01x01 - Hugh Jackman's Wolverine Journey

[bunniefuu]

JOE QUESADA (VOICEOVER): That's me, Joe Quesada.

My dad bought my first comic book

when I was eight years old.

You could say I got the bug.

You could also say comics taught me how to tell a story.

Since then, I've learned that you can find stories

anywhere and everywhere.

The best stories teach us, guide us, and encourage us to be

better versions of ourselves.

In short, stories give order to the chaos of the universe.

Marvel comics has been telling an entire universe

of stories for over 80 years.

Working at Marvel, you feel the weight

of carrying on that legacy.

It's a lot of pressure.

And I should know because I've worked

at Marvel for over two decades.

I even set in Stanley's chair as editor in chief.

At Marvel, our mission is telling great stories.

And my job is helping us tell the best

stories we possibly can.

I get to chat with some of my favorite storytellers

from all walks of life and get their take on what

it takes to craft a good story.

And one thing every great story needs is a great character.

So today we're talking about one of the greatest.

He's gone by many names over the years,

Weapon X, Patch, the old knucklehead and, of course,

Logan.

Yep, I'm talking about one of the most revered characters

in all of comics, Wolverine.

Since his first appearance 45 years ago, Wolverine

has been an invaluable and beloved member

of the entire Marvel universe.

With the lethal senses of an apex predator,

razor-sharp claws, and a superhuman healing factor,

it's no wonder Wolverine likes to say,

I'm the best there is at what I do.

Well, today's guest is the best of what he does too.

I want to tell the story of the human side

to all these Super Heroes.

The only way to really tell these stories.

Right.

JOE QUESADA (VOICEOVER): I'm Joe Quesada.

I tell stories for a living.

Welcome to "Marvel Storyboards."

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today's guest needs no introduction.

How are you?

JOE QUESADA (VOICEOVER): OK, maybe we'll

give me a little introduction.

It's great to see.

JOE QUESADA (VOICEOVER): Hugh Jackman is Wolverine.

But that's not all he is.

Hugh's also a producer, an actor, a singer,

a philanthropist, and an Emmy- and Tony-award-winning song

and dance man.

He's also a buddy of mine.

So we're catching up while he's in town.

We should preface this.

I've done some artwork for you in the past

and stuff like that.

And we first met over the phone.

Yeah.

You cold called me.

I did cold call.

It was like, hello, this is Hugh Jackman.

And I immediately think, I have a friend

who's a huge prankster.

And the last time something like that happened to me-- this

is going to sound braggadocious.

But I'd gotten a call from the White House.

And Obama had wanted me to do a piece of artwork for him.

And I said, yeah, sure.

Sure.

[LAUGHING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When I was getting ready to go on the press tour for Logan,

realizing he was 17 years into that journey,

and what struck me was how many people

had helped along the way.

And so I had this idea of creating

like a cell, a drawing.

And you're the name that everyone comes

up with as the definitive.

I was like, OK, I really want something special.

So I don't know if you know this,

but I've given them out to people

from publicity teams that worked with for years.

And currently, I think, 3/4 of them

are on the market for sale. So--

- Are you serious? - No, I'm kidding.

I'm totally kidding. - [LAUGHING]

[LAUGHING]

I want to know about your origin story.

My first job?

JOE QUESADA: Yeah.

7-Eleven.

I used to have to go in and stack the milk.

And there was a crate in there with all the damaged goods.

So if you get a damaged Dairy Whip or something like that,

you just put it in the thing, and you

get a full credit for it.

So I know it's going back.

And I go in there, and I'm stacking

a lot of whipped cream.

So I'm literally doing one of these.

I used to do it about every hour, going in.

And during one of those, the boss walks, like that.

I'm like-- and she opens up the door.

And she'd already been annoyed.

She said, you talk to the customers too much.

Just get them out.

This is 7-Eleven, all right?

No one really needs a customer experience.

- [LAUGHING] - So I'm like--

[IMITATES WHIPPED CREAM DISPENSER].

She goes, just go.

