Hugh Jackman: I asked my wife if I could kiss Nicole Kidman

Hugh Jackman is set to be the main attraction at next week’s Brit Awards after his turn in The Greatest Showman – but it’s still his wife rather than award bigwigs he wants to impress. For while he might be a Hollywood heavyweight, Jackman has revealed he still auditions for all his roles in front of his wife Deborra Lee-Furness. In fact, Jackman might not have been The Greatest Showman if it wasn’t for her pushing him to do his other Hollywood musical role in 2011’s Les Misérables.

The actor admits he nearly pulled out of the Oscar-winning film three weeks before the shoot but it was Debora who persuaded him to do it.

“I always go over auditions with my wife, he says. “About three weeks before, it felt so huge: huge story, huge characters, huge archetypes, huge figures and I had doubts about whether I could pull it off.

“It was my wife that pulled me off that cliff. She said it was good that I had doubt as Jean Valjean would have doubt and you need humility to do that part, ‘So get over it!'”

Had Jackman not taken on that role, he may not have swapped his Wolverine claws for the part of PT Barnum in The Greatest Showman.

The 2017 movie has now taken on cult status, with the DVD still topping the charts over New Year more than a year since the film came out, and the soundtrack becoming the biggest-selling album of last year, eclipsing all Top 40 artists.

Jackman, 50, met actress/producer Deborra, 63, on the set of Australian TV show Correlli in 1995, and they married a year later.

But she soon became friends with another important woman in his life – fellow Australian A-lister Nicole Kidman.

Speaking on Bafta: Life In Pictures, to be shown on Sky Arts tonight, Hugh said: “It was Nicole Kidman who taught me that, it should be always director, director, director. And always push yourself, go for directors. Go for movies that you think ‘Wow’, even if it’s ones you find difficult to watch.”

Their friendship is a convenient one as Deborra is also best friends with Nicole after they were housemates in Hollywood – but it has thrown up the odd awkward situation, such as when Jackman and Kidman had to play lovers in the film Australia.

“Nicole lived with my wife Deb when she first came to Hollywood, so they’re best of friends,” he says.

“Needless to say Deb wasn’t on set when we had our kissing scenes. That would have been awkward, but we talked about it. I said, ‘Let’s talk about it’, and we just sort of, we both loved the project and created an atmosphere which was safe.”

The Wolverine actor says that chasing his dreams put him on the path to becoming the multi award-winning performer he is today.

His first job came when he was 26 – an offer to be in cult Australian soap Neighbours.

But on the same day, he was given a place at drama school. He was forced to make the choice: become a soap star or take the gamble.

“I got an offer for drama school the same day as I got the offer for Neighbours and I chose drama school as my dream was the National theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. A lot of my favourite moments have been on stage.”

He’s played staunch parts throughout his career, but it’s the part of Wolverine in the X-Men series he’s played again and again.

Despite this, he admitted the character is still a mystery. “Yes, he’s cool, with the cigar chomping and the slicing and dicing and the women and all that,” he says, “but to me this was a character who had lived in violence and I wondered what’s the consequence of that?

But it’s The Greatest Showman that’s seen Hugh, who is off on his debut world tour this summer, get the most recent attention – so much so that he was chosen to open the Brit Awards on Wednesday at London’s O2.

He will appear alongside host Jack Whitehall, and the likes of Little Mix, P!nk and Dua Lipa.

“It was the perfect story to take a chance on,” says Jackman.

“I love what the movie has to say – what makes you different makes you special, which is really what PT Barnum’s show was all about.”