of plays, which includes The Father, The Mother, and The Son, and had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion Award. Anthony Hopkins, who won Best Actor at the Academy Awards last year for his performance in The Father, makes a brief but affecting appearance in the film.

While Jackman was not in attendance at the screening, he appeared on the big screen in a pre-recorded introduction for the enthusiastic audience. “The Son is deeply gratifying to me and everyone involved. It’s a movie that I’m very proud of and one that I hope will spark many conversations.”

The post-screening conversation moderated by Variety Chief film critic Peter Debruge included director/writer Florian Zeller, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, producer Johanna Laurie and National Alliance of Mental Illness Chief Executive Officer Daniel Gillson. A solemn air filled the atmosphere of the theater following the screening as the audience grappled with the film’s emotional conclusion.


Florian Zeller at AFI Fest
“So many people as parents know what it means to be in a position where you do not know what to do anymore and experience powerlessness,” Zeller began. “There was ignorance, denial, shame, and guilt around the issue [of mental health] that I really wanted to open a conversation, and making a film was the best way to do it.”

After The Son premiered at the Venice film festival, Jackman’s searing and emotional performance as a hard-working and ambitious father who cannot understand his son’s crisis was thrust into awards conversations. It’s an uninhabited and raw performance though Zeller did not have Jackman in mind when he was writing the script but was convinced early on in the process to have him play Peter.

“I was just at the beginning of the process of dreaming about who could be in that story when I received a letter from him that he’d heard I was working on this adaptation,” Zeller shared. “He told me he would love ten minutes… and after a few minutes of conversation, I stopped and offered him the part. He was deep down very connected as a man, as a father, as a son, and also as an actor to what I was trying to do.”

Laura Dern reflected on her experience as a mother and reading about the mental health crisis during the pandemic as being influential to her desire to join the project.

“When I received the script, it was the middle of the pandemic, and everywhere we looked, we were hearing about the global epidemic of mental health that was skyrocketing in its numbers, particularly in adolescence and young adult,” Dern explained. “I felt so beyond privileged to be given the opportunity to be part of this and to play the mother as a mother who knows what it is to love with every cell, and also feel powerless at moments when we don’t get to control how our child feels as much as we long to have the answers.”

Vanessa Kirby admitted to being drawn to the dark, uncompromising corners of cinema, which became central to her reason for joining Weller’s new film. “I love Florian’s daring to lean into things that are uncomfortable, unpalatable, and challenging to watch. Yet pain and grief and profound difficulty are just as much a part of life, and I think so often we try to stay comfortable as much as possible.”

The Son is as educational as it is affecting, instigating important conversations around mental health in an effort to demystify and reduce stigma. Daniel Gillson from the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) asserted that if you can identify an individual that’s navigating mental illness, you can get them help.


Hugh Jackman in Florian Zeller’s The Son
“The film is extremely authentic in terms of its portrayal, and we see it every day in the work we do. We’re an organization that was started by mothers like Laura [Dern]’s character who were advocating for their sons,” explained Gillson. “She didn’t have anyone else to talk to about her pain. That’s a part of this too. The pain that Nicholas was feeling and the pain that the mother was feeling. They both needed a support group that NAMI provides.”

Zeller added, “I really wanted to portray this family and this father who is loving and caring but doesn’t know how to help his son. He doesn’t know how to open the right doors. He doesn’t have the keys.”

The Son is scheduled for theatrical release in the United States on November 25, 2022.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew KossMatthew KossPartner, Deputy Awards Editor Matt Koss is the Deputy Awards Editor at Awards Focus and a senior partner for Film and TV coverage.

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In reply to a review lambasting the movie as a misfire.

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http://instagram.com/p/Ck9wvIsDutN

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Translation of article originally written in Spanish by vanguardia.com --

Is Hugh Jackman looking to win the Oscar with 'The Son'?; shares screen with Anthony Hopkins
byFABIAN W. WAINTAL


The new story has as its protagonist the Australian playing a divorced father at the moment when his 17-year-old son wants to move in with him and his new partner
SHOW/ 14 November 2022

It's barely been a year since Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman were nominated for an Oscar for "The Father." Director Florian Zeller even won the award for Best Adaptation of a Screenplay. And as if it were one of the Hollywood blockbusters, now comes the continuation with 'The Son' and the return of Anthony Hopkins next to another superstar likeHugh Jackman. And after passing through the Zurich International Film Festival, after Toronto and Venice, we only have to wait for the next Oscar, to see if Hugh will have the same luck as the protagonists of the first version.




