THE SON

[jo]

I can now retire from social media ...

after seeing that reply

[jo]

Laura is doing much of the promotional campaign --

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

This is well-worth listening to!

I wish Hugh had been able to spend more time discussing THE SON with film audiences or the media.

Do watch the session with Hugh. It is going to be very well worth your time.

One aspect that he has been emphatic about --

that it is his character, Peter ( the father of the depressed son Nicholas), who is the SON referred to in the title!


www.filmlinc.org/daily/hugh-jackman-on-the-making-of-the-son/


Jo

[jo]

Re his reference to the titular son as actually referring to the character he plays, Peter the Father --

When I first read the play -- after skimming through it the first time, I began re-reading it more slowly.

Midway, I began to think --

Could it be that the title "The Son" is actually referring to his character?


Then when I saw the initial publicity material from Sony Pictures Classics that Hugh Jackman plays the CENTRAL CHARACTER in the movie, that sort of solidified my thoughts that the story is really about Peter, the father trying to do what he thought was the best for his son, but also coming from a background with his own father which he did not want to repeat with his son. I thought then that the struggle is about the father who is also a son ( of an abusive father) trying to change his behavior with his own son.

Jo

[jo]

Looks like he is doing some media tour for UK audiences - saw some tweet mentions with UK media but couldn't find ( yet) any specifics.

Jo

[jo]

A summary from BBC News --

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63985715.amp

[jo]

From a Director Roundtable discussion --

Florian, even in a drama like “The Son,” there still are lighter moments. I’m thinking specifically of Hugh Jackman dancing to “It’s Not Unusual.” Are you conscious of wanting there to be lighter moments in a dark story, or do those just sort of naturally come out?



Florian Zeller: That was at least a funny moment for us to shoot, because Hugh Jackman is such a great dancer, but he was supposed to have a slightly embarrassing dancing, so we discovered that to pretend not to know how to dance, you need to be a very good dancer. The day we shot that scene, he came to me and said, “So I thought about an embarrassing movement.” And he did it in front of everyone, and I said, “Try harder.” And so he tried harder, and at some point we find his hip sway.

But it’s true that to me to entertain comes more from the relationship you try to create with the audience. I come from theater, and I’ve spent so many years in a theater feeling, experiencing the sharing of the emotion. And I think this is what is the most entertaining as a viewer, is when you are really part of the story, when you’re in an active position, trying to experience the feelings and the journeys of the character. So I think that even though you are in a tragedy, it can be compelling and entertaining just to experience something that is not your experience but becomes your experience, thanks to a movie.

[jo]

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/hugh-jackman-mental-health-support-the-son-1235285911/

The Hollywood Reporter

MOVIE NEWS

Hugh Jackman Says Mental Health Support on Film Sets Is Needed: “Well-Being in All Forms Is Really, Really Important”The actor opened up about the importance of mental health, and also discussed the struggles he faced while filming 'The Son.'


BY CARLY THOMAS

Plus Icon

DECEMBER 20, 2022 8:40PM
Hugh Jackman


Hugh Jackman is getting candid about mental health and the toll of filming his movie The Son.

In an interview with the BBC that published online Tuesday, the Greatest Showman actor revealed that the film’s producers hired psychiatrists to stay on set for the cast and crew if they needed to talk.

“This was the first time I’d ever seen such a thing on a film,” Jackman said. “And people used it and it was necessary.”

The Son, which adapts one of director Florian Zeller’s own plays, tackles the topic of depression. The movie centers around 17-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath), whose growing mental health struggle begins to impact the lives of his parents, including his New York lawyer father Peter (Jackman) and mother Kate (Laura Dern). Nicholas proceeds to blame his parents’ divorce and Peter’s recent baby with new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) for his declining condition.

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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in August, Zeller explained why he made the decision to show depression for what it is rather than focus on the cause of it, saying, “I think it’s part of the issue with mental health, it’s like a mystery. You cannot exactly understand why it’s there. It could appear unfair, as there’s no clear explanation and in a way is no one’s fault.”

Jackman told the BBC that intimacy coaches have become more common on sets when intimate scenes are being filmed, but that he believes mental health support is needed as well, especially in movies featuring difficult material.

