We’ve all seen the story before, the down-on-his-luck sports fighter who finds some form of redemption through a miracle you can only find in the movies. However, there’s a lot more than that story line happening in Shawn Levy’s “Real Steel,” and actor Hugh Jackman knew it from first glance, hence why he ended up starring in the robot boxing drama. He plays the unlucky Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who turned into a small time promoter trying to make ends meet by fighting worn down robots in order to make a few bucks. Between spending time with his estranged son Max (played by Dakota Goyo) and uncovering a different kind of robot, Charlie’s life may begin changing for the better.
It’s not everyday when you get to sit down in a room and you end up talking to Hugh Jackman, but we were lucky enough to converse with the actor about working with the actors, the robots and how much of a headache the “X-Men” movies can be when they’re in limbo for too long.
ShockYa: Now in the movie they used actual robots because Steven Spielberg thought it was a good idea. You’ve done the green screen, you’ve done all the action stuff, what do you prefer?
Hugh Jackman: Well first of all there was no green screen. Even when it wasn’t real robots all the robot boxing had been choreographed, shot and partly kind of rendered before we did it so I could watch it and knew exactly what it was. Having the real robots meant for me, in particularly for Dakota (Goyo) there was no leap of imagination on what’s this going to look like. You kind of knew, we had the robots on set there and the guys in green suits up there doing it. The most difficult scene that I had with this was, and this is what I was not used to, there’s a scene where I’m shadowboxing with Atom outside the lawn of the motel so I’m actually doing that with Eddie Davenport who’s wearing a green suit and stilts pretending to be a robot with sensors all over him. I was told that if we were not in complete sync that it’s very very difficult to change the visual, and very expensive, so we worked on that like we were a synchronized swimming team but with boxing. That was, that took a lot of time.
ShockYa: How was it working with Dakota Goyo, was it difficult in any way?
Hugh Jackman: It was always good. He’s a very polite boy, very well brought up and hopefully I’m a little nicer to kids than I appear in this film. So both of us needed to be needled by Shawn and we hung out together a lot. The thing for me, as much as anything, was that I had to remind myself and him that I’m not an adult, we’re like buddies almost. Not even buddies, we’re just contemporaries, you know, so I never wanted him to feel overwhelmed or like I better let him decide if he wanted to ad-lib something. We constantly — I would say to him ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to do another take? Is there anything you want to do?’ and he’d say ‘Yeah I thought maybe we could do this’ and I’d say ‘Let’s just do it!’ Even if I thought it wasn’t a great idea from the very beginning I wanted him to feel like he was as much in charge of the scenes as me and Shawn, well I helped him but really Shawn mentored him. I mean that boy’s life is forever changed with working with Shawn because Shawn is gifted with younger actors and really brought out the best in him.
ShockYa: Anthony Mackie called you sort of the captain of the team, is that something you’re sort of accessioned of when you do a movie?
Hugh Jackman: Yeah I’m a little old school in that way. I do think you need someone to kind of marshall the troops, kind of set a tone, set a way of working and normally I would probably be more of that if it’s not someone like Shawn because Shawn actually — a lot of directors are not how you would imagine them to be. They’re not Cecil B. Demile at all, they’re quiet as they stare at their monitors and some of them like Woody Allen for example never says a thing. You would believe he was the second grip’s assistant the way he sits off the side in the corner like it’s very interesting. So Shawn is old school, he is the leader, he’s producer. I think if I’m a studio head he’s a dream. He’s never over time, never over budget, he communicates a hundred percent, he’s right by the camera, his energy. So for me it was I had to be less of a captain.
ShockYa: Now I was really reminded of “Iron Giant” for a minute when Dakota Goyo’s character first realizes that maybe Atom knows what’s going on.
Hugh Jackman: (Smiles) Is that what you think? That’s interesting to me.
ShockYa: Well I got it for a minute like when Dakota’s character is just kind of looking at Atom and then Atom just starts moving around.
Hugh Jackman: But he has the shadow function so whenever he moves the robot moves.
ShockYa: Yeah but then the kid’s like ‘You understand me?’
Hugh Jackman: Yeah, that’s good, that says a lot about you. See there’s some journalist in me now. (Laughs)
ShockYa: So what’s your take on it?
Hugh Jackman: My take is no, no it’s a robot but it does have some kind of like — it has a version of heart. Even the way my character says ‘He takes a lot of hits,’ that way that he keeps getting up. It never is conclusive, I really applaud the way Shawn — I’m sure for a movie that does play for such a broad audience it’s very tempting to make a clear choice, especially for kids. Ironically what has happened is kids like my daughter, my son will tell you until the cows come home that that robot’s alive, that it knows what’s going on. And for people who are “young at heart” shall we say want it because that boy sees Atom as his life line. He’s lost his father, he’s essentially not there, his mother’s dead, that robot to him represents everything until his father comes back to life. So emotionally you can understand why he does that and so Shawn is allowed some people to go through that journey as well or other people there’s nothing conclusive about it which was a huge decision by the way making the movie.
ShockYa: Now in Hollywood nothing’s ever for sure but speaking of being nervous, do you ever get nervous when a project like say “Wolverine” there’s always these obstacles and things don’t happen. Do you ever get nervous on that?
Hugh Jackman: Frustrated. I get frustrated yeah.
ShockYa: Do you get nervous that maybe this shouldn’t happen, that it’s an omen or something like that?
Hugh Jackman: No, my experience particularly with “X-Men,” I don’t know why there’s never been an easy ride. And one thing I learned actually funny enough in Australia when you ride horses by the way, when you first get on a horse, first impressions don’t matter. Sometimes the most uncomfortable first ride can end up becoming the best ride of your life so you’ve got to just stick with it and trust your instincts about why you’re doing it and know that any movie that gets made is a miracle. Somehow, I mean I can’t tell you how many reasons or potholes that could derail any movie and it’s so miraculous it gets made and gets out there. So I never really take it for granted, it’s an exciting business to be in and I’m glad I’m on this side of the camera cause the other side I’d want to slit my wrists.
ShockYa: Well what do you think of the whole situation of that, I mean the MMA taking over and stuff.
Hugh Jackman: It’s interesting. I think boxing needs to do a better job of telling it’s story of its stars. If you need an example of how to promote a sport look at the NFL. The NFL has so many teams and so many players and all of them wear helmets so you can’t really distinguish one from the other. Yet we were so invested in the story, last year it was Michael Vick. Look at that Tom Brady, that star. I don’t know if you’ve seen “The Brady Six,” that forty-five minute ESPN documentary film will change your life when you see that. Now boxing needs to do that. When the time Mike Tyson hit the ring we knew about Cus D’Amato, we knew where he came from, we knew about the pigeons, we knew about everything, right? We were invested in him before he got there. So that and we needed stars to fight. Pacquiao and Mayweather have to fight for crying out loud, it’s crazy. It needs to come together, have a cohesive platform which is what you have seen MMA do. Plus that’s catering to a slightly more violent appetite.
ShockYa: Do you think there’s going to be a sequel?
Hugh Jackman: I don’t know but it’s not the right time to be talking about it. We need to concentrate. It’s kind of like the week before the Superbowl saying ‘You think you’ll be in the Superbowl next year?’ I know it’s being written and I know in a way it’s planned and it’s been always there. I have signed on for one if there is but none of us involved are thinking beyond October 6th. That’s not the mentality you have.
“Real Steel” arrives in theaters everywhere this Friday, October 7th.