Did you count the film festivals where they presented 'The Son'? Between the world premiere of the Venice Film Festival, before Zurich and Toronto not even a month passed...

The most special was Toronto, because it's the festival of the people and my first X-Men movie had also been filmed in Toronto. It's a very special place for me. Sure, 'The Son' is quite a different production, but it's also very close to my heart.


I imagine you've seen Anthony Hopkins' previous version of 'The Father' before?

I had seen 'The Father' just when I heard that they wanted to do the version of 'The Son' in the cinema, because I read the script for the play.


Did you also see the theatrical version of 'The Son'?

I hadn't seen the theater version, but when I read the book of 'The Son', I felt like a fire, a strange and beautiful feeling of fear that we rarely have actors, feeling that role was perfect for this moment in my life, I felt that I needed to be the new protagonist. And what scared me the most is that they wouldn't hire me. As a father and as a son, there was so much in me that I wanted to give... and for the first time in my career, I sent an email to director Florian Zeller, whom I had never met before and luckily my email did not end up in the Spam folder.


What exactly did you tell him?

I said something like, "I heard that maybe you'll be talking to other actors and if you're already 'dancing' with another actor, I don't want to get involved either. I'm not that kind of person. But if not, it would be an honor for me to play this role. I feel it in my bones. It's something I should do." I feel like it's a story we need to tell."


How long did it take to answer you?

Not even ten minutes had passed when he phoned me to offer me the role. I think I almost fainted. I even asked him to make sure "Wait a minute, what are you offering me? The Son?" and just said yes, he was already part of the team.





Did you leave the Broadway show 'The Music Man' for festival cinema with 'The Son'?

I'm still with the Broadway musical, we've been doing it for almost a year and I only have a couple of months left, but I took a week off to go to Venice and Toronto.


Was the dance part in 'The Son' in the script or was it an add-on?

The dance was in the script, yes. In the play, too, but at least I could choose the song to try to bring it to life. It was a moment I quite enjoyed in the middle of the shoot. And I remember it was a very special moment.


Anthony Hopkins had already been nominated for an Oscar for 'The Father' How was the shooting of your scene with him, in 'The Son'?

I still remember the moment when the director confirmed to me that Anthony Hopkins was going to play my father. And the scene is so beautiful... especially for my character of Peter, when he's so focused on his role as a father. In a way, I think it reminds us all that we are all children, no matter how old you are. That's where our past passes, which also influences our present. And the scene was so well written... I was very excited and excited, but a little nervous, because Anthony Hopkins is a titan to me. He's one of the actors I admired the most for many, many years. And being with him in the same studio inspires so much... Because it retains the curiosity and work ethic of someone fresh out of drama school. The director had told me that I sent him emails every day, asking all kinds of questions. He said he sent him as many emails as when he was the protagonist of "The Father," where he was in every scene. 'Tony' is a man full of life, with the soul of a child, a beautiful being as a person.


When filming with a character that was already nominated for an Oscar, do you feel the pressure to maintain the same level in a second part?

I was very enthusiastic and a little nervous, I can't deny it. Also, working with Anthony Hopkins was like fulfilling a dream. The old rule that says big actors make other actors look good is true. And when you're with someone like him, you just have to be there, because he gets the best out of everyone around him.

Unlike in 'The Father', where the main role was Anthony Hopkins as the father, the new story of 'The Son' has Hugh Jackman as the protagonist of the divorced father at the moment when his 17-year-old son (Zen McCarth) wants to move in with him and his new partner (Vanessa Kirby). Adding the complications of another baby in the family, he also receives the offer of a dream job in Washington. But in the effort to care for the son, just as his own father had cared for him, he tries to correct the mistakes of the past, losing the opportunity to maintain the son's present.