“There’s a little part of the old school part of my brain [that thinks], ‘Well, that’s up to you to work out.’ If you need to go to a doctor, for whatever reason, your foot, your mental health, you know, you work that out,” the Les Misérables actor said. “But I think it certainly would be a sign from an employer that we understand taking care of the whole person, not just paying them, but taking care of their well-being in all forms is really, really important.”

During a previous interview with Who Magazine, Jackman revealed that he had begun therapy to help cope with unresolved childhood trauma. “Having someone really smart, who’s a little bit removed from your world, can be really helpful,” he said.

The actor also told the BBC that he began consulting a therapist while filming The Son, due to the movie’s upsetting material, his own anxiety from returning to acting following the pandemic lockdowns and his father’s death while making the film.

As he continues to learn more about mental health, Jackman hopes The Son will also start to spark conversations around the issue, saying, “There is a real lack of knowledge and ignorance and shame around the subject and I think it’s something we need to confront, really, really quickly.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans will experience a mental illness each year, and one in five children either currently or at some point during their life have had a serious mental illness.

During The Son’s press conference in Venice ahead of its world premiere in September, Dern said that the movie was being released during a crisis of mental health coming out of the pandemic.

“It’s frightening,” she said. “Even [when] you feel powerless, even when you feel alone in shame, guilt and blame, you can turn to so many who have been there before and may advise you. We all long to feel community in this larger conversation we must be having about mental health.”

[jo]

[jo]

The GGlobes write-up on Hugh Jackman --

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman is nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in Florian Zeller’s The Son. The 54-year-old Australian actor plays a father, Peter, whose son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) has a hard time coping after his divorce from his mother Kate (Laura Dern).

When the parents discover that their son is seriously depressed and he comes to live with his father and his new wife (Vanessa Kirby) and their baby son, Peter is forced to look at his own relationship with his father (Anthony Hopkins) and discover abandonment issues of his own.

“When I read The Son, it was a feeling like a fire in my gut,” said Hugh Jackman at a press conference in Venice. “It was a compulsion. It's a scary feeling to have. It's a beautiful feeling. You rarely get it as an actor, where you feel that the part is right for you at this point in your life and you just must play it.”

[jo]

Mr.Jungen is the Artistic Director of the Zurich film festival. He would know!


Jo

[jo]

According to Box Office Mojo, THE SON will only be on LIMITED RELEASE on January 20, 2023.

I hope they will at least release a home video?

Please scroll down --

www.boxofficemojo.com/calendar/

Jo

[jo]

However on the Official website for the movie from Sony Pictures Classics -- it says that it will open NATIONWIDE on January 20.

www.sonyclassics.com/film/theson/

Maybe the distinction with Box Office Mojo is on the number of screens?

Jo

[njr]

Got 404 bad request error message on both those links. ☹️ Now suddenly they are working!

[jo]

Is this for THE SON?

[jo]

An interview with the UK's The Guardian.

It's lengthy... I think some of the information here were gathered from earlier information/articles on Hugh.

Interview
‘I’m not always nice’: Hugh Jackman on his reputation, returning as Wolverine and the loss of his father


Chris Godfrey
Hugh Jackman at Venice film festival in September 2022

X-Men made him a star; now The Son is giving him a shot at an Oscar. The actor talks about family, superheroes and the sexual misconduct claims against director Bryan Singer

Chris Godfrey
Thu 5 Jan 2023 06.00 GMT

Hugh Jackman is feeling reflective. It’s easy to understand why. In his latest film, The Son, he plays an absentee, workaholic father struggling to help his estranged and acutely depressed teenage son. The role changed Jackman, he says, “as a man, as an actor, as a father, as a husband”. Such a part would inspire a period of introspection for most parents, let alone soon-to-be empty nesters such as Jackman, 54, and his wife, the actor and producer Deborra-Lee Furness (they have two children, Oscar and Ava). Also, towards the end of production, his father died.

“We were close,” says Jackman. “Here’s a great way to describe my relationship with my dad: we could go to Test cricket and be totally comfortable sitting together, and over a seven-hour Test we’d talk for 20 minutes.” Jackman is speaking over a video call from the home of his publicist. He’s relaxed and open, often undercutting serious emotional points with a punchline and a booming laugh.

