Hugh Jackman : L'interview face cachée

I presume you don't have kids. No, you're 25. It was a very intense shoot and I was really emotional during it. Oh, am I getting too serious? You know Ryan Reynolds is going to find that clip.

Hi Hugh Jackman, how are you?

I'm good, very good.

Good to see you here. Thank you so much for taking the time today. It's a very special discussion today that we're having because we're going to talk about some topics that we see in your latest movie called The Sun, which is out in a few days. Some serious topics we can say and topics that concern us all one way or another. And so I feel like it's interesting to take the time today and talk about all those topics. First of all, just for people who haven't seen the trailer of the movie, how would you describe it in a few words?

The movie is an exploration about mental health, severe mental health, and how it affects families, communities, and hopefully we'll start discussions like this about subjects that have been previously quite taboo.

We'll be able to talk about it today. So this format is kind of special. You've got a TV here and you've got also a buzzer on your left-hand side. Great. Basically, a wheel with emojis is going to appear on the screen and you're going to have to press on the buzzer and it will stop the wheel of emojis on one emoji. Yes. And we'll see what's behind it. I'll guide you through the whole thing. Don't worry. So you'll see here the emojis will appear right now. And when you want, you can press on the buzzer. Okay. Okay. So we're going to start with the first question here. It's a smartphone emoji and something is going to appear on the screen. I'll let you look at it and react to it.

My mom is my dad. Happy birthday, my love. Wish you nothing but the best. Mommy loves you.

I hope I'm not that dad. I really try not to be that dad. First of all, getting the year wrong, that's unforgivable.

That's very, very difficult. So that's a meme we found online. And what does this make you think of?

I think it speaks to the stereotypes of the difference between men and women and how they feel they can talk about their feelings and communicate openly. I don't know why I'm assuming it's a son. I'm assuming it's a son. Yeah. Because from the way the dad's talking, there's some, like, without too much emotion, being quite removed and manly and butch and macho. There's an idea, I think. I don't think your generation has it, but the boys need to be made into men.

Yeah.

That's something we've seen in the movie. Yeah. Girls become women, but somehow you've got to make boys into men. They're scared to toughen them up, and that's what I get there.

And in this movie, because you play in the movie a divorced father who welcomes his 17-year-old son, Nicholas, into his home after a while not living together. And Nicholas in the movie is in great distress and struggling. And so Peter said, it's the father, that's you, your character, tries to help him get better in this movie. And so we often hear that in a family, you know, the father has to be this sort of male, strong, almost like flawless figure in this family that shows no emotion, no vulnerability whatsoever. Do you think that's how it should be?

No. Particularly after doing this movie, I think very differently about it. I think that actually showing vulnerability, leading with vulnerability is a sign of courage, is a sign of strength. And the more men can actually own their fears, their nervousness, their insecurities, in a way, the stronger they are ultimately. And I don't think I'm as exaggerated as this, but before this movie, I think I did have a little bit of a feeling that I don't want to be a burden on my kids. If something's bothering me, I... Keep it for yourself. Keep it for myself. They don't need to know that I'm nervous about opening night or, you know, this thing happened or I had a fight with this person.

If it's got nothing to do with them, don't share it with them. And also, I think I had a feeling of needing to project strength and solidity and they can come to me and I'm the captain of this ship. but really, particularly with a 17 and 22 year old, they just want honesty.

Yeah. And that's also a question I had because you're, of course, a father with your family, but you're also an actor, you're also a celebrity. And so, we often think that, you know, celebrities also have to keep this sort of, you know, be perfect, like have no problem, no issues whatsoever. I guess also this combined together makes it even more difficult or how do you...

I think so. I think there is a, I think there's a little bit of, in any job, whether you're famous or not, don't bother the people at work with things that are happening at home. Don't, you know, try to keep that hidden, compartmentalize, you know, that's unprofessional. However, being famous probably does make it more important. There's a feeling of, okay, if I have a bad day, if I have a meltdown, if I cry, cry, that's going to become a huge thing. People are going to pry, people are going to, it's going to become a headline. I don't want to show that. So, it's easy. Or people expect you to be a certain way.

Yeah. How can you be sad when you're successful?

