Hugh Jackmanused razor-sharp claws inThe Wolverineand will wield a sword as the pirate Blackbeard in his upcoming filmPan.But during his new Broadway play he’ll use a knife for a smellier task: gutting a fish.
He’ll do it every night on stage as he stars as a recluse and fisherman in British playwright Jez Butterworth’sThe River, which opens November 16.
In one of the drama’s more unique scenes “one of the characters catches a fish, a sea trout. and it is brought on stage and one of the girls says ‘What are we going to do with it?'” Jackman told the crowd at a TimesTalk event, held at New School in Manhattan on Tuesday. “And I say, ‘Well, we’re going to cook it. We’re going to eat it.’ We literally gut it, clean it.”
Ever the professional actor, Jackman is betting that even with the yuck factor, it’ll be a hit. “Don’t worry. I’m going to make you love gutting fish,” he said.
While some would not attack the scene with such vigor, the four-time Tony Awards host shared that he immersed himself in the knife work and he thinks he’s got it down.
“Most days it goes well. Most days. We might have a Julia Child moment, oh dear!” Jackman joked as he explained the details of his culinary preparation. “I had a couple of chefs sort of come around and teach me.”
At home, his family had to indulge his rehearsals as he worked to make his performance look credible. And, after awhile, things got truly fishy, Jackman noted.
“So there was lot of fish cooked at my house, kind of disgusting, a lot of fish guts,” he said. “But yeah, we still have frozen fish cakes. Trust me, if you go to my house, it’s fish fish fish.”
Jackman says he enjoys cooking — “I should be better” — and lauds his wife Deborra-Lee Furness as an excellent cook. His best meal isbreakfast, but he says more often than not, he’s the spouse doing the eating.
“We had a deal when we first got together that whoever wasn’t working does the cooking, so yeah,” Jackman revealed. “She said I rigged that slightly. I’m working all the time.”
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source: people.com
