Hugh Jackman: "Being a father basically consists of making mistakes"

• Venice Film Festival Florian Zeller is far from achieving with Hugh Jackman what he did with Anthony Hopkins

• Interview John Malkovich: "Things are happening that would have made Goebbels faint"

• Marvel report in 2023: fewer premieres and more quality for its expected rebirth

Hugh Jackman (Sidney, 1968)

likes him.

Not so much for all that he smiles (which is a lot) but for all that he tries to be liked.

You have to dedicate time and desire to everything.

"I have come to the conclusion that I waste less time attending to everyone who comes up to ask me for an autograph than trying to hide myself," he says if asked about his fondness for approaching those who call him.

The interview takes place in Venice, in the middle of the festival, and the shouts in the street are very loud.

"On the other hand, if you tell your life on social networks in a detailed and sincere way, you are no longer of interest to the paparazzi or the sellers of secrets," he adds.

And smile.

His new role in Florian Zeller's

on the other hand, is anything but pleasant or just likeable.

In it he gives life to a son who is also a father and who has to deal with many things: the ruins of the patriarchy, the strictness of his father and the mental illness of his offspring.

"Cinema, sometimes, is not just entertainment," says the one who was (and will be again shortly in

Wolverine seriously, but without losing his smile.

He falls well.

To know more

Cinema.

Brendan Fraser, the resurrection of a harassed actor: "I never hid"

• Writing: MARÍA SIERRA London

Brendan Fraser, the resurrection of a harassed actor: "I never hid"

Cinema.

Michelle Williams: "I left home at 15 and didn't finish high school: succeeding as an actress was a matter of survival for me"

• Writing: LUIS MARTÍNEZ Madrid

Michelle Williams: "I left home at 15 and didn't finish high school: succeeding as an actress was a matter of survival for me"

What makes an actor who has been a superhero as well as a great showman approach a role like this? It is difficult to describe the mechanism that leads you to a role.

Although sometimes it is very simple.

And in this case it was simple.

I had been impressed by The Father and one day I got a call from my agent recommending that I take a look at

I read the work and I saw it clearly.

Although I had never dared to do something like this, I wrote to Florian (Zeller) and offered myself.

I told him that I understood that if he was in conversation with another actor, he should not listen to me.

But he took me into account and he called me.

And up to here. Before being a son, as the title says, your character is a father. How would you define the full-time job of being a father in real life? I have learned something all these years (he has two sons, 17 and 22 years old). with Deborra-Lee Furness) is that being a parent is basically about being wrong.

You never know if you are doing the right thing or not.

You try to project what you experienced as a child, or what your father taught you, in the education of your children, but you soon discover that times have changed and that what was valid in the past is no longer valid in the present.

And then you have to be clear that the children are different people from you and that the formulas are not valid.

Being a father is always being accompanied by the ignorance of things, fear and doubts. The central theme of the film, mixed with the fear of the speaker, is the mental illness of a son... Yes, and that's why I think It is so important.

We live in a society that has become accustomed to treating mental illness with shame, that still associates mental illness with weakness.

And I think it is essential to put an end to those ideas that all they do is make us worse.

If we don't blame someone for a heart attack, why do we blame them for a depression?

It is important to be clear that you can suffer, even if you have every reason to be happy.

I hope the film will serve as a conversation starter,

so that people recognize themselves in a series of problems that affect us all. Do you think that the pandemic, in some way, has made us pay more attention to all this than what you are talking about? Yes, because what the confinement revealed is precisely the urgency of the problem.

There are many people who live in solitude with some psychological problem and blame themselves for it.

The more all of this comes out, the better, the more people can be helped or cared for. Are you a different parent to your children than your parent was to you? Yes, when I grew up in Australia there was a much stronger sense of the patriarchy.

You had to be strong, and education for a kid like me was basically toughening up.

You couldn't spend a lot of time with your mother, crying in public was frowned upon.

All of that, thank God, is completely in question now, but there are still stumbling blocks.

Do you see yourself there?

Has the masculinity in which you grew up been questioned? I always thought, because that's how I was raised, that being vulnerable could be a burden for others, even for my children.

But little by little, I have discovered that if I talk to them about things that scare or worry me, they feel more secure and relieved.

When you share an insecurity, when you ask for help, you don't show yourself weak, but, on the contrary, you show that you are capable of facing your fears. On the other hand, I don't think I don't miss some of those hard certainties from the past.

There will be something that makes you feel, at least, nostalgic. Yes, the truth is that in this time where everything has to happen instantly, we have lost the ability and wisdom to wait.

In fact, love is a consequence of waiting, of how we manage time.

And that is what I lack. If he has stood out for something, it is because of his ability to dare and get away with almost everything.

He has been a celebrated superhero, his Oscar nomination came for a musical as

What do you suddenly ask for a new job?

How do you see yourself in the future? I don't know if I'm going to be very original.

Probably not.

But above all, now that we've talked about doubts and fears, it attracts me to face characters that, from the outset, I don't know if I'm going to be able to interpret.

What I like about this role is that any casting director would have written me off.

But there comes a time in life when you don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone but yourself.

Right now what least influences my career are issues such as planning or strategy.

I let myself go.

It's all very impulsive.

I avoid control or security.

If you want people to feel vulnerable and admit it, as is the case with

, you have to do the same.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Australia

• cinema