Things Hugh Jackman Wants You To Forget

After Logan (2017), Hugh Jackman will be finished playing Wolverine, which will cap a 17-year run for his portrayal of the X-Men character that has helped deliver hundreds of millions in box office grosses. Even if he'd done nothing else, that would have to be considered a successful career, but Jackman is also an award-winning stage performer and showman who sings and dances just as well as he roughs up bad guys with his adamantium claws. So how could a Renaissance man like that have regrets? Well, he does, and there are kind of a lot of them. Here are some things Jackman wants you to forget.

Growing up in Australia, Jackman attended Knox preparatory and senior schools. In 2009, five former teachers at Knox Grammar, the Australian equivalent of an elementary school, were convicted of "sex offens­es against Knox students." The offenses spanned the period between 1972 and 2012, which includes the time Jackman would have been there. According to

According to the Daily Mail Australia, who spoke with Jackman's classmate and lifelong friend, Gus Worland, neither he nor Jackman suffered any abuse. Worland presumed that's "because we [were] perceived to be strong. They seemed to prey on the weaker guys," adding that Jackman was "school captain," a student leadership position. Worland also claimed he maintains email correspondence with Jackman and that his "reaction is my reaction and mates' reaction—sadness and disappointment and a want for justice for our classmates." The details of the case are particularly disturbing, including an incident in which a man now believed to have been a teacher wore a mask, hid under a student's bed, and then sexually assaulted him.

At the time of this writing, Jackman has not talked about the scandal. That's not really surprising, considering the actor seems to have had nothing to do with it and thankfully wasn't a victim. Bringing it up during film promotions or talk show appearances could make for some uncomfortable press, but it could also raise awareness about child abuse.

If you're so inclined, you can find "gay rumors" about virtually any Hollywood leading man in the tabloids. Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, and Will Smith, just to name a few, have all been accused of hiding their sexuality, but Jackman has probably been the subject of more gay rumors than anyone. The Huffington Post suggests it may have something to do with his appeal to gay audiences, or "his rugged good looks," or his penchant for musicals, but it's all irrelevant because he's been married to Deborra-Lee Furness for more than 20 years. They have two adopted children.

Jackman doesn't really seem to care much about the rumors, claiming he mostly avoids the internet, but in 2013 he told The Hollywood Reporter that the gossip does annoy his wife. "She goes: 'It's big. It's everywhere!,'" meaning she probably couldn't go online for a recipe without seeing a story about how her husband is secretly in love with his trainer. That would be annoying, but Furness should keep in mind that these are the same publications who have been telling us that Larry King is on his deathbed for years and that Jennifer Aniston has been secretly planning to reunite with Brad Pitt since the day after he hooked up with Angelina Jolie, so maybe Mrs. Wolverine should take what the tabs say with a grain of salt.

Nobody likes going to the gym, right? Especially if it's leg day, or whatever intense workout Jackman does to get insanely shredded to play Wolverine. That's why it was an extra bummer when Jackman was just trying to get his swole on and a crazy alleged stalker named Kathleen Thurston burst into his gym and threw "an electric razor filled with hair" at him. As if just any old hair wouldn't be gross enough, according to CBS New York, "reports said the hair was pubic hair."

Jackman, being the magnanimous guy that he is, said this: "Here's a woman who obviously needs help so I just hope she gets the help she needs." He also revealed that he's seen this woman previously at his daughter's school and outside is house. That is scary and creepy, but Thurston is reportedly mentally ill and was even deemed "not fit to proceed to trial" when facing charges. So, Jackman was right. Hopefully she gets the help she needs and Jackman can put the whole thing behind him because nobody wants to come home and say "Oh, work was fine, honey. A little stressful, but hey, at least nobody threw pubes at me today!"

In an interview with Good Housekeeping, Jackman opened up about his not-so-storybook childhood, including his mother leaving the family when he was just 8 years old due to "conflicts within the marriage." Her absence resulted in a bit of loneliness for him, despite the fact that his father and five siblings were still around. "Being the youngest, he was the first home from school, and sometimes he couldn't bear to walk into the empty house—he just waited outside for an older sibling to arrive," the magazine said.

