Hugh Jackman Reveals Trick to Playing Old Man Logan; LOGAN Was Inspired by LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
As you've already seen, Hugh Jackman plays a very different version of Wolverine in Logan than we've seen before. This is definitely the most hardened, gritty, and badass version of the hero yet. In a recent interview with Empire, Jackman and director James Mangold talk about the film and their approach to bringing this older version of Wolverine to the big screen. First Jackman explained how a tip from actor Jim Broadbent helped him remember to be in pain while playing Logan.
“When he was playing older, [Broadbent] would tape a little stone to his heel. I would have that, just to remind myself of a limp. [Logan's] body hurts. His joints hurt. His heart hurts. Psychologically, he’s damaged. What’s the collateral damage of being Wolverine for all those years?”
Mangold went on to talk about his original Logan pitch to the studio describing it as Little Miss Sunshine meets Wolverine.
"I said, I want to make Little Miss Sunshine with Logan, Charles Xavier, and X-23. Trap these superheroes in a van on a highway in the year 2029 and see what happens."
It's a concept that looks like it totally works! Who would have thought that Little Miss Sunshine would have been an inspiration for Logan!? The director went on to discuss the characters' different and unusual appearances in the movie, including an explanation of why Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier has some hair.
Jackman "kind of looks like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, while Sir Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier has a little bit of hair, which Mangold acknowledged “could be kind of sacrilege. The theory was that he originally lost all his hair because it’s just too damn busy [in his head] to grow hair – the idea for me was, well, maybe there’s a little fringe on there, because things are slowing down mentally.”
I love their whole approach to how they are handling these characters in this movie. I love everything that I've seen, and now I'm just eager and excited to watch the movie! We have less than a month to go before it's released!
Logan takes place in the year 2029, where mutant births have become extremely rare. The defenders of mutant kind, the X-Men, are long gone, and the only remains of them are an old and struggling Charles Xavier and a weary Logan. Logan's vaunted healing factor has slowed, and at times doesn't seem to work at all. When a young mutant needs his help, Logan has to unsheathe his claws once more. His job isn't over yet.
Logan also stars Boyd Holbrook as Donald Pierce, Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney/X-23, Doris Morgado as Maria, Stephen Merchant as Caliban, Elizabeth Rodriguez as Gabriela, and Richard E. Grant as Dr. Zander Rice.
Logan hits theaters on March 3, 2017.