In 'The Son' your character also receives the offer of a dream job How did you react the next day, when you realized that you had achieved the role you had sought so much?

After Florian Zeller called me, I told my wife that we were going to have a meeting via video conference, via Zoom and told her that I had never been so afraid of not getting a role. I also had that same fear when I got the role, because I knew it was going to take me into uncharted territory as an actor, something I'd never had the chance to explore before.


And why did you accept a role that scared you so much?

I hate feeling like I was going to be trapped but the fear was also fabulous, because I know fear pushes you to face an experience like this. But I don't think I've been so afraid, ever before. And the more afraid I was, the more I wanted to do it even if I wasn't going to succeed. My relationship with risk can be very uncomfortable, but I have lived too long with the comfort of cinema. Today I realize that if I'm not uncomfortable it's because I'm taking average jobs. I know what it's like to shoot nine movies with the same character (Wolverine) and every time I get my claws on, in just three seconds, I'm very different from that character.


And being a father in reality, how do you identify with the idea that is seen in the cinema, that the love of the father is not always enough?

It's true... There's a line in the script where it says love isn't enough, it's not always enough. Everyone in this movie loves too much and at a certain point you feel like you lose control, because the truth is that to raise a child you need much more than a father and a mother. You need friends, you need support, you need a community, teachers, there are many people who exert the influence that guides us. For many years, I believe that the father's job was always to appear as the strongest person on whom everyone depended, no matter what. But since I shot this movie, I myself changed as a father. Today I am much more vulnerable with my 17- and 22-year-old children. And I hope this movie reminds us to never be afraid to worry alone, we're all in the same boat. Mental health issues is a crisis that exists all over the world, no one is immune. Everyone knows someone who has a problem or someone close to them does. And it's an issue we need to embrace openly, everyone.

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Wide release for THE SON moved to Jan 20, 2023.

Btw, Oscar nominations date will be on Jan. 24, 2023.

Sony Pictures Classics Moves The Son to January 20th Wide Theatrical Release
Exhibition News • Boxoffice Staff • November 17 2022

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics announced that they will turn their original November 25th release date for The Son into a one-week only awards qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles and will release the film in theaters nationwide on January 20th. The Son is directed by Florian Zeller, written by the Oscar-winning team of Zeller and Christopher Hampton, and stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, and Anthony Hopkins.

The Son follows a family as it falls apart and tries to come back together again. As Peter (Hugh Jackman) struggles to juggle work, his new baby with partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby), and the offer of his dream job in Washington, he also finds himself caring for his 17-year-old son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who no longer feels he can live with his mother (Laura Dern).

“In a marketplace that appears to be getting more overcrowded daily, it only makes sense to pivot and change our openings for The Son in New York and Los Angeles on November 25th to a one-week only qualifying run,” said Tom Prassis, the executive vice president of distribution and sales at Sony Pictures Classics. “Officially we will open The Son on January 20th nationwide, only in theaters, when there is more room for the film to breathe.”

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One of the important Hugh Jackman interviews while I was in NYC/NJ -- with one of Deadline.com Awards writers.

deadline.com/2022/11/the-son-hugh-jackman-interview-1235179499/#comment-3600868

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‘The Son’ Star Hugh Jackman On Why Love Is “Not Always Enough” & Bringing Back Wolverine In ‘Deadpool 3’: “This Idea Was Lurking”
By Antonia Blyth

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‘The Son’ Star Hugh Jackman On Why Love Is “Not Always Enough” & Bringing Back Wolverine In ‘Deadpool 3’: “This Idea Was Lurking”

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November 29, 2022 10:00am
The Son
Rekha Garton/See-Saw Films/Sony Pictures Classics

In The Son, Hugh Jackman plays Peter, a man struggling with parenting his teenage boy, while attempting to break the chains of generational trauma he inherited from his own father, played by Anthony Hopkins. Writer-director Florian Zeller brings this, his second in a series of his plays, to the screen, having debuted The Father, also starring Hopkins, last Oscar season. In taking on this role, Jackman became the crux of a story so eviscerating and personal, he says it affected the way he parents his own children, while at the same time, he felt the presence of his father, who passed away during the shoot.



