The night before the cameras rolled on Les Misérables, Hugh Jackman and Russell
Crowe presented the BAFTA award for Best Film at a glittering ceremony in
London.
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| Photo courtesy of Vogue |
Although Jackman and Crowe, both
Australians, have been friends for years, it was the first time that they had
worked together. Funny, hugely entertaining and with perfect timing, they
proved to be a formidable double act and stole the show.
It was, says Jackman, the perfect way
to warm up for the main event – filming Les
Misérables, the world’s most successful musical, for director Tom Hooper
with a stellar all-star cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried,
Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.
“Russell
and I have always got on well but BAFTA was the first time we’ve ever done
anything like that,” says Jackman. “And I remember being on stage and he was
seriously making me laugh, and I thought, ‘this is really going to work..’
“And
even though what we’re doing on Les Mis
is not comedic, we felt like a team. And I said that to him, ‘man, this feels
like a good team…’ And he said, ‘absolutely brother.’ And after the show he
gave me a hug and said, ‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’ And we were off and
running.
“That
was the night before we started filming so it was kind of cool. And then we got
to work on Les Misérables and that
teamwork continued. Not just with and Russell and myself, but everyone – Tom,
Anne, Amanda, Eddie, everybody. It was a great team.”
Jackman
plays Jean Valjean, the former prisoner who builds a new life when he is
unexpectedly given a second chance, and Crowe plays Inspector Javert, the
single minded, ruthless policeman who hunts Valjean down the years after he
breaks parole.
Set against the backdrop of violent
political unrest in 19th century France, Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s classic 1862 novel, is an
epic story of broken dreams and unrequited love. More than 60 million people
have watched the musical, at venues all over the world, since it first opened
in London in 1985.
“For years Cameron had been asking me
to do the role of Javert on stage,” Jackman explains. “I wanted to do it but the timings
never really worked out. And then I heard about the film from my agent, who is
a mad Les Mis fan – he must have
watched it 100 times – and we talked about it and obviously I was very
interested.
“And
I’d always been asked to play Javert, but the more I thought about it the more
I thought that Valjean would be better for me. I just felt more empathy and
closer to that character. And so when they told me that they were thinking of
Russell for Javert that made perfect sense to me. So I went in to audition as
Valjean.”
Jackman
is vastly experienced in musical theatre. He starred in Beauty and the Beast and Sunset
Boulevard in Australia and as well as the aforementioned Oklahoma! – which earned him an Olivier
Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical – in the West End. He starred in The Boy From Oz on Broadway where he
also played, to rave reviews, in his one-man show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, in 2011.
But
even so, and just like all the rest of the cast, he had to audition for his
role in Les Misérables . “I’d seen the musical three times, I’d listened to the CD a
hundred times. I knew those songs,” he says of his audition in New York.
“So I went in and there was Stephen
Brooker, the musical director, a pianist, the casting director and Tom. And I
could see Tom thinking, ‘can this guy do it?’
“And we went through the songs again
and again. It was like a workshop. And then Tom would say, ‘OK, let’s go back
to the beginning, I want to do all of them again..’ I saw him getting enthused.
“And I was really into it. And it went
on for about four hours and I said, ‘Tom, look mate, I’ve got to get home to
get my kids to bed..’ And he was like, ‘oh, OK..’ I could tell he would have
kept going. But luckily it worked out.”
It
certainly did. On set, Hooper, the Oscar winning director of The King’s Speech, took a radical
approach to making Les Misérables – every actor would sing every take live.
Each of the actors would wear a tiny
earpiece – hidden from the camera – and whilst singing they would be
accompanied by a pianist, playing live, out of camera shot, that they could
hear via the device.
When they were filming in the studio at
Pinewood, the pianists, Roger Davison and Douglas Whyte, would be in a room off
the main sound stage and only the actors in the scene could hear them.
On location, briefly in France, and in
England, the musicians would be in a canvass tent near where the action was
taking place. It was, then, a huge challenge and Jackman clearly loved it.
His first scenes, at the very start of
the shoot, were filmed in a tiny village in the French Alps. Valjean has just
been released from prison. Starving and desperate, he takes refuge in a church.
He knew then and there that Hooper’s gamble had paid off.
“I can remember singing at one in the
morning inside this beautiful chapel where I literally had steam coming out of
my mouth because it was that cold. Singing live for every take is not easy and
you have to really look after your
voice.
“You
wake up, say seven in the morning, and you are still singing at one in the
morning - that’s a long game. It’s not like a theatre show where you pretty
much shut down a little bit during the day, take it easy for a few hours, and
then you gear up for your performance. You warm up, bang, you are out on stage
for two hours.
“This
is a long game. And because of the nature of filming, you don’t know exactly
when you are on – you prepare for a scene but you might have to wait a few
hours before you are called to do it.
“So
it’s been probably one of the toughest, but most rewarding jobs I’ve ever done.
The idea of singing live is daunting but it gives you freedom. I can go out and
each and every take is different, you can play it with different emotions,
speed it up, slow it down, put different emphasis on certain lines in different
takes. It’s been extraordinary.”
Jackman
underwent an extreme physical transformation to play Valjean. In the first part
of the film, Valjean is gaunt and emaciated after just being released from
years of hard labour in prison. Jackman shed more than 15lbs and grew a long,
shaggy beard to look the part.
“Tom said, ‘you need to be line an Ox
of a man, very strong, but I also want you worryingly thin…’ I was like,
‘OK..’” he laughs. “It’s not easy to be thin and have muscles.
“Basically I was training three times a
day but eating very leanly. I was probably seven kilograms (15.7lbs) lighter
than I usually am. I was very, very lean and got into a shape that I’ve never
really been in before. It was a crazy time.”
With the first section, filmed in
France, completed, Jackman then had to rapidly put the weight he’d lost back
on. “I had to put on weight as quickly as I could and for about a week I was
eating everything that came my way,” he recalls.
Jackman was born and raised in Sydney,
Australia and studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in
Perth. Immediately on leaving college he landed a role in the popular TV series
Correlli.
After more TV work, theatre and films
in his native Australia, Jackman was cast as Logan/ Wolverine in X-Men for
director Bryan Singer, starring alongside Sir Ian McKellan, Halle Berry and
Patrick Stewart. His extraordinarily powerful performance launched his
Hollywood career and he went on to star in numerous films including Swordfish, X-Men 2, The Prestige, The Fountain, X-Men: The Last Stand, Australia, Real Steel and many more. He recently
finished film The Wolverine for
director James Mangold.
Q
and A follows:
Q:
You’re attempting something that’s never been done with a musical before,
singing live on every take. What’s it been like?
A: You know, the musical director,
Stephen Brooker, said it’s even better than being on stage because when you are
in the pit the actors are 15, 20 feet away on stage, whereas here, he said, ‘I
know exactly when you are going to breathe and when you are moving on and you
need to stop.’ It’s quite a production. And it’s never been done this way
before. I spoke to Simon Hayes (production sound mixer), who is a really great
sound guy, and he said that there really wasn’t the technology to do this until
about five years ago with the standard and quality of microphone we needed.
It’s as good as being in a recording studio.
Q:
Let’s go back to the very start. Didn’t you film for a few days in France
before switching to England?
A: Yes, we did. We were in the
mountains, the Alps, in the South of France and it was below freezing and just
going dark. I could see the steam coming out of my mouth (laughs). I could feel
the cold in my voice and I was freezing! And somehow that was perfect for
playing this guy, Valjean, who is on this journey of purgatory. And even though
he’s just been let out of jail he is still carrying that weight of who he was
and not being accepted by society. And I knew then and there that’s Tom’s
gamble of singing live was going to pay off in a great way. This is a bold
decision but I think it’s absolutely the right decision – once you accept that
you have entered a world where everyone is singing, stay with it, and that’s
how the musical was written. And the thing is, when you are singing outside –
like those first scenes in France where it was freezing cold – it sounds like you are outside, when you
are singing in a church it sounds like you are in a church. It doesn’t sound
synthetic or like you are in a recording studio where all the rough edges, that
immediacy, is taken out.
Q:
It must be harder on your voice singing live for multiple takes?
A: I can remember singing at one in the
morning inside this beautiful chapel where I literally had steam coming out of
my mouth because it was that cold. Singing live for every take is not easy and
you have to really look after your
voice.
You
wake up, say seven in the morning, and you are still singing at one in the
morning - that’s a long game. It’s not like a theatre show where you pretty
much shut down a little bit during the day, take it easy for a few hours, and
then you gear up for your performance. You warm up, bang, you are out on stage
for two hours. This is a long game. And because of the nature of filming, you
don’t know exactly when you are on – you prepare for a scene but you might have
to wait a few hours before you are called to do it. So it’s been probably one
of the toughest, but most rewarding jobs I’ve ever done. The idea of singing
live is daunting but it gives you freedom. I can go out and each and every take
is different, you can play it with different emotions, speed it up, slow it down,
put different emphasis on certain lines in different takes. It’s been
extraordinary.
Q:
You’ve done musical theatre in Australia, the US and in the UK. Had you met
Cameron Mackintosh before this project?
A: Trevor Nunn brought me to London to
do Oklahoma! and that’s when I first
met Cameron. And for years Cameron had been asking me to do the role of Javert
on stage.
Q:
Javert, not Valjean?
