New movie 'Prisoners', which hits UAE screens this weekend, is surprising reviewers for being a notch above the formulaic missing-person thriller its trailer suggested it might have been.
‘Les Miserables’ star Hugh Jackman is being praised for a taut performance as a frenzied father on the hunt for his missing daughter.
As a father to two adopted children, Jackman said working on the movie with Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve took him emotionally to places that no parent wants to go. ‘Prisoners’ follows father Keller Dover in his desperate search when his daughter and her friend vanish.
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“It was really tough. One of the things that got me through it was doing the research with families that have gone through it - those that have had relatively happy endings and also devastating endings,” said Jackman in a recent interview. “There’s a responsibility as an actor and a storyteller to tell the story from your heart, and truthfully, with respect to the fact that real people are going through it right now.”
During filming for the movie, Jackman’s busy schedule included jetting off to awards ceremonies for ‘Les Miserables’ and flying off to visit his family who, unusually, were not on location with him. It made for an exhausting time for the 44-year-old Australian actor - yet it had the unlikely benefit of helping him portray a father at his wits’ end.
“Exhaustion really helped for this. One of the things that I found in the research for this [role] is the sleep deprivation that the parents and families, as well as the police, suffer. But as an actor I’m drawn to a role like this like a bee to honey. This is the kind of extremity, the kind of human experience that is cathartic to watch and that is important to portray. As an actor, it’s is the kind of challenge you dream of.”
Jackman’s personal, albeit more minor, parenting worries also served as reference points.
“When my son was two, we had just landed in Prague - we were on our way to the apartment and were stocking up on supplies. I was reading the label and I turned my head and [he was] gone,” he recalls.
“The funniest time was at a beach in Sydney. I was panicked, and I knew there were paparazzi there following, and I thought, ‘This whole thing is being documented and it’s a nightmare.’ I could feel this guy running behind me and then he started yelling my name and I thought, ‘Oh no, he wants a photo of me looking all panicked,’ and he goes, ‘Hugh! He’s up there in the tree!’ It’s the only time I’ve been really grateful for paparazzi.”
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