DEADLINE: First off, I just wanted to tell you, I love that in your early career, you had been up for a part in the Australian soap Neighbours and you turned it down.

HUGH JACKMAN: I have to tell you, my sister was living in England at the time and she was 12. At the [show’s] height. When I got offered it, it was not long after Kylie [Minogue] and Guy Pierce [were in it]. And she went to school and told everybody that her brother was going to be in Neighbours and no one believed her. She goes, “You’ll see!” And about a month later, I got the offer to go to Perth, and I turned it down. And she was like, “No! You have to do it! You have to do it!” She said she got so much shit at school.


DEADLINE: You ruined her high school life.

JACKMAN: Totally. Literally in her first year of high school.


DEADLINE: I was personally so affected by this film. I’m still thinking about it. Had you seen the play The Son before taking this on? Obviously, you must have seen the film The Father.

JACKMAN: First of all, thanks for saying that. It reminded me, Florian used to say, when they did the play in Paris five years ago, people would stay in their seats or wait after to meet with him and the actors. Not to say, “Congratulations” or “Can I get an autograph?”, but just to talk about their experience. There are so many people experiencing this or know someone very close to them who are, and there’s just very little opportunity to really talk about it.

By the way, the experience still sits with me a year later, watching the movie, and as not as an actor, but as a father, as a son, all of that. So, I know what you mean, but I appreciate you saying it.

I knew of Florian’s work. I almost did one of his plays about six years ago, but the timing didn’t work out. And I’d seen The Father and absolutely loved every frame of the film. And then my agent told me that they were going to make The Son. So, I read the play that day and rang her back and she told me there were a couple of other actors circling it that Florian was talking with. And I was like, “Oh, this is awkward.” But I really felt an immediate urgency to play the role or to put my hand up for it. So, I just emailed him and I said, “Listen, if you’re dancing with someone else, I don’t want to cut in. But if you’re not, I would love to play the part.” And I was just very sort of upfront about that. And he emailed me back, said, “No, I don’t know what you’ve heard. I’m not talking to anyone, so let’s speak.” And we Zoomed the next day and that was it. He offered me the part seven minutes into the conversation.

He’s very, very smart. He operates and trusts his instincts as much as anyone I’ve ever met. He’ll just go with his gut. Baz Luhrmann’s a bit the same actually, now that I think about it. But he was not planning to offer me the part, he just thought I’d meet him, and he said he just had an instinct in his gut seven minutes in and he just said, “Can we stop talking?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “I want you to play the part.” And I was completely surprised. I had no idea.

And I remember being terrified making the Zoom call because I said to my wife, “I’ve never been so scared to get a part or to not get a part. Both things at once.” I knew what it would be to play the part, to play the role, but I also really felt an urgency to do it and to be part of the story.



DEADLINE: How did Florian explain your character to you?

JACKMAN: He explained him as a good man, really trying his hardest to do the right thing with unresolved issues from his childhood, from his ex-wife and his marriage. And someone who is believing he’s doing the right thing at all times and feeling it’s his responsibility to fix things. But ultimately a good man under a lot of pressure.

We didn’t rehearse, which was unusual. He’s a theater guy as am I, so I love rehearsals, as does he. But he said, “I don’t want to rehearse. And Hugh, I invite you not to feel that this is very far from yourself, this character.” Basically, he was asking me to bring myself to the part and to the experience and just to trust whatever I was feeling. And so, we really would go in every day having no idea … I mean, he obviously had an idea, but I had no idea where we would start, where we would finish in terms of levels or where we would go. It was just very free.



DEADLINE: You’ve done a plethora of things, but this felt tonally very different from anything I’ve seen you in before.

JACKMAN: Yeah, I agree.


DEADLINE: Was that what frightened you about it?

JACKMAN: Yeah. It’s frightening. The challenge that Florian was giving all of us was to reveal ourselves and our own heart and our own experience of life, and just allow that to be enough. And not to cover it or search for some particular other character or go too far from ourselves. And he invited us to let go. That’s the sort of thing you talk about a lot as an actor, just letting go and allowing instinct to take you. But I think because, for whatever reason, the time in my life, the part, the way it was be beautifully written, I could see what an extraordinary opportunity it was and I just didn’t want to screw it up, basically.

If you think of that restaurant scene with Laura [Dern], I remember reading that scene going, “Oh, that is brutally honest, beautifully written. That’s one of the best pieces of writing. And I’m going to be with Laura Dern, and I really hope I can bring it.” You know what I mean? I hope I can rise to the challenge.

Or the scene where I really lose my shit with my son and end up pushing him over. Now, I’m a parent. I know what it’s like to have your buttons pushed in a way they haven’t been pushed since I was maybe a teenager. Most of the time, you can control a lot of your emotions. But for whatever reason, not that I’ve pushed them over or anything, but I’ve experienced that kind of loss of control, that feeling. And so, when you read things like that, it’s an amazing opportunity. But you know the reality of it and how surprising it is when it happens in real life. Shocking. And you just hope that you can bring that on the day. So that was part of the fear. And also, the unknown. I knew it was going to take me to places that are terrifying, emotionally.



DEADLINE: This film shows without telling how we aim to escape what our parents did and yet ultimately do exactly what they did.

JACKMAN: Yeah. The scene, which was not in the play, with Anthony Hopkins, it’s so beautiful because you’re halfway through the movie and of course, with the title, The Son, you’re focusing on this troubled teenager. Then all of a sudden you go, “Oh, hang on. Oh, Peter’s the son. Oh, I see. We’re all still children.” It’s so beautifully done, I agree. And yeah, these traumas, they just are passed down like a wildfire through the generations. It takes such enormous wisdom and courage to be able to stop it. On a smaller level, I remember when my son was born. My father’s name is Chris, and I remember my wife saying, “Oh, hello, Chris.” And all of a sudden it was very regimented, very disciplined, and on a timetable at all times. For the first time in our marriage she goes, “Oh, who’s this guy?” So, it’s really interesting how that happens.



DEADLINE: His ego is driving this need to be a ‘great dad’. And that is his downfall in exactly the same way as his father was driven by ego. I do think that the greatest thing you can do for anyone is to be willing to be seen as the ‘bad person’ for their own good. And Peter couldn’t bear that.

JACKMAN: True.



DEADLINE: He couldn’t be the ‘bad guy’ in the hospital and make his son stay there, which was what he really needed for his health.

JACKMAN: Well, his son uses it twice: the word “abandonment”. The very first thing Laura says is, “You can’t abandon him.” And you see him bristle and then the son says, “Don’t abandon me, Dad. Don’t abandon me.” And of course, [Peter] was abandoned by his father. He thinks, if there’s one thing I will not do, it’s abandon my son. I will be the one, I will be there for him.

You’re right. It’s so hard to escape the pain and the injuries that we have from childhood. And yeah, I think you said it beautifully. To be able to put yourself second to the needs of someone else is truly heroic, particularly when it’s your kid.



DEADLINE: You mentioned your dad. I’m so sorry for your loss, it must have been so hard working on this at that time.

JACKMAN: Thank you. He passed away during the film and nearish to the end. I remember that scene at the end that you were describing where I imagined [my character’s son] coming back. That particular scene, which was very difficult to do, was just a few days after he passed away.

Normally, I would approach a scene like that, or I’d think about a scene like that as almost, “I need to get into my zone, let everyone do their job around me. I can’t be affected by it. I need to create my own space here.” But weirdly, I just didn’t feel like you get through it without the help of everyone. So, I would, without them knowing it, I would look at all of them. I actually wrote something down the morning of that scene, just energetically, quietly asking … I wrote down all of them by name. I need help. I need their support. I needed to connect rather than to close off. And I can remember
feeling his presence there, very clearly, in the room.




DEADLINE: Wow.

JACKMAN: Yeah. I don’t know, maybe I was making that up, but that’s what I remember feeling.



DEADLINE: It must have just been an eviscerating experience.

JACKMAN: Cathartic as well.



DEADLINE: What has stayed with you from this experience personally and professionally?

JACKMAN: I certainly have learned a lot about vulnerability as a parent. The idea of not knowing. The idea of admitting. I mean, I have a 17 and 22-year-old. So, the idea of leading with … I’m not hiding from them my vulnerabilities or my doubt or my worry.

Just recently, I remember I was worried about something with one of my kids and I could see the look on their face, and I could see that they thought I was disappointed. That’s what I was reading. My son walked off and I went downstairs, and I said, “I get that feeling you think I’m disappointed, but I’m just worried.” And we ended up having really good conversation. And I think prior to this movie, I would’ve thought, that’s not helpful for them. That actually, what they need is strength and surety and a kind of feeling that, “My dad knows what to do.” That feeling. But actually, I realize that doesn’t help. And it’s OK to have these discussions.

I think professionally, what I learned was a sense of trust in myself and in my other actors and allowing things to open up on the day and not to control things too much. To let go more. Trust my instincts more.


DEADLINE: Do you know how would you deal with the kind of serious mental illness we see in the film? I thought, “Oh, my God, I would just take them to the hospital and put them on medication.” But of course, it’s not that simple. It’s a lifelong illness.

JACKMAN: Yeah. It’s so hard to know what to do. And I think there’s so much shame around it. There’s so much guilt and ignorance. We really don’t know a lot. We’re in the infancy, I think, of that. If you think of something like alcoholism, I feel like we’re a lot further down the track with that. We’ve been dealing with that for a long time. People know more. But with mental illness, we’re sort of at the beginning.

I think what I’ve learned is never worry alone. Just being in the nuclear family is not enough. And there’s a line and I think love is not enough. It’s not always enough. It’s essential, you need it, but it’s not enough in these situations. You need professional help. You need family, you need friends. Everybody needs different support.

My wife and I talk about that a lot to make sure that our village is strong and not just hiding things off or thinking there’s going to be shame associated with this and making … I mean, there’s a difference between secrecy and privacy obviously, but just making sure there’s enough help and things aren’t just being bottled up or denied or kept hidden. It’s easy to think, “Oh, it’s just a phase.” And people go, “Well, they’re 17, it happens, and we’ve just got to push through a little bit.” But it’s so hard to know what is actually a problem that’s going to be around for a long time, or this is just a little six-month phase. And I think it takes people with real knowledge of that, real experience. And maybe some objectivity.



DEADLINE: Everyone is obviously so excited about you coming back as Wolverine in the new Deadpool. I read an interview where you said you saw it as a kind of 48 Hours. How did it come about, that idea in the beginning? That you would do it together?

JACKMAN: Well, I was 20 minutes into watching Deadpool and I had just announced, literally, a few weeks before that Logan was going to be my last, which I fully intended. And then I was like, “Uh-oh.”

And here’s maybe a bit of a hangover from Florian. I was just driving out to the beach. It was mid-August, I had a week off from the show [The Music Man on Broadway], my first week off in eight, nine months, 10 months. And it came to me like, “I really want to do that.” And that was it.

As soon as I arrived at the beach, I rang Ryan [Reynolds] just to see what the hell was going on. And then here we are. It was so quick. And trust me, there’s not a morning I don’t wake up where Ryan Reynolds is outside my house with posters saying, “Please.” He’s constantly asking me about it. And I was like, “Dude, I’m done. I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done.” So then when he rang me [back], he was like, ‘Are you serious?” So yeah.

I’m a terrible poker player. All this time I was saying I was done, I really meant it. But anyway, somewhere deep down, this idea was obviously lurking and brewing.

Since reading the play I have always thought the title "THE SON" was referring to Peter, the father who was also a son. When the original promotions of the movie emphasized that Peter was the central character in the movie, I thought it validated my original assumption.

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Another revelatory story on Hugh Jackman, the actor.
(Sorry for the delay in printing this).


www.indiewire.com/2022/11/hugh-jackman-interview-wolverine-the-son-1234785135/

News Film TV Awards Video Shop More

Hugh Jackman Is Finally Ready to Admit That He’s Nothing Like Wolverine

The star of "The Son" is trying to be more vulnerable this awards season, even as he dances through a lavish Broadway show each week.

