Hugh Jackman Says ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Director Shouted ‘Fresh Lube on Hugh!’ to Make His Muscles Pop and ‘Put on Oil to Make My Skin Glisten’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Hugh Jackman posted a nearly four-minute voice note to social media in which he thanked his team for getting him into optimal shape for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which featured his long-awaited return as the eponymous X-Men mutant after originally hanging up his claws after 2017’s “Logan.” Jackman’s return powered the Marvel tentpole to $1.2 billion in worldwide ticket sales, making the film the highest-grossing R-rated release in history. “I’ve had a lot of people who talk to me and ask me questions about how I got into shape,” Jackman said. “What I did, what I ate, how I trained, how hard is it at your age?
Just wanted to take a second and say, yeah I had to turn up, I had to do those deadlifts, I had to eat those meals but I had an incredible team who helped me.
There’s no hope in hell I would have gotten there without them.” Jackman shouted out Beth Lewis, who has been his personal trainer for the last five years and helped him get in shape and stay in shape for projects as varied as “Deadpool & Wolverine” and the actor’s stint on Broadway in “The Music Man.” The actor also credited his makeup artist, Whitney James, for helping make his muscular physique pop even more on the big screen. “Whitney, my makeup artist, was called to put on some kind of oil to make my skin glisten,” Jackman said. “You would hear [director] Shawn Levy yell out, ‘Fresh lube on Hugh!’ Everyone would laugh.” A ton of lube was needed to film the climactic power room scene in which Deadpool and Wolverine defeat the evil plan being devised by Cassandra Nova.
The sequence features Jackman at his most shredded. “On the day, because I was grumpy, I was not having water the night before, I was eating tilapia and beans.
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