So I got fired from that one.

[LAUGHING] Did you imagine or fantasize that

this is where you would end up?

I never thought it was really gonna happen.

It was sort of very-- very bizarre.

Yeah.

I don't remember thinking, I'm gonna to be an actor.

I'm gonna to do this.

In fact, the opposite.

I think I was more scared to own up to that.

I went to one of those fancy schools

where the arts were a really important part

of the rounding of young men, but you're

gonna be a lawyer, right?

Yeah, get a real job afterwards.

Yeah, go get a real job.

And I went on a gap year.

And if I hadn't been on a gap year,

I would have probably either been

now an accountant or a lawyer.

But the form of acting didn't really

happen till I was 22 or 23.

I auditioned for an acting school.

I did not get in.

So I was 22.

They rang me up and said, someone's dropped out,

and we're going to audition five people off the bench,

basically.

We're going to choose one of the five.

So I went along.

And I got the spot.

So I got this letter, and I was like, yes, I'm in!

This is great.

I really want to do this.

I'm not telling anybody else, right?

Because I'm-- in Australia, it's like, really?

You?

You're an actor?

I mean-- My cowboy boots are more of an actor.

That's the kind of-- so I just sort of kept it quiet.

And at the very end it said, please bring

a check for $3,500 on day one.

And everyone in America will think that's really cheap.

But in Australia when I was growing up, college was free.

And I just never thought that this was gonna cost anything.

Stupid.

I screwed it up and put in the bin because I was like,

I've just finished college.

I'm not going to ask my dad for 3 and 1/2 grand.

I don't have 3 and 1/2 grand.

I was working at the Shell gas station for $10 an hour.

So I was like, all right, that's-- that's not happening.

And the next day I got a letter, which

was from my grandmother's will.

And inside the letter was a check for $3,500.

Wow.

I said, what?

And I went straight to the trash can.

And there it was.

And I had it all.

And I'm like, I'm going.

I think that kind of story feels very like,

OK, you can't make this one up.

Tell me about when you get that first call to play

this character Wolverine.

I mean, do you know who he is?

Do you know anything about the character?

Oh, knew nothing.

I didn't even know a wolverine was a real thing.

And I remember going to an IMAX watching

a documentary on wolves thinking Wolverine

was like a wolf, part wolf.

[LAUGHING]

Some of the stuff that I kept actually.

Wolves are driven by their sense of smell, which is why they're

always looking down, why you see all these pictures of them,

and they're always--

I'm looking into the camera now, but.

So I used to think, oh, like a wolf.

I always need to be seeing my eyebrow.

[GROWLING]

The director said, you're doing something with your body?

What's that?

And I said, oh, yeah, it's cool.

I've been looking at wolves.

And he goes, why?

I said, well, you know, Wolverine, it's like there's

something in the mythology.

And he goes, no, it's a wolverine.

And I said, well, there's no such thing.

And he goes, yeah.

Like, go to the zoo.

Like, that's how little I knew.

I'm at the national theater at the time.

And my wife is reading the scene with me.

And I remember her saying, Wolverine senses danger.

His nostrils flare and snikt.

She goes, what?

And she goes, S-N-I-K-T, snikt.

Claws come out of his hands.

And she looks, and she goes, babe, you can't be doing this.

What-- you got claws coming out of your hand?

Like, all I have is three pages.

I don't have the script.

I'm like, look, it's Ian McKellen and Patrick

Stewart and Anna Paquin.

I'm gonna go for it anyway.

She goes, well, you're on your own, babe.

So I went on the audition.

It's the only time ever my wife has been wrong, by the way,

in 25 years of marriage.

So now here you are.

You've got this part as Wolverine.

And clearly, as an actor, I'm sure you're

pulling from a number of different sources.

But what do you pull from yourself?

What part of yourself do you feel is--

is in Logan?

And clearly you are not Logan, right?

It is in me, actually.

On the surface you don't see that at all.

But if I look back at who I am, and every time

my back's against the wall, I get filled with rage.

So when I'm younger it was a blind rage.

