Hugh Jackman Interview

From: The Daily Telegraph

HUGH Jackman has put the spectacular failure of his American television series Viva Laughlin behind him and is banking on the success of his production company's first feature film, Deception.

Jackman co-produced the film and also stars alongside Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams in the movie, which opens nationally in Australia on April 24, and on 3200 screens in the US the following day.

"There's nothing like the driving factor of fear of failure,'' Jackman told The Sunday Telegraph from the Sydney set of his current film, Wolverine.

"I am 39. I am not a kid, so if you can't roll with the punches and still find enjoyment with what you do even when things don't go well it's a pretty miserable kind of life.

"Even with Viva Laughlin we failed spectacularly but we went for it and I am still proud we did it. I have no regrets.''

Jackman's Seed Productions, which is also helmed by his wife, Deborra-lee Furness, and business partner John Palermo, suffered a major blow when Viva Laughlin was axed from America's CBS network after just two episodes last October.

But Deception is less of a risk, Jackman said.

"I am really proud of what we've come up with and, of course, I want everything to be a smash hit but I am also a realist and I know that is not going to happen,'' he said.

"But, financially, it can't be a massive flop.

"It was set up in a way where we had taken a lot of financial pressure off ourselves. We were very diligent as producers to make sure we didn't get excessive on the budget and push things too far.''

Seed's next big co-production - with Twentieth Century Fox - is Wolverine, Jackman's X-Men spin-off which also stars Liev Schreiber.

Jackman is 10 weeks into filming the big-budget Hollywood film.

"We are now producing a much bigger movie and the things we learned on Deception were invaluable,'' he said.