“My mother left when I was eight, so my father raised us,” he says. “He taught me really great values. He was never really interested in things like fame and money. He was always encouraging about education and treating people well and keeping your word.” His father, Chris, would visit him on set, where he would sit quietly, doing his crossword or sudoku puzzles, occasionally glancing at Jackman to give him a thumbs up. “He saw everything I ever did. He never said a bad word about anything,” says Jackman. “A lot of who I am today is because of him.”

I am thin-skinned. But it’s a strength as an actor. You need sensitivity
Jackman visited Chris in Australia shortly before filming for The Son started in London. His father had been living with Alzheimer’s for 12 years and his health had been deteriorating. Jackman knew that it was probably goodbye. When Chris died, Jackman stayed in London to finish making The Son, partly because his father was the type to never miss a day’s work and would have expected the same of his son, but also because the film helped him grieve.

“It was a film that was about vulnerability, that was about family, that was about generations and about how our past informs who we are today,” says Jackman. The Son explores the all-encompassing stranglehold of depression, tackling weighty themes such as the scars of divorce, generational trauma and severe mental illness. Taking on such an exposing role feels almost subversive for an actor more closely associated with comic-book blockbusters (he was X-Men’s Wolverine in nine films) and musical box office juggernauts such as The Greatest Showman and Les Misérables. But Jackman’s performance is assured; he has been nominated for a Golden Globe and is an outside bet for an Oscar.

Hugh Jackman and Zen McGrath in The Son
Hugh Jackman and Zen McGrath in The Son. Photograph: Rekha Garton/AP




Filming was intense, on set and off. As a result of the pandemic, Jackman hadn’t acted for a few years when he started filming and was still living in a Covid bubble with his family. “It was technically difficult. It was emotionally difficult. And I just sort of let go a little bit,” he says. “Stuff from my upbringing was coming up. My worries as a father.” He started experiencing sleepless nights. “That’s a new thing for me. I was thinking about it and dreaming about it. I was more of a hot mess in this than in anything I’ve ever done.”

But it was an enlightening experience, too. “I grew up in a large family with difficulties and some mental health issues,” he says. After doing the film, “I understood the complications around it and that I may have leapt to some judgments about certain people’s behaviours”. Now, he is “much less judgmental about it”. He started therapy during filming.

Jackman’s time on The Son also changed his perspective on parenting. “I thought my job was to project confidence and safety,” he says. “And there’s an element of that, I guess, that’s true. But I think now, particularly as they’re older … being more open on my vulnerability, letting them in on what’s going on inside of me, is something I’ve learned and I would do it differently now.”

Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman (2017)
In The Greatest Showman, 2017. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Niko Tavernise/Allstar




Is there anything else he would do differently? “I would have moved around less,” he says. “But I thought – Deb and I thought – at the time: I’m doing movies; the lesser of two evils is to have everyone together. I’m not 100% sure, but sometimes stability may have been more beneficial.” He would have been more selective when choosing roles, too. “There was a period where things were hitting for me and I felt like: I’ve got to take this opportunity. But I look back now and I go: you could have just completely chilled out there and everything would have been fine.”

Jackman grew up in Sydney, the youngest of five siblings, with British parents who had emigrated in the 60s. It was a “busy” childhood. As a teenager Jackman was lanky (his nickname was Sticks), active and “generally the good boy”, bar a brief angsty period as a teenager when he would “tell teachers to F-off and all that”.

For a time, he was also very religious, like his parents, who were devout Christians. “I went to an all-boys school, so church was really handy, because it was where I got to meet girls. But I was genuinely really into it. And then my perspective broadened a bit by the time I was about 16.” He’s no longer religious, but describes himself as spiritual (“more of a universalist”).

I think there are some ways of being on set that would not happen now ... things have changed for the better
Jackman fell in love with the theatre during trips to visit his mother in England. He decided to go to acting school and planned to pay the tuition fee with an inheritance from his grandmother. He sought his father’s opinion. “He said: ‘I couldn’t think of a better way for you to use it, but I have some concerns.’ And I said: ‘You don’t think I’m good enough?’ And he said: ‘I think you’re good enough, but I think you’re too thin-skinned!’” He laughs.


“He’s right: I am thin-skinned.” He refuses to read reviews. “But it’s also a strength as an actor. Thin-skinned is sensitivity, which is something you need. And so I’m still learning to cope with it.”