Eric Kohn

Nov 23, 2022 3:30 pm

@erickohn



ConsiderThis

Hugh Jackman became a movie star with Wolverine in the first “X-Men” movie more than 20 years ago, slashing his way to blockbuster visibility with a role that continues to dominate his career. Part of that is because even fans of Jackman’s musical talents closely associate him with a scowling mutant, and rather than dispelling that perception, he simply invented another persona alongside it as a song-and-dance man. He’s played Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” P.T. Barnum in “The Greatest Showman” and, most recently, Professor Harold Hill in the hit new Broadway production of “The Music Man,” but he’s never played Hugh Jackman.

“When I was getting into this business, the playbook for being a movie star was being mysterious,” the 53-year-old actor said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “Don’t let anybody in. Leave them wanting more. Don’t reveal things. Project a certain image.



Recent shifts to the culture landscape have led him to reverse course. “Now I think there’s a responsibility for someone like me to discuss the fear of talking about vulnerability,” he said. “Of course I’d rather go through the things that everybody goes through rather than projecting some idealized version of myself. I am trying to do that more publicly.”

That requires him to confess that he lives at odds with the world-weary tough guy he’s played in nine movies, with his tenth gig as Wolverine — opposite Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool 3” — around the corner. Jackman still adores the rascally anti-hero, but he’s ready to set the record straight. “Spend five minutes with me and you’ll know that couldn’t be further from who I am,” he said.



Instead, Jackman said he has much more in common with Peter Miller, the divorced parent who struggles to parent his emotionally distressed teen in “The Son.” The bleak followup to writer/director Florian Zeller’s Oscar-winning “The Father” finds Jackman opposite Laura Dern as a former couple who can’t seem to figure out why their alienated kid (Zen McGrath) is so downbeat. It’s a wrenching melodrama, but Jackman treats it like Shakespeare.

'The Son'
“The Son”

Sony Pictures Classics

Peter makes a lot of bad decisions in “The Son,” all the way through its tragic conclusion, as the actor melts into a puddle of profound sadness and remorse unlike anything he’s done before. Say what you want about the movie, which has divided critics with its schematic march to utter devastation, but there’s unmistakable power imbued in the intimacy of Jackman’s performance, and it stands a world apart from the larger-than-life confidence he typically projects.

“This role brought up mistakes I made and regrets that I have,” he said. “I think one of the great messages of the movie is that love isn’t always enough. When you go into raising a kid with a little more humility and understanding, you probably come in with fresher eyes. You understand your own upbringing and predilections as a parent.”



Jackman’s mother abandoned his family when he was eight; he has two adopted children who are 17 and 22. “My kids are launching into the world and I’m like, ‘Oh, if I could just start again, if I could have another go around now, I would know a lot more,’” he said.

His children attended the premiere of “The Son” in Venice this fall. “It was very intense,” Jackman said. “Afterwards, we were in the car driving back and my wife said, ‘What do you guys think?’ My son said, ‘I think I need a little more time to think about it.’ That night, we probably sat there and talked for two hours. I’m incredibly impressed with my kids — and maybe their generation as a whole — that they’re totally open to having discussions about this. Mental health is something that they’re very fluent with. They have a lot of acceptance and knowledge of it beyond just having discussion.”



“The Son” distributor Sony Pictures Classics has teamed up with the National Alliance on Mental Health to promote the release, and Jackman has been squeezing in promotional opportunities for the movie during his off-nights from “The Music Man,” which he has starred in all year. That’s no easy feat for a demanding musical performance in a Broadway megahit that has grossed as much as $3 million in a week.



Jackman has played two-faced charlatan Professor Harold Hill over 300 times, and recently agreed to extend the run by two weeks, into mid-January. That finds him in the curious position of oscillating from lavish stage maneuvers, tap-dancing his way across a 46-person ensemble sometimes multiple times a day, to spending his off-hours talking about depression. “I’m good at compartmentalizing,” he said. “When I have bad days, I find that you have to incorporate that into the work. Put all that at the door, go in, and put on a brave face.”