I would have a trigger.

In that way, there is part of me, I know, that can lose it.

I-- I know that.

I can feel it.

I am not the brooding, dark "get out of my face,"

"I'll do anything I want."

Part of me wants to be that.

I'm a complete people pleaser compared to Wolverine.

But on some deep level, I get it.

Probably wish I was a little more like that.

And that's a good combination to have.

I also always approach Wolverine knowing

that I could never know everything about the character

that-- that you know.

I approached him with the seriousness

and the intellectual curiosity, as

if I was playing Richard III, as if I

was playing Macbeth, Hamlet.

I always thought it was very sort of Greek tragedy,

like classical theater.

So he represents, in all of us, this fight

between chaos and control, the animal and the human.

So quip, line, all the cover for what is happening underneath.

And it's a great archetype, the reluctant hero.

The bad boy with the heart there.

Totally.

So you played this character for a really long time.

And you walked away sort of on your own terms.

You said, enough.

Time to hang up the claws.

I had this feeling underneath that I hadn't achieved all

I wanted to do with the character,

that I hadn't done the character justice.

I felt there was just more gravitas, more complexity.

And so I thought, this is it.

I need to put all in.

I need to take out the safety net of I'll have another go.

I'm gonna take that out.

I'm just gonna go for it.

I told everybody this is the last one.

We didn't know what the story would be.

I'm more interested in what it's like after the fight

and him finding it almost Impossible

to live with himself.

Part of Wolverine's heroism is not just the things

he does, right, to save the day, but being

able to keep the animal inside.

It's that's constant struggle of keeping sort of nature out.

We all face it, we don't live on that edge.

That was what always really drew me to that character

and also just the lack of memory.

That was huge The not-- just that feeling

that you've done something that you may never get over.

I'm not 100% sure what it is.

But I just have this feeling that I'm a bad egg.

I'm actually not a redeemable character.

I always really keyed into that.

That's a very interesting take.

I've never quite heard that.

That's great.

I'm sure you're aware there's this viral video

of you going around doing--

doing ADR for Wolverine.

Yeah.

[LAUGHING]

Ahh!

[GROWLING AND GRUNTING] Arrh!

Could you show me how to grunt and yell

like Wolverine, like, properly?

You up for it?

Yeah.

So before I do any Wolverine, I do five squat jumps

really as high as you can.

And by-- so you got your breath going.

And then you have to run.

So you run.

[BOTH GRUNTING]

And the running.

Run. Cha!

JOE QUESADA: Hah!

[GRUNTING] Come on.

Urr!

Go!

Gotcha!

Ah!

Your fighting be loud, right?

[LAUGHING]

And I'm gonna start yelling.

No one knows this.

But I actually lost my falsetto for about seven or eight years

by playing Wolverine. - By playing Wolverine?

HUGH JACKMAN: And I thought I would never get it back.

Really?

But when you train for the stage, [DEEPER VOICE]

it's all about very--

[DRAMATIC VOICE] and somehow yelling like that is Wolverine.

But for me, like, when I was doing those voiceover sessions,

I said, let's do one more.

I want you to film, and I want to have

it because I am dripping with sweat

every time I would play it.

And I think people assume, ah, you

know it's just the voiceover.

I always tell young creators, actors,

whatever it may be that-- that they-- what they see

is the final product, right?

But the work that goes in it for you hit Madison Square Garden,

right, the tireless, endless work

to get to that point of mastery, that's what they don't see.

Because you got to stumble and fall a million times.

I look back now and think, oh, right, yeah.

It doesn't just happen.

Absolutely.

Find the thing you love to do.

JOE QUESADA: And then?

And then work your a*s off.

JOE QUESADA: Work your a*s off, yeah.

JOE QUESADA (VOICEOVER): Every story

ultimately reaches its end.

Wolverine's story isn't over, not by a long shot.

But Hugh's next adventure will no doubt be

an amazing story all in itself.

Because sometimes being the best there

is at what you do means knowing when to walk away.

[MUSIC PLAYING]