After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth (and turning down a role in Neighbours), he got his professional break on a prison drama, Correlli, where he met Furness, his co-star (they have been married since 1996). The show lasted just one season, but stage roles, including playing the lead in a West End production of Oklahoma!, put him on Hollywood’s radar.

Jackman was still a relative unknown when the director and producer Bryan Singer approached him about playing Wolverine in the first X-Men film. Back then, such a role was not the guarantee of stardom it would be now. But X-Men, released in 2000, was a phenomenal success. The franchise spawned 13 films, which grossed more than $6bn globally and helped usher in the comic-book movie era.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men (2000)
As Wolverine in X-Men, 2000. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar



For all their success, the legacy of the early X-Men films has been called into question by allegations made against Singer. In recent years, he has been accused by multiple men (some minors at the time) of sexual misconduct, which Singer has categorically denied. Have these allegations tainted the way Jackman sees the films?

“You know, that’s a really, really complicated question,” he says. “There’s a lot of things at stake there. X-Men was the turning point, I believe, in terms of comic-book movies and I think there’s a lot to be proud of. And there’s certainly questions to be asked and I think they should be asked. But I guess I don’t know how to elegantly answer that. I think it’s complex and ultimately I look back with pride at what we’ve achieved and what momentum that started.”

A Hollywood Reporter article also detailed claims of an X-Men set where, “behind the scenes, crises raged, including drug use, tantrums and a writers’ feud”. Halle Berry, who was directed by Singer in three X-Men films, recently said of him: “Bryan’s not the easiest dude to work with. I mean, everybody’s heard the stories …”

I like all the chaos of the stage and I can feel very calm within it
Do these reports chime with Jackman’s experience? “This was my first movie in America, you gotta understand; it was all so new to me,” he says. “I think it’s fair to say that …” He pauses. “There are some stories, you know … I think there are some ways of being on set that would not happen now. And I think that things have changed for the better.” It’s as much as he’s prepared to say on Singer. More generally, he says: “There’s way less tolerance for disrespectful, marginalising, bullying, any oppressive behaviour. There’s zero tolerance for it now and people will speak out, and I think that’s great.”

Although Jackman had originally intended to retire as Wolverine after 2017’s much-lauded Logan, in which the character was killed off, he announced earlier this year that he would be returning to the role in Deadpool 3, which also stars Ryan Reynolds, a close friend. He rebuts the idea that he has trouble letting go of his career-defining role. “No, I was OK,” he says. “I wasn’t tortured by it. When people would ask me [to reprise the role] – including Ryan, every five seconds – I was like: I’m done.” But he says he realised how much fun he would have doing a Deadpool movie: “I just wanted to do it and I felt it in my gut.” Plus, he adds: “I get to punch the shit out of Ryan Reynolds every day.”

Hugh Jackman performing his concert The Man. The Music. The Show. in New York, 2019
Performing his concert The Man. The Music. The Show. in New York, 2019. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for HJ




Jackman is a commercially viable leading man, capable of embracing camp theatricality (Les Misérables, The Greatest Showman) and collaborating with auteurs such as Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige), Baz Luhrmann (Australia) and Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners). He’s a reliable Broadway star (he’s nearing the end of his production of The Music Man) and his concert tour was a critical and commercial success.

He is happiest, as an actor, on stage. He puts it down to his childhood: “I like all the chaos and I can feel very calm within it.” He came to dancing later than he should have, after one of his older brothers put him off by suggesting it was for “poofs”. But he rediscovered it (and his brother apologised) as a young adult. Did he carry any of those hang-ups with him or worry that his camper performances might discourage offers for more macho roles?

“Oh, no. I don’t care about any of that,” he says. “I think it’s the silliest thing ever. It’s crazy. I grew up at the time when the women danced on a dancefloor in a circle and the men stood on the outside with a beer and I was like: what are you guys doing over here? The women are all down there with their handbags in the centre dancing around. I’m like: this is easy pickings, there’s not one man on the dancefloor!”

Jackman has long enjoyed a reputation as one of Hollywood’s nicest A-listers, to the extent that he has to deny it. “I’m not always nice,” he says. “I’ve had my moments on set, for sure, when I haven’t been nice. And I’ve behaved sometimes on set where I’ve yelled a bit or done something where I’ve been angry that I’m not proud of.”

