Hugh Jackman’s the guy who can do everything

The Hollywood superstar has an enviable range of talents.

I like to think I work hard. Between doing red carpet stuff, appearing on Daybreak, recording a radio show, writing a novel and my Sunday Post column it feels like I’m run off my feet here in La-La Land. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But there’s one guy I look at out here and think THAT’S the hardest-working man in showbusiness.

Hollywood hunk Hugh Jackman is one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and it’s probably down to his phenomenal work ethic. He’s constantly filming or promoting his movies. There have been two in the past couple of months The Wolverine and Prisoners.

I was invited to Hugh’s special one-man show last week, where he demonstrated his enviable range of talents. He’s an old-fashioned song-and-dance actor who seems to be able to turn his hand to anything. He looks comfortable whether he’s performing in glitzy stage shows complete with musical numbers, or snarling his way through thrilling movies as a bona-fide action star.

The show was held to raise money for the Motion Picture Fund, which helps older showbusiness figures. I thought I’d better go along I’m not getting any younger, after all!

The show was fantastic and nearly 5,000 people turned up to see Hugh in action. What made it all the more special was that it was the Aussie star’s 45th birthday. Not only was this how he chose to celebrate it, but doesn’t he look well for a middle-aged man? (Note to self: must start going to the gym more.)

During the show, he entertained the crowd with stories and jokes, as well as songs from Les Mis and the like. Towards the end of the show, he sang a tribute to his wife Debs, who then gave him a birthday cake and a passionate kiss.

Hugh is friends with ’80s crooner Richard Marx, and he came out on stage to sing his massive hit Right Here Waiting.

“If you know this song, please . . . don’t sing along, you’ll ruin it!” he joked. Everyone did sing along so technically I sang with Hugh Jackman and Richard Marx.

At one point, Richard turned to Hugh and said: “Could you stop making everything look so easy?”

It’s a fair point he really does.

At the end of the show, Hugh held a charity auction, and he was the auctioneer. He even auctioned off Wolverine’s prop claws. At the end he took the sweaty shirt off his back and managed to get $5,000 for it it was bought by one of his many female admirers.

I first met Hugh through some friends about 15 years ago, before he was really famous. He was in the musical Oklahoma! and you could immediately see just how versatile he was. I said to one of his friends that Hugh should be in movies, and she told me about the X-Men film, which was in pre-production. Scottish actor Dougray Scott had been cast as Wolverine, but filming on another movie had over-run and he wasn’t able to do it. They’d asked the unknown Hugh to come over for a screen test.

He told me years later that his missus Debs, who’s a movie executive, had helped him read through the script. She gave it a quick glance, laughed and threw the script at him well, the role of an immortal half-man, half-wolf with a metal skeleton does seem a bit ridiculous when you sit down and think about it . . .

But the rest is history, of course.

The great thing about Hugh from my point of view is that he always has time for me on the red carpet. In Toronto recently we were waiting for him to appear at the premiere of his movie Prisoners. We were told we’d only be allowed one question with him because he was running late.

I was first to speak to him and said: “Bearing in mind I’ve only got one question, can you make this the longest answer you’ve ever given please?”

He immediately replied: “I was born in Sydney in 1968” and proceeded to ramble on for ages.

It’s that kind of fun attitude and willingness to play the game with us reporters that make him so popular here in Hollywood.