Jackman doesn't relay the story of his unpleasant youth in order to slam his parents or to feel sorry for himself. In fact, he has said he now realizes they did their best as parents despite having a flawed marriage, which is a perspective that might be hard to come by for many children abandoned at such a young age. Come to think of it, Jerry Springer has made a lucrative career off people who've had the exact opposite reaction to broken homes, so it's no wonder Jackman's bland-by-comparison tale of acceptance and forgiveness doesn't get brought up too often.

Even though he talked about it on The Graham Norton Show, Jackman would probably prefer it if people didn't constantly ask him about the time he peed himself during a Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. As Jackman tells it, he was drinking lots of water at the time to get rid of headaches when he found himself onstage with the sudden urge to go. He was in the middle of an "energetic" scene, too, which was especially problematic since, according to Jackman, you use the same muscles to sing as you do to hold in your pee. While that may or may not be anatomically accurate, he had to make the choice to either abandon the high note at the end of the song, or belt it out and just let it flow. Remember when we said this guy is a consummate performer and showman? Well, he nailed that note. So, what do you think people in that audience remember more? That amazing F sharp, or the huge wet stain on Gaston's crotch?

One of the more embarrassing moments of Jackman's life came during what should have been a thrilling experience. While attending a Port Adelaide power football match, he was asked to visit the locker room during halftime to give the players of his favorite team a pep talk in hopes he could rally them from their 9-point deficit. During an interview on local Adelaide radio station Nova 91.9, Jackman said that for some reason, the only thing he could think to say was, "Guys...go get 'em...good luck...I think you're great, go kick some goals!" The uninspired pep talk wasn't well received, and the players basically just stared blankly back at him. The team ended up winning the game, but they probably now think slightly less of their national hero, or at the very least, they may assume he doesn't do a whole lot of improvisation on movie sets.

In an alarming Instagram photo, Jackman shocked fans with his gaunt, seemingly sick appearance. He had bags under his eyes, looked thin, and was sporting a fair amount of gray in his beard. According to the Mirror, fans of the X-Men and Wolverine comics quickly pointed out that he looked like he was gearing up to portray the version of Wolverine from the "old man Logan" storyline, and they were absolutely right, but folks who didn't happen to spend their adolescence with their noses buried in comics seemed genuinely concerned for the actor. Perhaps because he didn't like that he was potentially upsetting people, Jackman deleted the photo. Regardless, it went viral and has been republished all over the internet. The bright side is that despite Jackman's effort to redact himself, that photo become an inadvertently brilliant piece of marketing for the movie. Does Jackman really regret posting that pic, or is he secretly a brilliant media strategist?

In 2001, Jackman starred in Swordfish, which at the time of this writing has a 23 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, he plays a guy grappling with custody issues over his daughter. Said guy also happens to be a world-class hacker who's been recruited by an unscrupulous counter-terrorist agent, played by John Travolta, who puts Jackman in stressful predicaments in which he must hack like he's never hacked before if he ever wants to see his daughter again. In other words, the movie is really dumb. In fact, there's a scene where Jackman has to hack the U.S. Department of Defense mainframe with a gun to his head, while a woman goes down on him, and all in 60 seconds. Even if the rest of this movie was Oscar material—which trust us, it is not—we're pretty sure Jackman would at least like that scene erased from the collective consciousness. Also, Swordfish came out just one year after Jackman's debut as Wolverine in the first X-Men, so clearly he hadn't realized yet that he would be able to coast on that franchise for the next two decades and not have to act opposite Travolta wearing a frosted pageboy wig and thin goatee.

In what should have been an exciting stunt for Oprah's live taping of a show at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Jackman crashed into a light fixture and injured his eye after he failed to pull the safety break on his zipline. He was supposed to zip from the top of the opera house down to the stage, but his trip was stopped short when he slammed face-first into a lighting rig. This was in 2010, so Jackman was well established as an action star. Also, he was performing the stunt at the most iconic and recognizable landmark in his home country, so that's a double whammy of embarrassment.

Granted, it could have been worse. Jackman could have been badly injured, but he only ended up with a black eye, a small cut, and probably a bruised ego. After the medics fixed him up, Jackman returned to the show and laughed the whole thing off, even performing a big song at the end. But there's no way anyone ever brings up that song, or even the fact that Bono, Olivia Newton-John, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, and Russell Crowe were also part of that performance. Oprah in Australia will forever equal Jackman's busted face, and there's nothing he can do about that.