A: Yes. And I’ve always loved the role
of Javert. And I haven’t told Russell this, but the very first audition I did,
for Beauty and the Beast in Australia
when I was straight out of drama school, I sang Stars (one of Javert’s songs) from Les Mis. And
at the end, the guys said, ‘why did you sing that song?’ And I said, ‘well it’s
the only thing I had music to and I had to learn it in acting school.’ And they
said, ‘well I don’t think it really suits you, you should know your voice and
it’s really not applicable for this song. Go away and have some singing lessons
and come back in a month.’ (laughs) And so when Cameron asked me to play Javert
I wanted to ring that guy and say, ‘hey, listen here!’ (laughs)
Q: But what happened?
A:
Well, I wanted to do it but the timings never really worked out. And then I
heard about the film from my agent, who is a mad Les Mis fan – he must have watched it 100 times – and we talked
about it and obviously I was very interested. And I’d always been asked to play
Javert, but the more I thought about it the more I thought that Valjean would
be better for me.
Q: Why?
A:
Because it felt closer to my truth, I suppose. I just felt more empathy and
closer to that character, Valjean, and so when they told me that they were
thinking of Russell for Javert, that made perfect sense to me. So I went in to
audition as Valjean.
Q:
Tell me about the audition…
A: It was three hours in New York.
Cameron was there, Stephen Brooker, the casting person, a pianist and myself. I’d
seen the musical three times; I’d listened to the CD a hundred times. I knew
those songs. So I went in and there was Stephen Brooker, the musical director,
a pianist, the casting director and Tom. And I could see Tom thinking, ‘can
this guy do it?’ And we went through the
songs again and again. It was like a workshop. And then Tom would say, ‘OK,
let’s go back to the beginning, I want to do all of them again..’ I saw him
getting enthused.
Q: And were you getting enthused?
A:
Completely. I was really into it. And it went on
for about four hours and I said, ‘Tom, look mate, I’ve got to get home to get
my kids to bed..’ And he was like, ‘oh, OK..’ I could tell he would have kept
going. But luckily it worked out really well.
Q: Tom hadn’t done a musical before.
You must have been intrigued to see how he would approach this?
A:
Of course. But that’s why auditions are great, particularly a three hour
audition, because you get to see exactly what the dynamic is going to be like.
And even before that I instinctively felt that Tom was the right choice. I
loved his movies and there were elements of Les
Misérables that I knew he would be comfortable with – the period aspect of
it, the size of the production, the complexity of it. I knew that he had the
intellectual capacity to make that work. And there are some parts of the
musical where there are holes in the plot and you just let that go because it’s
absolutely fine on stage. But you can’t do that with film and I knew that he
would plug all of those holes. I knew that he would find a really compelling
way to make this movie come to life. I actually think it’s a plus to have a
director that’s not steeped in the musical theatre world – it’s a plus to have
someone who is more dramatically inclined.
Q: Why?
A:
Musicals of a dramatic nature – and I’m not talking about something like Singing In The Rain – have to feel like
thought. What is sung has to feel like thought. Trevor Nunn has been incredibly
successful with this stuff. I worked with Trevor on Oklahoma! And for the first three weeks we didn’t sing a note so
when I did Oh What A Beautiful Morning
I had to make it work as a monologue. I said to Trevor, ‘how am I going to make
that work as a monologue? I repeat the line of the everything…’ And he said, ‘you’ve got to find a reason to
repeat every line. If you don’t have that, then it’s boring.’ The song has to
advance character and plot. So for me, having someone like Tom who is
dramatically inclined and not just under the spell of the music was a huge
plus. Obviously, you don’t want a director who has no musicality would be wrong
and Tom has a great ear for the music. He knows it, he loves it. I think it’s
the perfect mix. He’s not daunted by the epic nature of a film like this.
Q:
What is it about this story that has endured and touched so many people?
A: If I can simplify it, I think it’s
about finding the best in the human spirit. Every character in this story has
major obstacles to overcome, bigger than the ones that most of us encounter in
life, but we relate to that. And time and time again, you see these characters
under incredible duress, trying to find the best in themselves. It’s about the
best of humanity, the human spirit. And that’s why it’s so uplifting. And they
all fail, at times, but they don’t give up. Valjean, who I suppose is the hero,
fails at the beginning and gets another chance, and another after that. And when
he has those chances he makes the most of them. He battles, all the characters
do. And even though it’s called Les
Misérables, it’s an incredibly uplifting story.
Q:
There’s a new song that was written for the film. Tell us about that?
