1995–1999: Early career in theatre On the night of his final Academy graduation performance, Jackman received a phone call offering him a role on
Correlli: "I was technically unemployed for thirteen seconds."
Correlli, devised by Australian actress
Denise Roberts, was a 10-part drama series on ABC, Jackman's first major professional job, and where he met his future wife
Deborra-Lee Furness. Jackman stated that "Meeting my wife was the greatest thing to come out of it." Co-starring
Patrick Stewart,
James Marsden,
Famke Janssen and
Ian McKellen, the film tells the story of a group of
mutants, whose
superhuman powers make them distrusted by normal humans, but who fight to protect humans from villains. The role was originally written for
Russell Crowe who instead suggested Jackman for the part. Jackman says that his wife advised him against taking on the role, as she found it "ridiculous". He initially studied wolves to develop his character, as he thought that Wolverine alluded to wolves.
X-Men was successful at the box-office, earning US$296 million. The role earned him a
Saturn Award for Best Actor. Wolverine was tough for Jackman to portray because he had few lines, but much emotion to convey in them. To prepare, he watched
Clint Eastwood in the
Dirty Harry movies and
Mel Gibson in
Mad Max 2. "There were guys who had relatively little dialogue, like Wolverine had, but you knew and felt everything. I'm not normally one to copy, but I wanted to see how these guys achieved it." Jackman was adamant about doing his own stunts for the movie. "We worked a lot on the movement style of Wolverine, and I studied some martial arts. I watched a lot of
Mike Tyson fights, especially his early fights. There's something about his style, the animal rage, that seemed right for Wolverine. I kept saying to the writers, 'Don't give me long, choreographed fights for the sake of it. Don't make the fights pretty." Jackman also had to get used to wearing Wolverine's claws. He said, "Every day in my living room, I'd just walk around with those claws, to get used to them. I've got scars on one leg, punctures straight through the cheek, on my forehead. I'm a bit clumsy. I'm lucky I didn't tell them that when I auditioned." Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 136 kg (300 lb). Jackman reprised his role in 2003's
X2, 2006's
X-Men: The Last Stand, and the 2009 prequel
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where
Troye Sivan played the younger version of
James Howlett. He also
cameoed as Wolverine in 2011's
X-Men: First Class. He returned for the role of Wolverine again in 2013's
The Wolverine, a stand-alone sequel taking place after the events of
X-Men: The Last Stand, and reprised the character in the 2014 sequel
X-Men: Days of Future Past and briefly in the 2016 follow-up
X-Men: Apocalypse. In 2015, Jackman announced that the 2017 sequel to
The Wolverine,
Logan, was the final time that he would play the role. It earned him the
Guinness World Record of "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero", although this record has since been surpassed. Jackman starred as Leopold in the 2001 romantic comedy film
Kate & Leopold, a role for which he received a Best Actor
Golden Globe nomination. Alongside
Christian Bale,
Michael Caine, and
Scarlett Johansson, Jackman starred in
The Prestige (2006), a mystery thriller from
Christopher Nolan. Jackman portrayed Robert Angier, an
aristocratic magician who builds up a rivalry with contemporary Alfred Borden (Bale) in an attempt to one-up each other in the art of deception. After reading the script, Jackman expressed interest in starring in the film, and Nolan believed that the actor had the qualities of the character. Jackman based his portrayal of Angier on 1950s-era American magician
Channing Pollock.
The Prestige was acclaimed and a box-office success. Jackman portrayed three different characters in
Darren Aronofsky's science-fiction film
The Fountain: Tommy Creo, a
neuroscientist, who is torn between his wife, Izzi (
Rachel Weisz), who is dying of a
brain tumor, and his work at trying to cure her; Captain Tomas Creo, a Spanish
conquistador in 1532
Seville; and a future astronaut, Tom, travelling to a golden nebula in an eco-spacecraft seeking to be reunited with Izzi. Jackman said
The Fountain was his most difficult film thus far due to the physical and emotional demands of the part. Jackman also starred in
Woody Allen's 2006 film
Scoop opposite
Scarlett Johansson. That year he also reprised the role of Wolverine in
X-Men: The Last Stand. He rounded out 2006 with two animated films:
Happy Feet, directed by
George Miller, in which he voiced the part of Memphis, an
emperor penguin (singing "Heartbreak Hotel"); and
Flushed Away, where Jackman supplied the voice of a rat named Roddy who ends up being flushed down a family's toilet into the London sewer system (Jackman's fourth film co-starring with
Ian McKellen). In 2007, Jackman produced and guest-starred in the television
musical-
dramedy series
Viva Laughlin, which was cancelled by
CBS after two episodes. In 2007, Jackman became the
patron of the
Actors Centre Australia where he studied, and remains so.
