Unlike many Hollywood stars, a Sanskrit inscription isn’t just a style statement for Hugh Jackman. He talks to Bombay Times about the Gita and the Upanishads, Maharishi, meditation — and why the best cricketer need not be the best captain
BOMBAY TIMES (May 19, 2014)

The whole concept of time travel, the way you've played someone who goes back in time in the movie - I was thinking, in 2006, while talking to Oprah, you'd spoken of reading The Supreme Yoga, and, in it, reading about a queen whose husband dies and she travels through time to meet him in another of his lives. So when you play someone like that, philosophically speaking, it's not a new concept for you, is it?
No... I think a lot about time as a concept, as a construct, really. It's good for organising, I suppose, but it's a very limiting thing. It occupies our mind and we forget the infinite, limitless possibilities of the present moment, you know... However, I think that probably, the fun of time travel movies is what fascinates us about them...

But I thought you would see it differently. Unlike an actor who would say, okay, so I'll do this scene and pretend that this is happening, in your mind, the concept of going back or going ahead in time is not an alien or fun concept because of what you read, how you think.
Yeah! I meditate and I've meditated for years and I'm interested in these subjects and metaphysical ideas, and so it's not new to me, it isn't, as an idea. It fascinates me, actually. But it does also for the filmmaker, Bryan (Singer), not just about time travel, I remember him talking, when we began, about mutation. There are lots of stories, you know, about mothers who have lifted a car off a trapped child. There are, in a way, through emotional trauma, lots of examples of incredible human abilities, actually. And who's to stay we've evolved? We arrogantly think we've evolved, that we started as this and we're here - but we don't use 80-90% of our brains. So who's to say what's gonna happen if we do?

Do you put your inputs on the way you personally see things to the filmmakers on topics like this?
Oh yeah, I input all the time. I talk to them... Bryan is a great listener that way, actually, as is the writer. I ad lib all the time, throw different stuff in. And the great thing about doing a movie with Bryan, and the writer Simon Kinberg, is that they have great taste, they know when to use something and when not to. He loves it when you play with things, when you try different things.

The scene I have in X-Men: Days Of Future Past with James (McAvoy) -the young Xavier - when he puts his hands on my brain and goes into my mind, all of that was ad-libbed. He talked to me that morning. He said the script is good, but I think we got to go further. I said, `What do you want to change?' He said, `Everything!' I said, `What do you wanna do?' He said, `I don't know, just ad lib it.' So that whole morning actually was just sort of making it up - and I love him as a filmmaker for that!

Besides Afterlife and time travel, meditation, the Sanksrit inscription on your wedding ring what else are you consuming about India?
Ummm... that's a good question. I studied at the School of Practical Philosophy ...

And you put your son there as well...
Yeah, he was at the school at the primary level... He's at a different school now but he takes it very, very seriously, which is great. The scriptures that we follow are a mixture between the West and the East and would be from Socrates to the Upanishads, to the Bhagvad Gita, to a number of different texts. And the Shankaracharya. I've just been reading the biography of the Maharishi (Mahesh Yogi) and his influence in bringing TM to the West, that's a story which has been amazing. So, I naturally sort of end up flowing towards that Vedic sort of tradition... I find it fits with me and my sensibilities. I used to question so much. I was brought up in a church and I fried my brains questioning, it felt quite limited ­ and as soon as I discovered more about Vedic ideas and philosophies and concepts, it felt right to me, it just felt natural.

There's one point which comes throughout this movie's description. When you were into the initial years of playing Wolverine, you'd said that `the core audience is the teenager who feels different. Weird. Ostracised. Misunderstood. That's what X-Men is all about'. At the press conference, you said, X-Men works for you `because of the vulnerability of the stars'. Donner says, `the characters are flawed in ways which the audience can identify with'. The concept of the flaw, the vulnerability, the weakness is the key point here, as opposed to the strength, which is almost incidental.
Yes.

