Wolverine was Hugh Jackman’s breakthrough role. His experience came in handy in other roles. The anger of a Wolverine can also be felt by other characters
Hugh Jackman feels so connected to Wolverine that he stepped back in front of the camera as the mutant for Deadpool & Wolverine. In his final appearance, the Australian said a very dignified farewell to the comic book character. Of course, the actor has much more to offer than the constantly angry Wolverine. However, it is hard to avoid the fact that Hugh Jackman also strengthens the character in other roles
Hugh Jackman let the Wolverine loose in Prisoners – and shook Paul Dano to the core
In Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Prisoners, Hugh Jackman plays a father searching for his missing daughter and her girlfriend. He is supported by Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki. The latter finds a suspicious car and its driver. The suspect, played by Paul Dano, is soon released for lack of evidence.
Here’s another trailer for Prisoners:
Jackman later confronts the suspect and doesn’t hold back with violence. He beats and tortures the man he believes to be his daughter’s kidnapper. In this scene, Jackman’s role should become increasingly angry. However, director Denis Villeneuve was initially unimpressed by Jackman’s performance. So he had the actor shoot the scene again and again.
In an interview with Sirius XM, Hugh Jackman spoke about the scene. According to him, they shot for three hours and by the end Dano was completely exhausted. But Villeneuve came to him and said he wanted more:
We had done this take and I was like, ‘Yeah, we did it, that’s it.’ And I remember Denis came over and [he said], ‘I need to talk to you… you need to go further’ I said, ‘That wasn’t there?’ He said, ‘No, that wasn’t there […] You really need to go further.’
They then shot another take, which was also used for the movie. This scene was completely improvised by Hugh Jackman and really scared Paul Dano.
Hugh Jackman grabbed a hammer and at the climax of the scene, he smashed it into the wall right next to Paul Dano’s head. The young actor had no idea what was about to happen and collapsed on the floor. Even though the scene was hard to beat in terms of intensity, Jackman still feels pretty sorry for his colleague:
