Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig Interrupt Play for Ringing Phone

Hugh Jackman’s Broadway performance has already been rewarded with a Tony Award, but he should be given another such accolade for the way he admonished a theatergoer for forgetting to turn off their mobile phone. The same goes for Daniel Craig, his co-star in the cop play “A Steady Rain,” who also gave the heckler a piece of his mind, as Reuters informs.

It all went down during a preview performance that was rudely interrupted by a ringing phone. Both Jackman and Craig were on stage, doing a very tense scene, when the phone went off – and continued to ring for minutes, as the owner was clearly too embarrassed to pick it up, no matter how Jackman begged them to do so. The same happened again minutes later, this time with Craig stepping in to urge the owner to turn the phone off and let them go on with the play.

What was even better – and what definitely got the audience clapping their hands in a frenzy – was the fact that both stars did so without even coming out of character. “You want to get that? Grab your phone, it doesn’t matter. Come on, just turn it off... we can wait. Just get the phone. Don’t be embarrassed. Just grab it.” Jackman tells someone from the audience whose phone is ringing.

Clearly, judging by the video that was just posted on YouTube, the person in question does not “grab” the phone, as it goes off again only minutes later. This time, Craig too chips in, clearly annoyed by the constant interruption, but still in character. “You wanna get that? Come on, just turn it off. Unless you’ve got a better story. You want to get up and tell your stories?” Jackman says to the applause of the audience. “Just get the phone.” Daniel Craig adds.

The incident (see the video below), while annoying and embarrassing, has gotten the entire media singing the praises of the two actors, who handled themselves wonderfully, especially if compared with how other stars reacted when so rudely interrupted. It has also prompted the joke that, since both dealt with the situation still in character, neither seemed shaken or stirred, in true James Bond fashion.