all over the world: La La Land. They may just
have been onto something all along.
As they began production in New York,
Jackman and Gracey’s once-fake relationship
was now far beyond that of star and director,
with Jackman also serving as producer. A role
he describes as being involved with the budget,
making phone calls when needed, asking for
favours and offering to front up cash when
required. “My time, my reputation, fi ghting
for things... protecting the fi lm fi rst. But not
the day-to-day.”
It meant turning his belief in Michael Gracey
into full you-got-this trust. Which could only
be borne from complete honesty, with Jackman
(who confesses to previously “being bad” with
confl ict with both studios and other fi lmmakers)
telling his director: “Sometimes I’m going to have
to say things to you that are hurtful like, ‘I don’t
get this and I don’t think this is good enough.’
And sometimes I’m going to have stick up for you
because I believe in you and others don’t. And if
we’re not honest with each other, we’re dead.”
Jackman felt that he could say what he
thought unedited — often via long voice memos
— due to their “really healthy collaboration”.
And Gracey clearly felt the same, not only
pushing Jackman as an actor as hard as anyone
ever had (resulting in blisters on his feet, scabs
on his knees and blood in his shoes) but serving
up candid, unfi ltered honesty in return.
Searching for the secret of their particular
alchemy, Jackman settles, fi ttingly, on what
inspired Gracey’s fi b in the fi rst place. “Maybe
it’s being Australian. In Australia, you feel really
comfortable with the kind of person who’ll
say, ‘Stop being a wanker.’ And right from the
beginning, he’d be that with me. He took away
any of the, ‘Ooh, you’re the movie star and I’m
the commercials director and it’s a great honour
to work with you.’ He’d take the piss. I love him
as a human being and a friend.”
Gracey, for his part, feels spoilt to have made
his fi rst fi lm with actual Hollywood superstar Hugh
Jackman, while also feeling incredibly grateful for
the support and friendship from Hugh Jackman
the actual man. “We went on a seven-year
journey,” he says, “so by the time we were shooting
the fi lm, you’re talking about two guys who were
like two kids and every day was Christmas.”
It would seem that sometimes Santa does
come for the boy that tells a lie. Or at the very
least, an untruth by omission.THE GREATEST SHOWMAN IS IN CINEMAS
FROM 26 DECEMBERLeft: Anne’s skills
in full fl ight. Right:
Jackman and
Gracey (far right)
prepping
a scene on set.
Below: Rebecca
Ferguson also
stars as Swedish
opera singer
Jenny Lind, who
collaborated with
Barnum in 1850.Your background is theatre, right?
Music and theatre. I have a degree in Shakespeare.
I studied that in honour of my father, who’s from
Lancashire and came to the United States in the
1970s, and I was an R’n’B singer for my mother.
I fell into it [musical theatre] and fell in love with it.And you were originally booked to cover
rehearsals while they cast the Bearded Lady?
It’s called ‘the Broadway hustle’ — once you book
a production, you start looking for the next job
and one project was a reading of the screenplay of
‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ [the original title].
It was 2014. I was doing Les Mis at the time.But everything changed when studio bosses fl ew
to New York to see some songs fi rst-hand?
Stacey Snider [co-chairman of 20th Century Fox]
looked at me and said, “You’re going to be cast in
this fi lm.” I didn’t believe them, for survival’s sake;
it’s how you survive when you’re doing the hustle.Hugh Jackman and Michael Gracey seem to
have an amazing relationship.
The collaboration between those two is on such
a high level... Those seven or eight months [of
pre-production and shooting] were like summer
camp. Hugh is so committed and so disciplined,
it gave me the spark to also be that committed.Did you and Hugh click immediately?
There’s a different agency when you’re from the
Pacifi c Rim. Our personalities are very similar. From
the moment we met, he was emotionally holding
my hand. He’s still holding my hand emotionally
saying, “Come out from behind the shadows, you
have to,” because man, I truly have been hiding. If
it wasn’t for him, I would not be talking to you.Tell us about the beard...
The beard is real hair — it was in four pieces. It
took about two-and-a-half hours [to attach] every
day. I remember sitting in that chair towards the
end of the shoot and having claustrophobia. Then
one day had been an 18-hour shoot day — I had my
make-up person and my hair person next to me
with a fan saying, “Stay with us, stay with us!”BREAK-OUT STAR KEALA SETTLE ON
BECOMING THE BEARDED LADY