Indiana Jones: The movie that “floored” Hugh Jackman
Australia isn’t the first place you think of when you consider the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen of Hollywood. Yet, you’d be foolish to totally discard the giant country that dominates the Southern Hemisphere. Indeed, some of the industry’s greatest-ever actors have originated from its shores, including Nicole Kidman, Chris Hemsworth, Guy Pearce and Hugh Jackman.
Of the exclusive group of stars, Jackman may be one of the most adored, with the iconic actor quickly rising to fame at the turn of the new millennium thanks to his beloved role in the X-Men franchise. As the sharp-clawed Wolverine, Jackman would make a name for himself as a suave, sweet-talking star, having since starred in nine of the 11 X-Men movies that have been released since 2000.
While superheroes proved to be his gateway into the industry, Jackman later maintained his star status with a number of high-profile collaborations. For example, in 2006, after releasing the last of the original X-Men trilogy movies, in the same year he worked with George Miller for the unlikely animation Happy Feet, Darren Aronofsky for The Fountain, and Christopher Nolan for the thriller The Prestige.
As a result of such collaborations and a number of iconic film appearances since, Jackman has gathered quite a fanbase, and in 2020, he talked in an interview with Forbes about his favourite roles of his career to date.
Citing a number of favourite movies, including films that feature “great dramatic performances,” such as Kramer vs. Kramer, The Deer Hunter, and Dog Day Afternoon, Jackman made reference to one special movie that he holds in particularly high regard. “I was 11 or 12 when I saw it,” he says of Steven Spielberg’s action epic Raiders of the Lost Ark, “I was just floored for days by that, I didn’t know that that was possible”.
Released back in 1981, Raiders of the Lost would kick off Spielberg’s iconic trilogy that brought the action-adventure hero Indiana Jones to the fold. His antics in the classic original sparked the inspiration to make four sequels of varying quality, with the 20th-century efforts being iconic while the modern-day adventures being utterly embarrassing in comparison to Spielberg’s early success.
Clearly a Spielberg fan, Jackman added that he remembers watching his father cry while watching 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with the film being particularly special after having seen “how it touched my father”.