2008–2011: Return to Broadway '' in September 2011 In 2008, director
Baz Luhrmann cast Jackman to replace
Russell Crowe as the male lead in his much-publicised
epic film,
Australia, which co-starred
Nicole Kidman. The movie was released in late November 2008 in Australia and the U.S. Jackman played a tough, independent cattle
drover, who reluctantly helps an English noblewoman in her quest to save both her philandering husband's Australian
cattle station and the
mixed race Aboriginal child she finds there. Of the movie, Jackman said, "This is pretty much one of those roles that had me pinching myself all the way through the shoot. I got to shoot a big-budget, shamelessly old-fashioned romantic epic set against one of the most turbulent times in my native country's history, while, at the same time, celebrating that country's natural beauty, its people, its cultures... I'll die a happy man knowing I've got this film on my
CV." That year,
People Magazine named Jackman its 2008 "
Sexiest Man Alive". Jackman co-starred with
Daniel Craig on Broadway at the
Schoenfeld Theatre in a limited engagement of the play
A Steady Rain, which ran from 10 September 2009, to 6 December 2009. Jackman had a one-man show at the
Curran Theatre in San Francisco from 3–15 May 2011. The production was a mixture of his favourite Broadway and Hollywood musical numbers, backed by a 17-piece orchestra, from shows including
Oklahoma! and
The Boy from Oz. The show had a run-time of approximately 100 minutes, and also included slide shows of Jackman's youth, family, and work, as well as some one-on-one interaction with the audience. Jackman was backed by fellow musical theatre veterans
Merle Dandridge and
Angel Reda. He later returned to Broadway in a new show,
Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway at the
Broadhurst Theatre, which began performances on 25 October 2011 and concluded on 1 January 2012.
2012–2018: Awards success, retiring Wolverine and film musicals In a November 2012 release, Jackman voiced the role of E.Aster Bunnymund (the
Easter Bunny) in the animated film
Rise of the Guardians, while his image was licensed to represent the
Skulduggery Pleasant character Saracen Rue in the
spin-off novel
Tanith Low in... The Maleficent Seven, published December 2012. Jackman starred as
Jean Valjean in
Tom Hooper's
Les Misérables, an adaptation of the
musical. The film opened on 25 December 2012. For the role, he lost 15 pounds and later had to regain 30 pounds to mirror his character's newfound success. He won the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in January 2013 for this performance and received his first
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actor. Jackman appeared alongside
Kate Winslet in
Movie 43, an ensemble comedy, in January 2013. Jackman (along with actress
Kristen Wiig) was featured on "You've Got the Look", a song by
comedy hip hop group
The Lonely Island on their third album,
The Wack Album, released in June 2013. Jackman returned to Broadway in the new play,
The River, which ran at the
Circle in the Square Theatre from October 2014 to February 2015. '' In November and December 2015, Jackman made a national tour of Australia with his show
Broadway to Oz. He performed a range of songs from Broadway musicals, from
Les Misérables to a
Peter Allen tribute (including classics such as "
I Still Call Australia Home"), with his 150-piece orchestra, choir, and backup dancers. The show began at Melbourne's
Rod Laver Arena and proceeded to
Qantas Credit Union Arena,
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and the
Perth Arena. Jackman then portrayed the villain
Blackbeard in the film
Pan, which revolved around the backstories of
J. M. Barrie's characters
Peter Pan and
Captain Hook. The movie received generally negative reviews and was a failure at the box office. In 2016, Jackman played fictional ski coach, Bronson Peary, in
Eddie the Eagle, which portrayed how
Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards became the first competitor to represent
Great Britain in
Olympic ski jumping in 1988. Jackman had an uncredited cameo as Wolverine in the 2016 film
X-Men: Apocalypse. In 2017, he reprised the character for what was intended to be the final time in the third Wolverine film,
Logan. Jackman's performance and the film were critically acclaimed and it is regarded as one of the
greatest superhero films of all-time. For his 17-year spanning long performance as Wolverine, Jackman topped
The Hollywood Reporter's Greatest Superhero Movie Performances of All Time list. That year, he also starred as
P. T. Barnum in the musical
The Greatest Showman. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination for the film, his third Golden Globe nomination, and also received a
Grammy Award for
Best Soundtrack Album. In 2018, he starred as American senator
Gary Hart in
Jason Reitman's political drama film
The Front Runner, which chronicled the rise of Hart as a Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, and his subsequent fall from grace when media reports surfaced of his extramarital affair. In 2019, he voiced the character Sir Lionel Frost in the animated film
Missing Link.
2019–present: Concert tour, The Music Man and reprising Wolverine In 2019, Jackman went on his first world tour called
The Man. The Music. The Show. to perform songs from the album,
The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Broadway/Hollywood musical numbers. Comprising 88 shows, the tour visits North America, Europe, and Oceania. It began in May 2019, in Glasgow, Scotland and concluded in October 2019, in San Antonio, United States. In the
2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Jackman was appointed a
Companion of the Order of Australia for "eminent service to the performing arts as an acclaimed actor and performer, and to the global community, particularly as an advocate for poverty eradication." tour Jackman starred in the comedy drama
Bad Education (2019), opposite
Allison Janney. Jackman and
Laura Dern starred in
Florian Zeller's film
The Son, adapted from Zeller's own play
of the same name. He returned to Broadway in a revival of
The Music Man, playing Harold Hill, which began previews in December 2021 and played from February 2022 to January 2023. For his performance, Jackman received his second nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. The revival received mixed reviews but was a success at the box office. Jackman reprised his role as Wolverine, in
Deadpool & Wolverine, starring
Ryan Reynolds, set in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was released on July 26, 2024. About training to reprise his Wolverine role, Jackman said "I was thrilled. My body was a little sore at the beginning, but I was thrilled that my body was still responding. And I realized how good it is for your brain. But the hardest bit – the food. I have to eat a lot. For me, for my body type, I'm naturally skinny. To get the size on, that's the hardest bit. That's the bit that does my head in." From April to June 2025, Jackman starred in and produced
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes performing as Jon at the
Minetta Lane Theatre,
Off-Broadway. From March to April 2026, he is set to reprise the role at the same venue ==Other ventures==