14 DAY TRIAL // Hugh Jackman is fond of playing Wolverine, even when he thinks that, in order to prepare for the role, he needs a few months’ worth of training and dieting in advance. He talks about the challenging and grueling routine with the latest issue of Manhattan Magazine.
Having already said that for the latest installment in the franchise, this year’s “The Wolverine,” he trained so hard he actually feared getting a heart attack, the handsome Aussie is now saying that water dehydration was key to obtaining that ripped body.
That, of course, and strenuous workouts and strict dieting.
“Water dehydration got me that ripped look, but I'm so low on energy I'm literally sleeping all the time because I'm on a zero-carb, limited-calories diet. It's pretty brutal,” he tells the publication.
Brutal as it was, the physical training became harder than the mental in time.
“The physical preparation gets harder and the emotional preparation gets easier. For an action movie like Wolverine, the director, James Mangold, rode me hard – he wanted me to have a deeper version of the character,” Jackman says.
He adds with a laugh that “having played action characters about 16 times, that comes easier to me now.”
Some time ago, shortly after “The Wolverine” came out, word had it that 20th Century Fox was so eager to lock in Jackman for at least four more movies that they offered him $100 million (€73.5 million) to accept it.
The deal would have included only movies in which Jackman would play lead (as in, Wolverine films) and not other X-Men related appearances.
At the time, Jackman was said to be considering the option but, seeing how much he’s talked about the difficult training he had to undergo to get in shape for the character, fans are wondering whether he’s not about to let it become a deal-breaker.