How can you be... Or they know you for being happy-go-lucky, like, oh, this is a person who's got everything in life and happy-go-lucky and you may not feel that one day, but you might feel the pressure to be that. And I can relate to a little bit of that for sure.

In the movie, what I also find interesting is the fact that this issue seems to repeat itself. Basically, because you see, we can see that you're hard on your son in the movie, but your own father is hard on you too. So, your father is, it's Anthony Hopkins playing in this movie. So, it's as if the thing was sort of repeating itself, like a heritage in a family.

That I really believe happens. It's one of the big things out of this movie. Somehow, no matter what we say as parents, you're too young. I presume you don't have kids. No. You go, no. You're 25. Yeah. Good choice. But as a parent, every parent decides, I'm not going to be like my parents. I'm going to do a better job. I'll keep the things that were good. I'm going to change the things that I didn't like. And then somehow, the things coming out of your mouth, you find yourself repeating them. You find the same thing happening. Because these forces within us go in very young. These inner voices go in very young. And they stay with you.

And they sometimes operate quietly without you realizing it. So, it does take a lot of courage to change things. I think my character in this, because he left the home two years ago, divorced the mother of the child, and has moved in with another woman, has another baby, he feels guilt, real guilt about it. So, given this opportunity to help his son, and the son moving in, he doesn't want to lose it. This is my chance to somehow appease, you know, and to repair what I've done wrong.

And also, do you think this has been, like, the fact of doing this movie has changed the way you, like, you are with your children? Has this movie changed anything in the way you sort of see those questions? Oh, completely. Yeah.

It continues to change for me, because I understand my character's desire to be the one to fix things. I'm going to be the one to save my son. I mean, no one loves your kid like you. And the desire to fix them, and it's horrendous as a parent when your kid is not doing well. And so, I understand that, but I'm much more likely to say things to my kids like, I don't know what to do. Sorry. I really don't know. I really like to talk to you about it. Or, share with them things that are going on in my life that have nothing to do with them. Because, it dawned on me that if I'm worried about something at work, they don't know that. If I don't tell them, they may think they've done something.

Because they might see you, like,

stressed or something, and they're like,

why are you like this? What's going on? Is there money problems? Are we not paying the rent? What's going on with him? And if nothing's said, there's just this distance. So, I do share it with them. And they're totally, they want to, you know. Have your children see the, yeah. They saw, when I saw it for the first time, they came with me and saw it. We were in a COVID bubble when we shot. And thankfully for me, because it was a very intense shoot and I was really emotional during it. My father passed away during the film, so it was a difficult time. So, thankfully my family were with me. So, they kind of went through the film as well, even though they weren't on set.

So, I watched it with them. I remember coming home and my wife is very extroverted. Deb, she turned to the kid and said, what do you think? What do you guys think? What do you think? And my son just said, stop, mom, I need time to digest. So, he took a, I think it was the next night, we had about a two or three hour conversation after, but it just took a little while.

But I understand this, because when I finished the movie, I was like, I was crying so much. And it was like a press screening, so it's meant to be like, kind of serious and stuff. I was like, oops, okay, end of the movie. See,

that's interesting. That's what you were talking about.

Yeah, it's true. The fact of not showing emotions. Oh,

I'm with a lot of press. And I'm sure in your mind, like, I'm the younger one here, I'm the new, oh, I shouldn't be, I shouldn't be, I don't want them to disrespect me, I don't want them to, so we somehow don't allow ourselves to be emotionally free, because we're in a work situation. Yeah.

Even though we're watching a movie, which is kind of, it's kind of special. Yeah. Let's go on the next, the next emoji. So, you can press on the buzzer again. Stop on something else. So, this emoji is a newspaper. You can see, news of the day in French. We'll see what's behind, if you want to read the main title. One in five young adults suffers from a depressive disorder. It's a study published a few days ago. And how does that make you feel when you read this?

