Making Les Mis? It was sheer misery! Hugh Jackman starved himself of food AND water for his most gruelling role ever

By James Peachey

PUBLISHED: 20:48 EST, 3 January 2013 | UPDATED: 03:14 EST, 4 January 2013

Hugh Jackman is part-way through a gruelling, 12-hour working day on the film Les Miserables, which comes hard on the heels of an equally gruelling three-hour stint in the gym that began shortly after dawn.

He has barely eaten for 36 hours and hasn’t drunk anything, not even water, during this period.

Little wonder that the normally bright-eyed and smiling Australian, star of films Wolverine, Real Steel and Van Helsing and an accomplished musical theatre actor, looks gaunt, with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes.

Brutal: This shocking image shows the results of Hugh Jackman's gruelling regime to get him into the right shape for Les Miserables

Hugh Jackman, pictured left as Jean Valjean in a scene from Les Miserables and right being interviewed in December about the movie, have to starve himself of food and water to play the role

Hugh later apologises to those around him for his grumpiness but feels wholly justified the following morning when he sees the unedited version of the scene he was shooting the previous day.

‘I realised the sacrifices had been worth it, that the headaches, dizziness — and the grumpiness — had been a relatively small price to pay,’ says Hugh, who is cast as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, the £38 million film version of one of the most successful stage musicals of all time.

‘The scene is near the start of the film, when Valjean is about to be released from prison on parole after serving 19 years of hard labour, during which time he has often been close to starvation.

‘So of course I had to look gaunt. The director Tom Hooper [who won an Oscar for The King’s Speech] said I had to look so strikingly thin, in fact, so different from the way I normally look, that my friends would think I was ill.

‘And I guess I achieved that although there were times when I thought I had maybe pushed my body too far.

Dramatic: Hugh Jackman pictured with Anne Hathaway who Fantine, a poor mother driven to prostitution, in a scene of the film

‘I’d already shed 20 pounds, through exercise and a very lean diet, before I embarked on that 36-hour period in which I drank nothing and ate very little and I knew I was pushing myself and my body to the limit.

‘But the non-consumption of liquids is a very clever bodybuilders’ trick for giving one sunken cheeks and sunken eyes and, boy, did it work. Maybe just a little too well…’

But there is more to his grim self-discipline and denial than a simple desire to look convincing in the lead role of a film which is expected to capture a host of Oscar nominations.

His performance is both a tribute and a thank you to his father Chris, who brought him up after his mother walked out of the family home in Australia when Hugh was just eight years old. Both parents are English-born, but settled in Australia, where Jackman was born.

When the marriage broke up, Hugh’s mother, Grace, returned to England with his two sisters, leaving Chris, a Cambridge-trained accountant, to bring up him and his two brothers.

Hugh says: ‘I remember the day Mum left. I was going to school in the morning, and she must have just washed her hair, because she was wearing a towel round her head. There was just something about the way she said goodbye . . .

‘When I came home, she had gone. There was no one in the house. The next day a telegram came from England. Mum was back there. And that was it.’      

All star cast: Isabelle Allen pictured as a young Cosette being carried in the arms of Hugh Jackman playing Jean Valjean in Les Miserables

Hugh, 44, who was in London for the premiere of the film, which also stars Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway and has been co-produced by Cameron Mackintosh, says he owes so much to his father.

‘Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Without him, I wouldn’t have had an inspiration for my role in Les Miserables. Dad underwent the same kind of life-changing experience that my character undergoes in the film.

‘Valjean steals religious artefacts from a bishop, is caught by the police but then —in an act of supreme kindness — is allowed to keep the artefacts and sell them, when the bishop denies the theft after the police capture Valjean and prepare to put him back in jail. The incident transforms his life, he becomes a respected town mayor.

‘Dad was converted by the Christian evangelist Dr Billy Graham when he was 30 years old, and underwent a life-changing epiphany, too.

‘I thought about that constantly when I was playing Valjean, I tried to inject as much of Dad’s goodness, and change of life, into the character I was playing.

‘I would recall conversations Dad and I had about his religious beliefs. He was an accountant at Price Waterhouse and I used to ask him whether his religion ever impacted on his work, whether it was ever an issue, or a subject for discussion.

Pushing himself to the limit: Hugh Jackman said the pain of his regime for the role was a small price to pay for the end result

‘He said it wasn’t, because religion, in his mind, was about deed rather than word. He said that talking about religion meant nothing, that practising religion through one’s actions meant everything.

‘And he was wholly sincere. He lived —and lives — his life through a firm foundation of principle and he is both my inspiration and my hero.’

As a child growing up in Australia, Hugh would watch the Oscar ceremonies with his father, not only for the film stars on the red carpet but for the accountants who would walk out on stage and deliver the names of the winners in tightly sealed envelopes to whoever was presenting the awards.

‘They were from Dad’s company, so he and I felt a distant link to the grand, Los Angeles ceremony,’ says Hugh. ‘As a boy growing up in the northern suburbs of Sydney, I thought it was as close as I was ever going to get to the Oscars.’