So I want to understand, in what ways are you flawed?
(Deep breath) Ahhh... I am...to some degree, a people pleaser. So I make decisions to make other people happy which may not be the right thing to do, may not be following a truth. I think I'm slightly - very - excitable about life and things and I end up saying yes to far too many things. I double-book all the time.
It's a difficult thing, balance, measure, is something I really search for in life and that is the toughest thing for me ... How to balance my love for what I do as a job, spending time with my family which I love, and friends, and trying to fit all that in. But I think the first thing which probably comes from some kind of desire for self love or acceptance can drive many many decisions for the wrong reasons, you know...

How much are you part of the core audience for the movie? How much of a misunderstood teenager at heart are you still?
If I look back, I remember feeling very `different'. The time for me which was the hardest was when my mother left. I felt very exposed because everyone was talking about it, you know. I was from a family of five kids and my mother had left. And that was an odd thing, it was normally the father... I remember very vividly wanting to feel `normal'. That feeling of being singled out or being different or talked about or judged is what really is picked up on here, in X-Men. And let's not forget, there are also wonderful political overtones - or undertones - to this. I mean the whole comic book was an allegory between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and so that exists in it as well. And I think it works on an individual, teenage level, it works on a political level... So, yeah... these are great questions by the way. I should come to India more often because I really enjoy the interviews way more, probably because I have a sympatico with how you guys think.

Talking about the political nuances of it, I need to understand something. You've also worked with Daniel Radcliffe, right?
Yeah.

A Superman or a Batman had already been in the public mindspace for decades before they began to be made into movies. With an X-Men or a Harry Potter, what the globe is consuming most eagerly is something that isn't identifiable with any given country, race or ethnicity...
...Yes.

Instead of making a character white or black, you make it blue, and the story then belongs to no body - and can then be sold to everybody. But when something like that is sold to everybody, how does the franchise fight audience fatigue, without a context? A Harry Potter is eight movies, an X Men is seven, and both are rooted nowhere.They are both in their semi-metaphysical, semi-real mindspace.
That's a great question... That's the toughest thing. Not all the X-Men have been successful in achieving this, but right now, I think the movies are better than ever. I think it was great to have Bryan back. I thought in terms of Wolverine's character, we somewhat righted the ship. I have hope that fans and audiences have patience with everyone who made the movies `coz it was always the same intention, but Marvel were the one who started this idea of having a plan, of moving forward, a fifteen-year plan. Nobody knew if the first one would be successful... I mean I was contracted for two movies, so on some level there was a hope. The first one was successful, and then thankfully Bryan came onto the next one and you could feel the continuity. The third one, Bryan left, we had a different filmmaker; it was thought that it wouldn't be disastrous if we played around with the timeline or the characters didn't follow through. I think in the end it turned out to be confusing.

Now, what Bryan has done is not only make it the biggest movie in terms of cast and size and action, but he's somehow, organically, in the story, righted the ship and started off on a fresh, clean slate, and also righted some of the inconsistencies of the storytelling from some of the other movies. And I think it's an amazing achievement, because the franchise looks fresher to me than ever. It feels like a beginning. It's like coming a full circle and it actually gave me goose bumps. The fact that Channing Tatum has come on board actually speaks of how fresh it feels. So how you do it - it's actually a question for Bryan and Simon, but it's unbelievable, what they've done.
 
You've spoken about how your dad driving you to the Centenary Test at Sydney when you were nine was amongst your best childhood memories. How closely do you still follow cricket, and which mutant, you think, would be best at cricket?
Whoa... hmm (silence). Am pretty sure Wolverine would be a bad cricket player - he would not have the patience (laughs)! I do follow it as closely as I can. I just discovered, in the last Ashes series, that on Channel 1007 in America, you can watch all the cricket. So, I have it on quite regularly , and of course, as an Australian, it's been a pretty good series in South Africa, the English series was great, T20 not so great. Of course, now that we're not T20 champions, it's all about Test cricket for me (laughs)! I loved while growing up how some countries would have captains who were not the greatest cricketers, they may actually have been past their prime - I remember Mike Brearly. He was not regarded as the greatest cricketer, but he was regarded as one of the greatest captains of all time. Now, cricket is a mind game. I mean, Tendulkar is who he is, very talented, but I'm most inspired by his mental strength, and how he seems to wear it so easily. So someone like Professor Xavier - so long as he could walk having that mind ability, I'd want him as my captain. Knowing which bowler to bring on, knowing when they're getting tired, oh, he doesn't like the short ball, or, he likes the short ball -all of that, he'd be best!
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At the Singapore premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Shubha Shetty-Saha caught up with Hugh Jackman. Excerpts from the interview…
Shubha Shetty-Saha (MID-DAY; May 19, 2014)