A:
The thing is, Les Misérables is
such an ensemble piece. There are so many beautiful songs and so many different
characters and everyone I’ve spoken to; they all remember something different
about the musical – their favourite song, their favourite character. And yes, we
have a new song, Suddenly, which is
lovely. It came out of a discussion that Tom had and it came out of a line in
the book that said that there are two lightning bolts of truth that strike Jean
Valjean in his lie. One is to do with virtue and the other is to do with love.
The first lightning bold is when the Bishop lets him go even thought he knows
he’s been stealing. And the second is when he meets Cosette and for the first
time in his life he understands love. And Tom pointed out that the musical doesn’t
really deal with the second lightning bolt. So the new song deals with that and
it’s about that emotion, love, coming into your life when you least expect it.
And it really sets up my character for the second half of the movie.
Q:
What’s your favourite song that you sing?
A: Who
Am I? I love the dramatic set up of it – it’s about a dilemma of conscience
and it goes right to the core of who he is. I love the melody and the dramatic
drive of that song. It’s always been my favourite.
Q:
Did you have to lose weight to play Valjean in the opening sequence of the
film, when he’s just been released from prison?
A: Oh yes (laughs). Tom said, ‘you need
to be line an Ox of a man, very strong, but I also want you worryingly thin…’ I
was like, ‘OK..’ (laughs). It’s not easy to be thin and have muscles. Basically
I was training three times a day but eating very leanly. I was probably seven
kilograms (15.7lbs) lighter than I usually am. I was very, very lean and got
into a shape that I’ve never really been in before. It was a crazy time.
Q:
You’ve trained for roles before – I’m thinking of Wolverine – but this was different?
A: Yes, it’s a lot leaner than when I
play Wolverine. And it was not fun to
do. I really enjoyed the burgers after that (laughs).
Q:
Presumably you had to put the weight back on rapidly to play a much healthier
Valjean in the later stages of the film?
A: Yes. I had to put on weight as
quickly as I could and for about a week I was eating everything that came my
way (laughs).
Q:
Let’s talk about your fellow cast members…
A: Unbelievable. They’re incredible.
Q:
You actually sang with Anne Hathaway at the Oscars…
A: Yes, we did a little bit at the
Oscars and Anne sang On My Own,
weirdly. I knew she had a great voice and we’d talked a long time about doing
stuff together. She’s actually born to do musical theatre. Tom described her as
the muse of the Les Misérables production and I think that’s true. I remember
when we were rehearsing and she sang every note in a totally believable way.
You could have filmed her when she had a script in her hand because everything
was bang on. She is going to blow people away with this performance. And it’s
the same with Amanda (Seyfried). She’s done it before with Mama Mia! but this is different. She’s going to blow people away.
Q:
And what about Russell? I’m kind of surprised that you two haven’t worked
together before…
A: No, we’ve not done anything before
this. And it’s been a complete joy to work with him. He’s a leader, he likes to
come out and set the tone and I like to approach the work in that way too, and
so it’s been great to be together and to finally work with him. It’s just been
phenomenal. Everyone has been very team orientated. It’s very much an ensemble
cast. It’s been awesome.
Q:
And he’s an impressive Javert?
A: Oh yes. I’ve seen many Javerts and I
dreamt of playing him myself but I could never play Javert the way that Russell
plays him. Javert is often over played, I think, because he’s Valjean’s
nemesis, and the temptation is to over play. But Russell walks on set and
commands attention, he exudes authority and he has presence and power, all
perfect for Javert. So you really believe in the tussle that these two men have
down the years, that lasts pretty much a lifetime. And he’s vocally fantastic
and committed. He worked so hard and he committed 100 per cent to this.
Q:
You presented a BAFTA aware (for Best Film) with Russell just as filming on Les Misérables was about to start. Did
that give you a good clue that you would work well together?
A: Russell and I have always got on well,
but BAFTA was the first time we’ve ever done anything like that. And I remember
being on stage and he was seriously making me laugh, and I thought, ‘this is
really going to work..’ And even though what we’re doing on Les Mis is not
comedic, we felt like a team. And I said that to him, ‘man, this feels like a
good team…’ And he said, ‘absolutely brother.’ And he gave me a hug and said,
‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’ And we were off and running. That was the night before we started filming,
so it was kind of cool. And then we got to work on Les Misérables and that team work continued. Not just with me and
Russ, but everyone – Tom, Anne, Amanda, Eddie, everybody. It was a great team.
Q:
You’ve filmed Les Misérables mostly
in England. Was there a part of you that wished you could have filmed some of
it in Paris too?
A: Yes, a little part of me was
actually hoping to be shooting on the streets of Paris but then again we are
singing live so I’m glad to be in a controlled environment a lot of the time
and that’s what we had with Pinewood. And the sets are unbelievably good. Eve
Stewart has done an extraordinary job. This movie is epic and it’s going to
look fantastic. There were times when I was on set when I had to pinch myself.
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