Desperately sad. I mean, that's a huge number. And if one in five have a diagnosed disorder, you know there's many more people who are undiagnosed, who haven't got help, who haven't done a survey, or there's many other people who are on the way to having a disorder. So, the amount of young people that are struggling, I would say this is an epidemic. Depression, I know this, not myself personally, but I know people very close to me, and the work I did on the film is incredibly difficult, incredibly lonely, incredibly lonely. You feel really isolated. So, the idea that that many people in our society are feeling isolated and don't feel they have help is just, I find, devastating.

And at one point in the movie, Nicholas, so the son, your son in the movie, even makes up a fake breakup with a girl to sort of give his father reason to his distress. Why do you think parents sometimes fail to understand what their children feel?

I feel a lot of parents need a specific answer. They need to know, and I don't think there always is a specific answer. In this movie, no real exact reason is given for good reason, because sometimes it's chemical, sometimes it's genetic, sometimes something specific has happened. But there's a lot, still a lot of ignorance around it, a lot of lack of understanding. And sometimes the person suffering from depression doesn't understand. But I think for the parents, a lot of the time there's guilt. Is it something I did? Is it something, was it my fault as a parent? Have I missed the signs? Is that why my kid is suffering depression?

Far easier for a parent to believe it's something that they didn't do. And also I think for the person suffering depression, it's really hard to go through. It's incredibly lonely. It's incredibly frightening. And I feel they want to have an answer. They don't want a burden. And they also don't want someone coming in trying to fix them. Because if it was as easy as go for a walk, get on with yourself, just do your homework, or why don't you go out with your friends? They would have done that. So they don't know necessarily how to get out of it. They just want to say, I'm hurting. I'm in pain. I don't know how to solve this. Just listen to me, please. And be there with me.

And that's what I've learned from this. Just the most important thing is for people going through depression to feel heard and to feel safe, to be able to feel whatever they're feeling.

And do you feel like Peter, so you, the father in the movie, understands that his son is going through a hard time? Because we feel like sometimes he understands and he's like, okay, something's wrong. Sometimes he's like, oh, it's probably just a breakup or just something else. Do you feel like he truly knows what's happening?

I don't think he truly knows. I think he really tries to understand. I think he really tries to build a connection. I think he also wants to maybe foolishly believe everything is better when it's not. There are some scenes where you can see him coming to life and he's hearing a story, but he's not really paying attention to what is happening. There's guilt. There's the burden of his own upbringing. There's the fact that he's working 80 hours a week, that he has a new wife with a little baby who he feels he's neglecting. He's overworked. He's doing too many things. And he's also relying on himself to be the savior. And all of these reasons put together means that he's just not listening.

He's not actually being present and really listening. And the anger that you see come from him is fear. I mean, I'm a parent. I get angry. I understand that. And it's always because of fear and worry.

And young people's mental health is a subject we regularly cover on this channel. And about two years ago, we did a sort of a video where we gave students and young adults the chance to speak about mental health, the chance to speak about how difficult this situation was during COVID, during the pandemic in France where all those people had to stay at home and everything. And it was important for us to show how young people were feeling. But what I felt interesting in this movie is the fact that the angle and the camera is not focused really on the son. And it's focused on the family, on the father, on the mother, all the people around.

And why do you think it's interesting to make this choice of focusing also on the family in this movie?

That's a great question. Florian's first movie, The Father, took you directly inside the mind of Anthony Hopkins' character who was suffering with dementia and how it was to be so disoriented. And he made a deliberate choice with this to not actually be inside the character suffering from the mental health issue, but everyone around them. And because of that, it's very difficult to tell what is motivating the young man. What's going on? Is it depression? Is he being lazy? Is he should, what to do? Because he wants you to, Florian Orris wants you to feel, but the point of view of this film is to be inside the family.

And I think that's particularly because he wants to start a conversation about how hard it is to try to help someone who's in that situation. And everyone, everyone watching this show knows someone very close to them. And that hopefully this will start that conversation because it's really, really hard. But you make, I'm so glad you picked that up. The character is deliberately sort of hard to reach, even as an audience. and you're just not sure why. And that makes you all the more sort of tense at what the family are going to do because you can see both sides of it. Yeah. And we rarely see him alone.

And even when you see him alone, walking the streets or sitting in a park, you're away, you're distant, you're watching from outside and you're left wondering, what's going on with this kid? What's, what, is it depression? Is he lazy? Is he just angry with his father? What, what is it? Because that's what people around, people suffering depression feel. They don't understand it.

