8 Hugh Jackman Facts That Have Absolutely Nothing To Do With Wolverine — And Somehow Are Even Better

He Was Literally A PE Teacher Before Any Of This Happened

Long before Broadway or Hollywood, Jackman spent a gap year as a physical education teacher at Uppingham School in England, teaching kids to climb ropes and get fit. He only stumbled into acting afterward, when he needed extra university credits and took a drama course almost by accident.

That Drama Class Was Only To Make Up Lost Credits — Then It Changed Everything

Jackman was pursuing a communications degree with a journalism major when a required drama elective introduced him to a play that flipped a switch in his brain. He described it as feeling like he'd finally found his people, and the rest is Tony Award history.

His First TV Role Was A Prison Drama — And He Fell In Love On Set

Jackman's first major professional job was the 1995 Australian series Correlli, where he played a brain-damaged inmate opposite Deborra-Lee Furness's prison psychologist. He got the offer the same night he finished drama school and later married Furness, whom he met filming the show.

He Won A Tony By Playing Judy Garland's Ex-Husband

Jackman's Broadway debut in The Boy from Oz, playing Australian singer Peter Allen, won him the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Critics called the biomusical itself uneven, but Jackman's performance was universally singled out as the reason to see it.

Every Note In Les Misérables Was Sung Live, No Lip-Syncing Allowed

Unlike most movie musicals, Les Misérables had its cast singing live on set through an earpiece feeding them a piano track, with full orchestration added afterward. Jackman called it a strange shoot, joking that no one could tell if you hit a wrong note because they couldn't hear the music either.

The Greatest Showman Took Nearly A Decade — And A Nose Surgery He Ignored — To Happen

The Barnum musical was announced in 2009 but sat in development for roughly seven to nine years because studios were wary of financing an original movie musical. Right before the crucial studio read-through, Jackman had nasal surgery and was told not to sing, but he broke the rule mid-performance anyway and helped get the film greenlit.

He Went Full Con Man On Broadway In The Music Man Revival

Jackman starred as Harold Hill in a Broadway revival of The Music Man that was delayed by the pandemic before finally opening in 2022, earning him another Tony nomination alongside co-star Sutton Foster. The show became one of Broadway's highest-grossing weekly earners during its run.

His 'Feud' With Ryan Reynolds Is Just An Ongoing Prank War At This Point

The two have spent over a decade trolling each other with fake political ads, dog-poop threats, ugly sweater ambushes, and a Band-Aid sushi platter that (thankfully) never got made. It's all bit, and both actors have admitted the rivalry is really just cover for a genuine friendship.