Yesterday was quite a thrill for me. I got to go out to an AUT campus in South Auckland and interview Hugh Jackman.
Why was the tour announcement at a tertiary institution in South Auckland? Well, it turns out 400 school leavers had performed the famous ‘This Is Me’ song from The Greatest Showman movie and the video of it had gone viral, he’d seen it, and he said it was like a ‘bullet to his heart’. He was so moved by it he asked his publicist to get in touch with the campus.
But here’s the funny thing, it took about 12 goes for them to pick up the call because they thought it was a prank.
Hugh Jackman, the Hugh Jackman, wants to talk to us?
They couldn’t believe it.
But he said it felt like a natural fit to make his show tour announcement on their campus and sing with them.
It was incredibly moving, the choir, Keala Settle was blown away, she couldn’t speak afterwards, there was a stirring haka, there were many of us rubbing our eyes afterwards.
Their voices, them all singing together, there was a lot of love in that room I tell you.
In fact, that’s what struck me most about Hugh Jackman, he’s just so...well, lovely.
He's an absolute charmer - but not in a smarmy way. He’s the real deal.
Authentic, present, mind you he’s big on transcendental meditation, so if anyone’s in touch with their emotions and present, it’s him. He’s extremely genuine. As he said himself, “you can’t fake heart. You can’t fake soul”.
He was moved to tears and quite overwhelmed by the reception he got at that campus, and he talked about how the only thing that matters in life is love and kindness and people. He’s all about the people, not the places.
He's incredible with names, each time someone spoke he'd ask them what their name was then repeat it, then use it again, then thank them at the end...by name. It's a skill or a technique that certainly endears him to people.
For such a polished A-lister, he seems extremely down to earth. He's got a great sense of humour. I say that because he laughed at my jokes.
But he’s a hard worker, he’s dancing his socks off at the moment practising for his tour he said, and for 50 years old, he’s extremely fit.
He puts in long hours, he gets up early like us but while we're yawning and wondering how soon we can get to a cup of tea, he's meditating and stretching.
And he sings every single day.
But what struck me most was how you can be such a big superstar, talented, award-winning, professional and slick, be surrounded by so much Hollywood “fake” and yet still after all these years in showbiz, be the real deal.
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