At the very least, Hugh will surely get to attend this year’s ceremony as an award nominee. Daniel Day-Lewis may be hot favourite to scoop the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lincoln, but the Australian is a shoo-in for a nomination in the same category.

He dominates the screen in a film which is hardly short on significant co-stars. There’s Russell Crowe as Javert, the ruthless policeman who spends his life hunting Valjean after he skips his parole.

Anne Hathaway appears as the tragic, malnourished prostitute Fantine, whose daughter Cosette is adopted by a guilt-ridden Valjean after her mother dies. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter appear as evil innkeeper Thenardier and his wife.

Not even the lavish sets, 4,500 costumes and the exotic locations — Gourdon in the south of France; Boughton House in Northamptonshire, and London’s Old Royal Naval College — can distract from Hugh’s performance.

Director Tom Hooper describes it as a ‘tour de force’ and pretty much everything about his involvement in the production — from his initial attempts to land a part in it through to his commitment to the project once it was being filmed — smacks of utter devotion.

‘I admit I made a bit of a nuisance of myself when I first heard the film was being made,’ grins Hugh. ‘I was a huge fan of the stage version of Les Miserables, but I didn’t think a film would ever get off the ground.

‘When I heard it was happening, I rang Tom and told him I needed a meeting with him — urgently!

‘I met him, demanded an audition and pushed him so hard for a part — harder than I had ever pushed for a part before — that I was lucky he didn’t call for security and have me slung out on my ear.

Co-stars: Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Hugh Jackman at the World Premiere of Les Miserables at the Odeon in Leicester Square

‘In my enthusiasm to land a role, I didn’t even realise that the poor guy hadn’t signed to the film himself at this point! So I backtracked a little and we went from there. A three-hour singing audition later — one of the most gruelling but exhilarating experiences of my life — and the role of Valjean was mine.’

Les Miserables is almost entirely set to music and the songs are sung live, rather than mimed.

This, says Hugh, plus the challenge of having to sing while performing tough physical tasks as his beleaguered, hard-working character, made Les Mis the most demanding role of his career.

‘What a lot of people don’t realise is that singing is very physically demanding anyway. I’ve done a lot of action films and people assume musicals are easy to do by comparison — which they are not!

‘And this particular part, in this particular musical, was both emotionally and vocally challenging, often at one and the same time, with the attendant discomfort vital in displaying the character’s unhappiness.

‘Cameron Mackintosh talked about the need to put yourself into a position of discomfort — not always to sing in the key that you find most comfortable, for example — so you have something to work against if you are searching for emotional angst, which I was, and he was spot on.

Hugh Jackman, left, with his co-star Russell Crowe as the Australian premiere of Les Miserables in Sydney

‘I knew I had to go to extremes in my preparation and prove I could multi-task. When I went to the gym, I would sing loudly as I chalked up high-speed miles on the running machine or as I bench-pressed. The people around me probably thought I was crazy, but I felt I had to do it. You’re pushing, you’re pulling, you are lifting, you are carrying and you are singing at the same time.

‘The last thing I wanted to do, when I came to the film, was give the impression that any part of what my character was doing was not being competently undertaken.

‘Looking stupid in the gym was a small price to pay for that conviction. If you’re an actor, you sign up to make a fool of yourself on a regular basis anyway.’

Key to helping Hugh through the production was his great friend Russell Crowe. Jackman has held a place in his heart for the gruff New Zealander ever since Crowe turned down the lead role in the action film Wolverine and recommended him for the part instead.

‘He suggested me to the director, something for which I will always be grateful, and he has been a mentor to me for years.

‘I’ve rung Russell on many occasions for advice and to work with him on Les Miserables was a dream come true. There’s an old adage about great actors making other actors look good and Russell does just that!

‘He would have soirees at his home on a Friday evening, throughout filming, for cast and crew and the guitars would come out, we’d relax and have fun.

‘He was very much the cheerleader of the production, the guy who kept our spirits up when we were cold, hungry and tired.

‘On day one of rehearsals, he came into the room, grinned and said: “This is what you wait for, this buzz in the air, the really special project that doesn’t come along very often.” ’ Russell Crowe would doubtless feature in Hugh’s Oscar-winning acceptance speech, should he be fortunate enough to triumph.

Not that Hugh — so open on so many subjects — is prepared to speculate on winning his first ever Oscar.

‘It’s something to dream about, but not to talk about in public! I just hope that people love watching the film as much as I enjoyed making it.’

Should Hugh win on Oscar night, expect mentions of his wife of 16 years, Deborra-Lee Furness, and their children, Oscar Maximillian, 12, and Ava Eliot, seven.

However, central to any list of ‘thank yous’ would be that unassuming, English-born accountant from Sydney who did so much for Hugh during the early years of his life and continues to be an influence.

‘I simply couldn’t have played Jean Valjean without my dad,’ says Hugh.

‘He was everything to me when I was growing up and now — appropriately — he is integral to my working life, too. I love him and I say thank you to him from the very bottom of my heart.’

• Les Miserables opens on January 11.