And so, what did you learn about the right way to act as a father or as a parent when facing such an issue

in a family? That's a great question. I, my generation, so when I was young, there was far more in this situation would be a, come on, just get on with it. It's not that bad. When I was young, I went through the same things. I just had to push on. You just need to push on. Come on. This is indulgent. The young people of today are too self-indulgent. They're weak. They should just move on. You know? That's what your father

in the movie does. Right.

But I think that's, would have been the case when I was young and people would have said those sort of things. And so, I think, for me, the thing I've learned from this is lead with a, desire to truly make a safe space for that person who is suffering. Keep asking questions that are going to reveal how that person's feeling. Dad, I don't know why. I just feel dark. I have no, I have no energy. I have no motivation. Tell me, tell me more about that. Tell me more. I want to understand. Tell me more. Rather than, well, you know, maybe get up earlier or go to bed earlier or do this or do that, fix this, fix that. No. Find out more. What's going on?

Allow that young person to be able to express how they feel even if they don't know how to describe it. Let them feel safe in that. and also, it's okay to say, I'm so sorry you feel that. I've never felt that before. Tell me more about it. I don't, I want to know more. How can I help? Is there any way you think I can help? Ask those questions rather than assuming you know and then, as we say in the movie, there's a beautiful line, love is not enough. It's not always enough. Sometimes you need professional help and certainly for those one in five young adults, you need professional help.

Yeah.

So, yeah. That's what we see also in the movie. So, we're going to continue with the next question. The wheel is going to go again. You can press the buzzer. Boom. It should stop one day. Here you go. All right. So, it's a dice, a dice emoji. We're going to play a little game. Okay. It's a game you probably know. It's called Would You Rather? Okay. You have to choose. Basically, two choices. You have to try and choose between both. You'll see it's linked to your movie or the career. It'll appear right now. The first one, Would You Rather? Personal life, personal life. The left one is from the movie. The right-hand side one is from your Instagram, I think. It is from Instagram.

I think I prefer, hmm, I prefer the personal life. not just because I'm smiling at the beach and the other one I look very stern. But I, you do have to make a choice and I know this is a 54-year-old.

I mean, you, oh, am I getting too serious? Yeah, it's fine. But for this one, it's fine. Okay, got it. Because I know it's very difficult. But I guess it's, what's interesting here is it's another topic that's in the movie. And we can see here at the beginning of the film, Peter, so the father, is spending lots and lots and lots of time at work, missing also some important parts of his personal life. We've talked about it quite a lot. My question may seem a bit weird, but why do you think we work so much?

I think there is a feeling that when you have an opportunity, particularly in an area that you love, that you've got to go for it. And something like acting or in your job, a lot of people would think, oh my God, they're so lucky. So there's a feeling of I don't want to stop this because the next person is going to be sitting in that chair like that, in my chair like that. Got to keep going, got to keep that thing going and I don't want to let go of it. That, I think, I actually think this is a more economic question, but I think it's harder and harder now to live. And I think you just need to work longer hours. Pay is not as good for most people and so there's that.

And I think there's a fear, but deep down there's a fear of not achieving your goals if you don't work really, really hard. And we get that message all the time.

It's like, why stop? Like, I know on a personal level I'm struggling quite a lot with those questions of like work-life balance because as it's a personal project I'm like, hands, you know, working and working and sometimes I'm like, oh, but am I missing parts of, you know, my personal life I should take time for and like... Can I ask you? Yeah.

Okay, so, now you're 25 of your own channel. I didn't get my first acting job until I was 26, so you're very young. Is it a surprise to you to have this level of success?

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

And so do you feel you've got to make the most of it? Yeah. And what is your fear? What do you think you may be missing out on? I think it's a fear of,

as it's a personal project of, oh, but if I stop, what will happen? Like, yes, someone will replace me or, you know, as I'm a content creator on social media, like social networks, it's like, what will happen if I stop posting for one day, for one month, for, I don't know, can I take holidays? Like, I rarely, you know, take holidays and vacation and stuff. And so, and sometimes I'm like, wait, but am I just missing a big part of my personal life because I'm just like, you know, working and working in my project? And I think it's like many people who do something they love also, I know how you see it, but are in this sort of like, sprint and, yeah.

