(X3's Hugh Jackman reveals the muscle-and-mind tricks that transform him into Wolverine)
The most amazing physical feat I've ever seen was performed not by an elite athlete, but by Hugh Jackman, who becomes Wolverine once again this month in X-Men: The Last Stand. This miracle of physicality wasn't as eye popping as, say, Bo Jackson running up a center-field wall and then rocketing the ball to the catcher. (You remember that one?) But for sheer intensity, Jackman matched Jackson on this one.
Film director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has invited me into the editing room to see footage from his upcoming film, The Fountain, which stars Jackman. For a pivotal scene, our hero -- shaved bald -- hovers in outer space, surrounded by a transparent bubble. He's in full lotus position, then spins upside down, stretches out into a traditional Superman flying pose, and floats away. A standard Hollywood effects shot. What's the big deal, right?
Then Aronofsky shows me the raw footage with no effects added. There's Jackman in full lotus again -- this time submerged in a water tank and held in place by the equivalent of a barbecue spit. A pole with a scuba regulator gives him some air, and the take begins. The spit, attached to a harness around his torso, turns him upside down in the water, and then he flattens out into the flying pose. It's a languidly paced scene. That's when you realize how intense it is. Just try pretzeling your legs into a lotus in your living room, let alone underwater, then holding the pose, along with your breath, while performing slow acrobatics.
"What take was that again?" Aronofsky asks the man working the video monitors.
"Nineteen," the guy replies.
Aronofsky grins at me and shakes his head. "We had Hugh in that tank for 3 days. He never complained once."
Jackman, 37, isn't known as an elite athlete. He's just an actor. He's done some physical scenes playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies, some running around in period garb in Van Helsing. But if you do a little research -- talk to a guy like Aronofsky, for instance, or chat with Jackman himself about what he's done to prepare for all these roles -- the "just an actor" label starts to stretch and split open like the Hulk's purple pants.
At 6'3", Jackman's an imposing presence, and he backs up that looming quality with muscle power: He benched 315 pounds and leg-pressed 1,000 prepping for X-Men: The Last Stand. ("But I pretty much shat myself" on the latter, he says with a belly laugh.) He perfected key tai chi forms and groin-shredding yoga positions for The Fountain. He does almost all his own stunts.
And yes, fellas, he does have a secret behind his physical achievements: brainpower. He's always searching for the tipping point between what the mind wants and what the body can achieve. "I don't set goals in life," he says. "In this country, people are all about goal setting. And I concede, to a point, how it can help you get going. But we limit ourselves with goals. We have far more ability than we give ourselves credit for. You see that in people under pressure. How does someone run a 100-meter race at the Olympics? When it's once every 4 years, with everything they've done leading to that? It can't just be adrenaline." Then he nods and smiles. "Maybe it's just the mind getting out of the way."
There's no better laboratory demonstration of this hypothesis than the psyops that go into Jackman's Wolverine weight-lifting program. "For Wolverine, I ramp it up," he says. "I do an hour and a half a day in the gym and eat a thousand calories more a day than I would normally. And I train really hard. I crank up the Godsmack and Metallica. I yell and scream, which helps me get into the character and have a bitch of a workout."
The workout itself is not groundbreaking. Lots of heavy iron: bench-press variations, barbell lunges, light squats, and leg presses, among other staples. "I'd change it up every 3 weeks," he says. "Three weeks heavy with lots of rest between sets. Then change to lighter weight, slower reps, four count up, four count down. Then mix in fast, explosive lifting, always changing the workout."
The mental approach, however, remained constantly vicious and very Wolverine -- and that ability to shove the mind out of the way is what allowed Jackman to do what he'd never done before: bench a six-plate barbell. "When I have 315 pounds above me, there's that little breaking point," he says. "You either get really pissed off at that weight, or you ask for help from your spotter. It's that exact point -- and every guy reading this article will recognize it -- when Wolverine gets not just pissed off, but insanely pissed off. I try to reach that point every day in my workout. And then push through it."
That approach applies to any of Jackman's physical quests, as does a strong shot of tenacity; that is, If I can't do it today, well, then I'll go again tomorrow. Some men fail in this area. Are you willing to chase a physical challenge for a year? For The Fountain, it took Jackman 9 months of daily yoga to achieve the lotus position, and another 3 months to be able to hold it long enough for those underwater takes. Why not just hire a body double? Aronofsky certainly offered. Jackman just shakes his head no. "I always take things like the lotus scenario as 'All right, let's see if you can do this.' "
That's Jackman's primary driver: Instead of setting goals, seek defining moments. Those are the real tests, because you have to be willing to fail in a pressure situation in front of other people. "That fear holds all of us back," Jackman says. "And that's the toughest thing about aging. With age, you see people fail more. You see yourself fail more. How do you keep that fearlessness of a kid? You keep going." Then he smiles. "Luckily, I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself."
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