But that’s not say that Jackman could have acted in “The Son” and “The Music Man” at the same time. The show was initially set to open in 2020 and got delayed twice. In the meantime, Jackman sought out “The Son” and threw himself into the project even as his personal life grew unstable.

The film production itself was minuscule due to capacity limits. “We were all sort of isolated,” he said. “That’s all I could focus on.” His father grew ill and died during the production, three days before Jackman shot the climactic scene. “There’s no chance I could have done ‘The Music Man,’” he said. “It was emotionally a very tumultuous time for me. I was struggling to sleep. I was a bit of a hot mess.”

It was that level of turmoil that brought Jackman closer to a revelation about what it takes to put more of himself onscreen. “I haven’t had many roles with that emotional demand,” he said. “The intensity and depth of this one is much closer to who I am.” He insisted that he hasn’t faced a mental health crisis of his own, though he’ll acknowledge that he’s still sensitive to the way he’s perceived, and stopped reading reviews years ago. “I’m too thin-skinned for that,” he said.

Though Jackman’s investment in the conversation around mental health may be sincere, it doesn’t hurt that he’s having it during awards season. Despite his global stardom, the actor is so well-known known for hosting the Oscars in 2009 that it’s easy to forget he’s never won one. He was nominated only once, for Best Actor in “Les Miserables,” 10 years ago. But playing Jean Valjean was more organic fit for Jackman three years after he danced all night on the Oscar stage as the master of ceremonies. With “The Son,” he’s working to convince audiences that he can expand his range. “The thing I love most about acting is the variety of it,” he said.



Jackman has played against type before, from the introverted scientist in Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious sci-fi opus “The Fountain” to the underrated “Bad Education,” where he played an embezzling high school principal not too far removed from Harold Hill territory. But the former was a commercial dud and the latter wound up only qualifying for Emmys after it went straight to HBO Max.

Despite the mixed response to “The Son,” respect for Jackman and his efforts to remain visible at such a busy time could help him sneak into a competitive Best Actor category. Even if that doesn’t happen, though, Jackman said he was embracing the discomfort of working through a sensitive topic within the framework of his stardom. “I think it’s important for me to be pushed into areas where I don’t know if I can pull it off,” he said. “I’ve never felt safe as an actor.”

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, Hugh Jackman, 2006, TM & Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in “X-Men: The Last Stand”



In his early days as Wolverine, Jackman was frustrated by the roles that came his way. “I didn’t want to do the same things,” he said. “You know, the role of the hero action star. I mean, it was the meat-and-potatoes of a lot of American film, that archetype. It was all various forms of heroic guys in tough situations. I was like, ‘Uh, no. This is a problem.’” When the inevitable inquiry about playing James Bond came his way, “I had a look at it,” he said. “I was like, ‘If I’m doing that and Wolverine, I’ll have no time to do anything else.’ I clearly find it more interesting to play people who color outside the lines.”

Yet even as Jackman attempts to engage with his most authentic self, he’s constantly forced to interface with the version of “Hugh Jackman” that people imagine. He experiences that disconnect most nights on Broadway, peering into a crowd that scrutinizes his every move, but it follows him offstage as well. And in the glare of the spotlight, he can only reveal so much.

On a recent Monday night, Jackman arrived at a preview screening of “The Son” at the Walter Reade Theater a few minutes before an audience Q&A. As he watched the last scene of the movie from the back of the room, heads swiveled in his direction; as soon as he hit the stage during the credits, the phones came up.

Exiting the theater backstage at the end of the conversation, he obliged a selfie request from the elevator operator and made his way to a car waiting for him outside, taking two more selfies along the way. He was told that it was remarkable to see him in promotional mode in the midst of a major Broadway show, that he didn’t need a night to himself. He smiled. “Oh, I do,” he said, then ducked into his car and vanished.

Sony Pictures Classics releases “The Son” in select theaters on Friday, November 25.

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[jo]

[jo]

This must have been part of the actors matchups that are done with those deemed possible award-worthy for this year?

Hence, his admiration led to his naming Bill Nighy as a person he admires a lot.