Hugh Jackman a firm favourite for Academy Award for biopic
HE clawed his way to Hollywood superstardom, danced to an Emmy and sang up a Golden Globe storm, now Hugh Jackman is politicking for an Oscar with new film setting off epic award buzz.
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HE clawed his way to Hollywood superstardom, danced to an Emmy and sang up a Golden Globe storm, now Hugh Jackman is politicking for an Oscar with new film The Front Runner setting off epic award buzz.
The freshly minted 50-year-old, who celebrated his birthday earlier this month, plays US Democrat senator and failed presidential candidate Gary Hart in a biopic that follows Hart’s disastrous 1988 campaign.
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He’s starting to shore up as an awards favourite, alongside Lady Gaga in the acclaimed A Star Is Born, and fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman for her gritty role in cop drama Destroyer as well as her powerful turn in Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased, also starring Russell Crowe, about a boy forced to undergo gay conversion therapy.
Hart’s tilt hit the wall when media got wind of his affair with beauty queen Donna Rice and a picture of her sitting on Hart’s lap flashed across the world, changing political reporting forever and putting private lives in the public eye.
“It’s only three weeks of his life but it’s bigger than that,” Jackman said at yesterday’s Front Runner premiere at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
After early screenings, critics have lauded Wolverine star Jackman’s portrayal of Hart as “one of the best performances of his career”.
Writing for The Playlist, critic Gregory Ellwood praised Jackman for being “the centre of The Front Runner”.
Indie Wire’s David Ehlirch described him as “perfect”.
“Is there any actor in the world who’s better than Jackman at negotiating irrepressible charm with sinister undercurrents of ambition and power?” Ehlirch wrote. Hey U Guys critic Linda Marric said Jackman “shines” while treating Hart’s infamous actions with care and respect.
“Jackman gives a measured and wonderfully subtle turn as Gary Hart, he offers the former presidential hopeful as a man of integrity and poise without ever resorting to imitation,” she said.
Although Jackman picked up a 2005 Emmy for hosting the Tonys, and a Golden Globe for Les Miserables in 2013, he has yet to put an Oscar on the mantle — although Les Mis did earn him a nomination.
Helmed by Juno and Up In The Air director Jason Reitman, The Front Runner also stars JK Simmons and Vera Farmiga.
“This was really a key turning point, particularly in the relationship between press and politicians, and also politics and personality,” Jackman told the New York Times this week.
The Front Runner premiere follows Jackman’s 50th knees-up at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen West Village store in New York, with guests including Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
The Front Runner opens in Australia on January 24.