Hugh Jackman’s X-Men Role Transformed Him So Much That Even His Accent Sounded Different While Filming in His Native Tongue
- Hugh Jackman spent years playing the character of X-Man on the screens, and lot his native accent to some extent in the process.
- During the filming of 2008's Australia, he was told that his American accent had slipped in at some point.
- He revealed the trick that hid dialect coach taught him to keep his American accent in check.
Just like Iron Man is synonymous with Robert Downey Jr., Wolverine is synonymous with Hugh Jackman. Over the years, Jackman has starred in numerous Broadway plays and movies, and some great ones at that. However, none of those have gained him as much fame and adoration as his portrayal of the X-Man.
Judging by the fact that he decided to end his retirement from the character for Deadpool & Wolverine, it goes without saying that he loves portraying Logan just as much as fans love watching Jackman do it.
That said, he has admitted that he had to pay a heavy price to embody the clawed Mutant, and that was transforming his native Australian accent into an American one. So much so, that when he went back to playing an Australian character, he struggled at times to keep the American one at bay.
Hugh Jackman Struggled to Do a Role in His Native Accent After Playing Wolverine for Years
Hugh Jackman made his screen debut with an Australian series named Correlli. It was on the set of this show that he met and fell in love with his now ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness. He went on to star in several other Australian movies and series like Erskineville Kings and Law of the Land.
Jackman had his breakthrough in 2000 with the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men, in which he portrayed Wolverine for the first time. Besides the huge transformation in terms of body structure, he also had to let go of his native accent.
The actor spent so much time playing the character that when he got the chance to play a character that is actually Australian in the 2008 film Australia, he was quite delighted. However, he soon realized that the American accent had taken over his native accent so much that it often slipped out.
In an interview on The Howard Stern Show in 2009, Jackman addressed this, saying:
I did a movie last year called Australia and I was like, ‘Hallelujah this is so bizarre.’ At one point, someone said, ‘Uh mate, that sounded a little bit American.’ I was like, ‘You got to be kidding me.’
Between 2000 and 2008’s Australia, Jackman starred in a variety of films like Kate & Leopold, The Prestige, and Deception. However, all of these made use of his American accent so it seems understandable that he was losing grip of his native tongue during the filming of Australia, in which he starred opposite Nicole Kidman.
Hugh Jackman Revealed the Trick That Helps Him Nail His American Accent
Jackman has been in Hollywood for years now so he probably does not need to work too hard to get his American accent clear. However, that might not have been the case when he first began doing roles that needed him to alter his accent.
Luckily, he had a dialect coach who taught him a trick in the form of a sentence that helped with the alteration process. He told Stern:
He gives me a sentence that I’ll see if I can remember: “How many times have you asked Sam whether or not his daughter has genital disorders or something like that?” I say that in my head every day before every take, and in that sentence is every difference in vowels, consonants, or anything.
Stern also asked Jackman if he ever had to do a re-take of a scene when he was playing Wolverine because he felt that his Australian accent had slipped in. The Les Miserables star admitted that it often happened with words ending with ‘igh’.
Australia is available for buying and renting on Apple TV.
