January 01, 2007

Hugh Jackman As I Live and Breathe

Yes. Saturday night, I was standing in front of my booth and something quite out of the ordinary occurred. Hugh Jackman walked by with his wife and a friend and then stopped 10 feet away from me to talk a little before the show.

What show was I working on? Does it matter? Well. You might want to know. I was handing out headsets at Drowsy Chaperone, standing by my console, waiting for hard of hearing patrons.

10 feet away from me. 10 feet. 10. Ahhhhhhhhh.
He is taller and thinner than he appears on screen. He was wearing glasses, a striped scarf, a plain sweater and jeans. And no one, with the exception of a couple of guys who may or may not have been a couple, recognized him. Of course, the house staff recognized him but we pretty much know better than to bug celebrities on an outing to the theater.

Anyway, this couple asked me if he was who he was and wanted to know if they should go up to him. I told them that he was indeed Hugh Jackman and that since no one was really bothering him that he probably wouldn't mind. They did approach him and Hugh Jackman handled the situation very nicely. He shook hands with them, spoke with them for two minutes or so and then posed for a photo.

I didn't find out until later that the blond with him was his wife. She's lovely but she's not GORGEOUS. I guess he's good looking enough for the both of them. She was an ordinary beautiful person (as opposed to a ridiculously beautiful movie star person). Not knowing anything about him, this didn't strike me as odd. Based on his demeanor, body language and tidbits of conversation, I judge him to be as regular a guy as I've ever seen a celebrity be.

So. Here is what I've learned from this experience.

1. Hugh Jackman is exceedingly handsome both on screen and in person.
2. He's not put off by fans approaching him and will probably react well if you were to approach him in a non-threatening way that wasn't in anyway rude or interruptive.
3. He's down to earth and married to a seemingly nice, down to earth person.

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