So are you planning to take some gifts for family from Singapore?
I bought these little pots for my wife to keep condiments. Tomorrow is my son’s 14th birthday. So I have been looking to buy something for him. Apart from these small things, I bought a jar of amazing coco jam. Have you tasted kaya toast here? You must. It is soft poached egg on toast with butter and coconut jam, and I know it sounds weird, but it tastes really good.

Is Wolverine any different in this one, compared to his character in the earlier films?
Yeah, he’s a little different in this film, in the sense that he is sort of a mediator here. He is more diplomatic and patient, calm and understanding, which is tough for him. He is a good guy, but he is not a nice guy.
He is the last person in the world to have patience. He is always has this ferocity in him and he means business.

What was it like coming together with the team again, along with director Brian Singer?
You know I woke up at 3.30 this morning and I felt this moment of real gratitude. This film looks fresher than ever; it’s like it is the beginning. I am lucky to have worked with such talented bunch of people for so many years. I have been around long enough to recognise good talent when I see it. It was like a huge reunion for us. I am so impressed with James McAvoy. I watched him do this three-page scene opposite Patrick Stewart, they play the same characters and I was amazed. I find that the younger cast had the same bond that we shared, they laugh together a lot, which is good.

In this film, there are two parallel universes. Was it more of a challenge fitting into both worlds?
I think this future and past thing was more challenging for the writer. The more you look into it, more things unravel and it could become really complicated. Dotting your i’s and crossing the t’s becomes really important. It is like cleaning the slate for some of the X Men movies. It is a very fresh storyline, rather than just a reboot. After seeing this film, I feel fresher, like we have come a full circle. I have too much respect for the character and the audience to do something just for the heck of it.

Your character in this film goes back to the past to change some things. If you could go back into your past, what would you like to change?
Oh, a lot of things. Right now in my life, I am at ease and blessed to have what I have. Yes, I do wish I could go back to my high school days and take things more easily. At that time, everything seemed like the end of the world. When a girl dumped me, I took it so seriously that I thought I am never going to love anyone again. Everything was so important at that time. I remember people telling me not to take things so seriously but everything was end of the world for me. I wish I had a little more fun with my life.

You are said to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. Is it tough to be kind when you are always in the limelight?
Please tell my kids about me being a nice man (laughs). You know I was brought up in a particular manner. If my dad were here, he would ask me to first get the elbows off the table. He taught us to be respectful and polite. You always end up being how you are brought up, even if you try to deviate and rebel. I have never heard my dad say a bad thing to or about anyone and he has always been kind to everyone, including his family. So it is natural for me to be like that. To be anything but like that would take a lot of hard work.
I remember at the beginning of my career, I had this publicist who would tell me to not move my hands too much while talking. I was told that if you want to be a star, keep a mystery about you. I couldn’t do that. I need to be myself. If I spend all my energy being someone else on screen, I can’t possibly do that off screen too.

You are playing the same character for the seventh time. Is there any fear of feeling jaded?
Jaded? No. If I had ever felt that, I would have the courage and also enough respect for the audience to walk away. Just the other day, a friend was dining with me and he told me that he wonders how I have managed to keep the excitement alive. That is probably because I love my job, I love it all the more now. Now that I am a little more confident, I try and challenge myself. I want things to be a little uncomfortable. It is not easy to be there and host an Oscar show, one slip and you could fall on your face and ruin your entire career. That’s when it becomes exciting.