Once more, he looks to the lessons of his father. “I had a great example, particularly from my father, of always trying to be respectful. Everyone is trying their hardest. And my experience is if you turn up, you give everything, you act respectfully, then that’s generally what you get from other people.”

The Son is in UK cinemas from 10 February

Hugh has publicly said that he regretted doing the movie "43".

It's not true that Bryan Singer approached Hugh Jackman for the Wolverine role.
According to XMen screenwriter David Hayter, the first choice for Wolverine ( as approved by Fox CEO Tom Rothman was Dougray Scott. When Scott failed to meet filming deadlines due to an accident while filming MissionImpossible 2 - XMen producer Lauren Shuler Donner ( who saw Hugh in Oklahoma! and met him, presumably leading to Hugh doing a few auditions for the role) suggested that the production to bring him in. Hence the sort of audition he did with Bryan Singer. Later on, Donner will end up producing all XMen films where Hugh Jackman has the important lead role, including LOGAN.

Jo

[jo]

More thoughts on the above interview --

Btw, the one movie that stood out where he asked his family not to join him was THE FOUNTAIN, in Montreal (first movie he did after BoyFromOz). He said that the movie was too difficult a subject to film ( he once said that he lay on the floor of his trailer after a very difficult scene - I am guessing it was the ring-tattoo-ing scene or Izzy's dying scene). Maybe he could have used some family loving or Deb's wise advice to get him through such material. Of course, after the movie, he admitted that this was the best movie he ever did ( at that time).

And Deb was not around when he did the rehearsal for the filming of the dying scene in Les Miserables . That scene was one of the earliest filmed because Anne Hathaway had already completed all of her scenes except for that ( which made it practical to complete all her acting assignments at that time).

He said in the past that he called Deb ( who had not joined him in England at that time) and told her he is thinking of quitting the role because he wasn't sure he could fully handle it. Deb told him that if did not have such doubts, then he did not deserve to do the movie. That became his positive signal to be involved in the movie.

[jo]

Maybe Hugh is really a sensitive person who sometimes get emotionally drained by some of the material he has to act out?

Like The Fountain, The Son and Les Miserables... and maybe even Logan.

He is probably in a much lighter mood with action movies. I think his long involvement with Greatest Showman was not easy, too ( we partly knew some of the difficulties not just up to end of filming but even when it was in the process of being released - the attitude of Fox was not favorable).

Maybe that is one reason why he decided to do a more comedic-Wolverine movie next ( with Deadpool) -- to be in a lightheared movie, drama-wise.

Maybe someday he could be doing a highly-charged dramatic play on Broadway. That would probably be very stunning, acting-wise, for him!

Jo

[njr]

Well, he did do “A Steady Rain” (with Daniel Craig) That was pretty highly charged! But of course as a two-man show, very different from the usual dramatic play.

Nancy

[njr]

Golden Globe results. Hate to say this, but I don’t think Hugh is going to get his Oscar. They seem to always give it to someone who portrays a real person.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

Austin Butler, Elvis — WINNER

Brendan Fraser, The Whale

Hugh Jackman, The Son

Bill Nighy, Living

Jeremy Pope, The Inspection

[hughmanity]

And unfortunately he did not receive a  Screen Actors' Guild nomination today.  A SAG nomination is said to foreshadow likely Oscar nominations.  😔

Jan 11, 2023 12:02:23 GMT -5 njr said:

Golden Globe results. Hate to say this, but I don’t think Hugh is going to get his Oscar. They seem to always give it to someone who portrays a real person.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

Austin Butler, Elvis — WINNER

Brendan Fraser, The Whale

Hugh Jackman, The Son

Bill Nighy, Living

Jeremy Pope, The Inspection

[jo]

What a happy coincidence for me!

My favorite journalist interviewing my favorite actor/performer!

In my dream dinner guests group, Christiane Amanpour & Hugh Jackman were the two I would always be certain to like being in the group

And here, arguably it sounds like one the most intelligent exchanges we have seen between Hugh and a media personality. Christiane has interviewed so many world leaders, including the most controversial ones, and she always comes out as penetrating in her questions but very professional in her manner! And, as we always expect, Hugh gives the most direct and thought-provoking replies.

edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/01/10/amanpour-jackman.cnn

[jo]