by Hugh Jackman burst onto the Hollywood scene in 2000 playing the iconic character of Wolverine in the first X-Men movie adaptation. While the film was a box office smash, no one could have predicted the staggering levels of big-screen success that lay ahead for the Australian actor. From high-octane action blockbusters to heart-wrenching dramas and movie musicals, Jackman has shown an unparalleled versatility that has made him one of the most bankable and respected talents in the industry today.
However, what makes the Jackman story so unique is his willingness to diverge from the traditional path to mainstream movie superstardom. While many actors play it safe once they achieve a certain level of fame and fortune, Jackman has consistently demonstrated an audacious creative spirit, tackling roles that challenge him as an artist and often defy audience expectations. In examining key films from the actor’s eclectic resume, it’s clear Hugh Jackman beats to the rhythm of his own drum.
The Action Hero Departs His Comfort Zone
After bringing Wolverine to life with a gravity-defying, razor-sharp intensity in three wildly successful X-Men movies from 2000-2006, Hugh Jackman had officially cemented his status as a bankable action star. However, rather than remain in his comfort zone portraying rugged, muscular characters, Jackman then made an unforeseen detour into profoundly dramatic territory.
He dropped 30 pounds to play an emaciated prisoner in the bleak 2006 film The Fountain opposite Rachel Weisz in a mystical rumination on love and mortality. The avant-garde movie confounded mainstream audiences but The Fountain showcased Jackman’s willingness to depart from the expected. The following year in the complex, thought-provoking drama The Prestige, the actor displayed crackling chemistry with Christian Bale as the two played rival magicians engaged in a dangerous game of one-upmanship. Audiences were spellbound witnessing Jackman’s character, Robert Angier, transform from a charismatic showman into an obsessive, tragic figure. The prestige roles earned rave reviews for Hugh’s against-type performances even if the small independent films failed to earn major profits.
After the critical praise but mixed commercial reception for his back-to-back departures into dramatic territory, Jackman then made his way back onto the mainstream movie radar in 2009, starring as the reluctant hero in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The gritty backstory chapter chronicling Logan’s violent past quickly re-cemented Jackman’s blockbuster credentials, earning over $375 worldwide.
Soon after though, Hugh was ready again to shock audiences with his versatility, this time displaying song-and-dance talents to tackle the lead role in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the hit musical Les Miserables. Images of a gaunt, despair-ridden Jackman hitting extraordinarily high notes as prisoner-turned-hero Jean Valjean made for one of the more memorable movie moments of 2012. Though no one doubted his commanding screen presence, the movie industry watched in awe as Hugh Jackman belted his heart out, anchoring the emotional epic on his staggeringly talented shoulders on route to winning the coveted Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy as well as his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
The Boundary Breaking Continues
Rather than play it safe in prestige pictures following his Les Miserables triumph, Hugh Jackman made another surprise detour in 2013 into the dark, gritty crime-drama Prisoners opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. Portraying a father pushed to the edge of sanity and morality after his daughter is kidnapped, Jackman once again astonished viewers with an intensely committed performance completely divergent from his musical Theatre on screen one year prior.
Hugh followed up this dramatically intense role by inhabitating Blackbeard, the infamous pirate villain in the special effects driven adventure Pan. Though the Peter Pan origins film received mixed reviews and underwhelmed at the box office, Jackman relished playing against type as the rum-guzzling, tyrannical pirate king.
Never one to rest on past achievements, Hugh Jackman memorably reinvented himself yet again the very next year, earning his first ever Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his authentic portrayal of a broken-down country music star in the remake A Star is Born opposite pop diva Lady Gaga. The romantic drama allowed Jackman to bring together all his skills – eliciting incredible pathos while showing off impressive vocals that anchor the tragic love story.
Most recently, Jackman memorably portrayed another historical showman in 2017’s The Greatest Showman – dazzling audiences by headlining the song-and-dance musical inspired by circus pioneer P.T. Barnum’s story. Jackman leaps across the screen with infectious enthusiasm that turned the film into a sleeper smash. Once again, Jackman broke the mold of what anyone expected him to do following his heart-rending Oscar-nominated A Star is Born performance just one year prior.
No Other Star So Boldly Diverges
As this retrospective shows, no modern male star with Hugh Jackman’s level of mainstream success has been so willing to make such bold departures, tackling roles that require major transformations and such vulnerability. And the divergences keep on coming. In 2023, Jackman is set to reprise his career-making character of Wolverine after a six year hiatus from the role – but with an audacious twist. The gritty, R-rated action film Logan helped redefine the superhero genre with its intensely violent, western-inspired tone that felt more like an intense character drama than a standard men-in-tights blockbuster epic.
Now at 54 years old, Hugh Jackman has signed on for Deadpool 3 opposite Ryan Reynolds’ motor-mouthed anti-hero Deadpool. Little is known about the plot details, but the prospect of seeing an older, world-weary Wolverine paired up with the irreverent, fourth-wall breaking Deadpool has fans salivating at the possibilities. Only an actor as daring as Hugh Jackman would revisit his most iconic role at an age when most action stars would have long ago hung up their claws —and pair his beloved character up with an R-rated meta joke machine like Deadpool to boot. It’s shaping up to be one of the most unexpected and buzzed about superhero movie team ups ever.
Hugh Jackman has made a career out of surpassing expectations and redefining what it means to be a male movie superstar. Other A-listers stick to safe bets once they achieve his level of big-screen success. Yet from independent dramas to movie musicals and prestige pictures, Jackman continuously challenges himself in roles that allow him to transform himself radically, both physically and emotionally. It takes guts and audacity to so consistently diverge from the expected path. And that brave willingness to break the mold of traditional stardom is what makes Hugh Jackman such an explosive, mold-breaking Hollywood anomaly worthy of celebration.
