On November 25—one year after The Greatest Showman and on the tails of his new movie The Front Runner—Tony winner and Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman sat down on Sunday Today With Willie Geist.
The original movie musical Jackman championed in Hollywood, which features a score by Broadway power-duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, made $400 million at the box office and continues to top the iTunes charts in its original album form and with its Reimagined album.
“I get stopped by a lot of people for Wolverine, but all of a sudden I was getting young kids and their parents stopping me about Showman and also my mates in Australia [saying] ‘This is the best movie. Everything else—terrible. But this...‘
“It has been beyond any expectation I had,” he added. “I took inspiration from Barnum and I used to constantly say to myself and the team, ‘We have to believe in this fully. Believe we're making a movie that speaks to everybody and music they're going to love to sing.’”
Jackman recalled the very first time he sang onstage: in the musical Camelot at the age of six. Through tracking his career, his relationship with his wife Deborra-lee Furness, and his other great roles—including in the film version of Les Misérables, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
“It’s one of the great parts ever written, and I was very nervous to play it. I almost pulled out at one point. I had a feeling I was like, ‘I don’t think I can live up to this,’” he said. “I remember confessing this to my wife, and she said, ‘Good. If you don't have that sense of doubt or humility about playing the role then you're not the right person to play Jean Valjean.’”
Watch the full interview above ,and hear more from Jackman on finding his voice in the video below.