Wolverine Interviews

Written by Judy Sloane Friday, 01 May 2009 07:32

Interview

"It's fair to say that, by X-Men 3, Wolverine had gone a little soft..." Hugh Jackman

Hugh, was it important to you to get to the very essence of Wolverine’s character in the movie, as well as provide the action fans expect?

HUGH JACKMAN Comic book fans have loved Wolverine, and all the X-Men characters, for more than the action. I think that’s what set it apart from many of the other comic books. In the case of Wolverine, when he appeared, he was a revolution really. He was the first anti-hero. There were not just good guys versus bad guys, but an internal battle of good and bad, going on within the character.

That’s why people relate to them. Yeah, they’re cool and they’ve got claws and can do amazing things with swords and cards, and all that great, fun stuff, but each one of them has a personal battle going on, and that’s why audiences can relate. So, yes, the first priority of this movie is for it to be fun. I want people to come and have a great time. I want them to be entertained. But, what we have an opportunity to deliver is to make them think a little bit and make them feel, and take them on a journey through these characters.

How did you go about reinterpreting Wolverine, and making him different from the character that audiences have come to know?

JACKMAN About every third day, for the rest of your life, you hear a critique about how you played the part, what you should have done differently, and what you can do the next time, if you ever get a shot at it! I knew exactly what fans wanted. It’s fair to say that, by X-Men 3, Wolverine had gone a little soft, and I agree with them.

What fans love about Wolverine is his more uncompromising approach to life. He’s not always a nice guy; he has got edge. He’s an anti-hero. And, there’s also vulnerability in there. There is conflict and battles going on in there. With Gavin [Hood, the film’s director] and the other actors, I had the chance to explore that more. I wanted the film to feel different. Gavin and I talked a lot about the aesthetic and tone of it. It’s a little darker, a little rawer, a little tougher and, hopefully, maybe even a little more human. And, no more black leather suits!

Gavin, how did you overcome the challenge of honouring the traditions of the franchise and adding your own vision?

GAVIN HOOD Coming into a franchise that’s done as well as this franchise has done is a little intimidating. I think I was lucky that this is a prequel and not a sequel because if you’ve never seen any of the other X-Men movies, you can still go to this movie and enjoy it. It seemed to me that there was an opportunity here to do two things. There was the opportunity to deliver the expected spectacle; the action, the energy and all of that wonderful eye-candy, great stuff.

But, also, there was an opportunity to do something that was really character driven and work with, ironically, very human emotion, in what is an otherwise great big, mythic, comic book story.
Really, what I wanted to be sure we did, and Hugh very much wanted this too, was to make sure that people really attached to the character. If you don’t crack that moment behind the [character's] eyes, where those reactions are just not melodramatic or goofy, and they just somehow attack that moment perfectly, all of the special effects in the world aren’t going to save you.

Hugh, this is your fourth time playing this character. Are you still finding out new things about him?

JACKMAN Everything felt new to me. It took me a little while to get over the fact that Halle Berry wasn’t on set, most days! Yes, I’m playing the same character, but I’m filling in approximately 100 years of his life, that had never been explored before and had been unknown to him. So, it was a chance to reveal that.

What Gavin and I talked about was that we didn’t want that shot at the beginning of the movie, where people say, ‘Yeah, that’s Wolverine!’ I wanted to see him evolve. You see him, at the very beginning, as a little kid, very unlike how you would imagine Wolverine to be, as a young boy.. And, to watch him evolve was fantastic. Even though I had played the role three times, and yes it may be my fourth time putting the claws on, [I wanted to] make it feel fresh, new, deeper and, hopefully, more honest.

Ryan, how did you prepare for such a physically demanding role?

RYAN REYNOLDS I’ve actually wanted to play Deadpool for a really long time so, for me, it was a bit of a dream come true. I always thought that he was a character that sort of felt like a cross between Commando and Phantom of the Opera, by way of Caddyshack! I felt like I was ready years ago because I’ve been wanting to play this guy forever. But, it was a lot of sword training and a lot of working out with Hugh, who I remember, on my first day, looked a lot like a guy who was going to make a necklace out of my teeth.

And Liev, how did you prepare for your role as Sabretooth?

LIEV SCHREIBER The first agenda was getting bigger. I made the awful mistake of going online to see what the fans thought [of my casting] and, of course, they said, ‘You need to get bigger’. So, I started working out with Hugh and doing the high-protein diet. Between the two of us, I think we wiped out a whole gene pool of chickens!

What memories are you going to take from the Wolverine set?

JACKMAN Genuinely, for me, it’s a rare experience, as a producer, to be involved so heavily with casting and to feel so attached to a scene you’re about to play with everybody and the actors who are playing the characters. I was so excited to be involved because movies exist on relationships and characters, and to be in every one of these scenes was a great thrill for me. And then, as a personal moment, when we were all together in January, when finally Ryan Reynolds’ schedule had loosened up for us, and we had all flown in to be with him, we were shooting and it was the inauguration and we all stopped to view the inauguration of the President. For me, that was a highlight because, by that point, we felt like family. To be together and to be united again by that moment was pretty amazing.

REYNOLDS I honestly worked probably the longest day of my life on this movie. It’s a huge movie, so there were several units going at once, and I had a day where I was going back and forth, from each unit. It was about a 22-hour day, and there was make-up and all these things, and I had to spin these swords at a million miles an hour around my body and, by about hour 19, I had a couple of extremely close calls with these katana swords. I honestly just about lost my future legacy, a couple of times, and I had to take a little break and pour myself a nice shot of espresso, so I could carry on!

SCHREIBER Early on in the film, we were shooting in New Zealand and it was the first big fight sequence for Hugh and I, which was outside of the bar. And, Hugh and I had rehearsed, day and night. I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure that, physically, I was up to this role. I’m sorry to say this in public, but Hugh and I, being the elder statesmen of this cast, were both rightfully concerned that we wouldn’t be able to pull off the fight that the stunt guys had shown us.

And, I just remember the third night, after shooting until six in the morning, every night, looking over at Hugh and the two of us were just so smashed up by the fight, and desperate to impress our small sons at home. They said, ‘Would you guys like to do one more?’ and I remember looking across at Hugh, praying to myself that he would say, ‘I’m tired. I want to go home and go to bed.’ And, Hugh said, ‘No, I feel great!’

JACKMAN That was the biggest lie of my life.

SCHREIBER And I looked across at him and said, ‘Yeah, I feel great, too.’ They looked at Hugh and said, “One more?,” and Hugh said, “No, I could do two more!,” so I said, “Yeah, I could probably do three or four more!” And that was my sole motivation for the rest of this entire film!