If you're lucky enough to do something you love, that's awesome because you're going to be surrounded by people doing the same thing so they're going to become your friends. But the real issue, Hugo, at the bottom, at the end of all this, if you are basing your self-esteem on anything outside of yourself, it's going to be depleting ultimately and the balance will be off because particularly in something where you're getting a lot of attention like you are, the more that will feed you and then that cycle is the one that makes it almost impossible to get off. So I think it's really important to have a sense of yourself, of what really gives you real self-esteem.

Matters to you.

Of course, because it doesn't matter what job you're in, you're going to have good days and bad days. You're going to have successes and not. You want to make sure that underneath it you feel okay about yourself because then you won't be a slave to work or a slave to successful work.

You have to do what you truly want and not what people want you to do or not what people, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Interesting. Thank you very much for this. No problem. Thank you. We've got a second one we can show here. Would you rather? It's not would you rather.

Normal guy. Normal guy. Normal guy. Superhero. You're always getting a call. You never get to relax.

And also what's interesting is that of course it's two different characters but we can feel that this movie was really important to you and really moved you I guess also on a personal level. Is it difficult to make the switch from movies like this to The Sun?

It's not difficult to make a switch. It's difficult to do either movie. All movies and all acting for me is difficult and if it's not difficult I wouldn't choose it because I don't want to just do something that feels mundane to me and I know I've been in however many Wolverine movies and I'm about to do another one with Ryan. It's difficult. The training the feeling the preparation every day on set and it's I love that challenge. I want it to be challenging. I want to feel scared but for me the switch in acting is one of the easiest bits. I don't know why I can do a musical and then I'll do a drama I'll do an action movie it helps me to change around.

Doing the same kind of thing all the time for me is difficult.

You have to change

and do different stuff.

I understand. Great. I think we've got one last one and then we'll do the last question. Acting. Acting. Acting? Acting. Great. 100% acting. Okay. That was the last one. It's the last question.

When I sing I only think of myself as an actor.

Really? I have to imagine the character. Acting the singing. Totally. Totally. Interesting. Okay. Last question now for the last time you can press buzzer. Okay. So that's a sort of timer and basically this is a question another format another sort of game. Basically you've got 60 seconds to try to answer to a maximum of questions by yes or no. Got it. So I've got some easy questions that you just answer yes or no if you can. Yes. You should be okay. You should be okay. Okay. You can try. 60 seconds are you ready? Ready. Okay. Do you speak French? No. Was it difficult to scratch your nose when you played Wolverine? Yes. Is it tough to be a father?

Yes.

Has meditation changed your life? Yes. Are you a better actor than Wayne Reynolds? Yes. Okay. Are you on TikTok? No. Is winning an Oscar a goal for you? No. Is there a role you wish you never played? Oh, no. Is The Sun the movie that matters the most to you? Yes. Would you have become a journalist if you hadn't been an actor? Yes. Are you afraid of death? Yes. Do you re-watch your own movies? No. Okay. Could you release a music album? No. Have you ever forgotten your script? Yes. Does money buy happiness? No. Have you ever thought about quitting acting? No. Does Wolverine... Yes. Yes? Oh, interesting. Does Wolverine struggle at airport security checkpoints? Yes. Okay. That was the last one.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much for taking the time. You did well. You did good.

You know Ryan Reynolds is going to find that clip and I'm going to pay for it.

Thank you so much

for taking the time today. Thanks, Hugo.

It was great to have this discussion on such important topics. So you're 25? I'm 25, yeah. 25? 25, yeah.

I'm 54. So hopefully I'll see you in the next 10 years and I want to hear how your life balance is going.

Thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time. All right. Thank you.

Good luck. Bonne chance.

Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup. Thank you so much.

That was great. That was very interesting and I really appreciate you spending time on a film like that.

No, I think it's so important and thank you for making this movie. It's just like it's important for all the young people watching it. I like the format

of your show. Thank you. I see you very much. Successful. Well done.

Thank you.