Hugh Jackman reflects on live TV stunt with Sarah Jessica Parker

“I really felt for her”: Hugh Jackman has opened up about a stunt he pulled on Sarah Jessica Parker live on TV at the Tony Awards.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman has looked back at his time playing Peter Allen on Broadway in a new interview – and he admits he was sometimes an “a**hole” to the show’s famous audience members.

Jackman opened up about his acclaimed stint in The Boy From Oz as part of a career-spanning new interview with Variety. He played iconic Australian entertainer Allen in the hit musical on Broadway throughout 2003 and 2004.

“The most fun I ever had was playing Peter Allen,” Jackman told Variety, reflecting on one particular highlight of the show – an entirely ad libbed scene in the second act where he’d drag unsuspecting audience members onstage and “roast” them.

Jackman said that once he was well into the Broadway run, he felt “free to do whatever the hell [he] wanted” – and did.

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Jackman in The Boy From Oz, October 2003.

“I was an a**hole at times. I brought up Barbara Walters and Matt Damon, and made Matt Damon give Barbara Walters a lap dance, which turned into me giving Matt Damon a lap dance. And he didn’t punch me,” he said.

One such “a**hole” moment happened in front of a global live TV audience, when Jackman performed as Allen at the 2004 Tony Awards.

Midway through his song-and-dance-number, he looked to the audience – and went straight for Sarah Jessica Parker, seated front and centre.

“There’s a few nervous people in the front row all of a sudden. I feel like a little Sex And The City, hello Sarah Jessica!”

After a joke about her absent husband Matthew Broderick, Jackman ushered a visibly embarrassed Parker onto the stage – and forced her to dance alongside him, encouraging her to wave her arms over her head.

Jackman coaxes Sarah Jessica Parker up for some Tony Awards audience participation. Picture: Frank Micelotta/Getty

There was one very obvious problem: Parker was in no way dressed to dance, wearing a tight strapless gown that threatened a wardrobe malfunction with her every move.

She tried to play along, but her moves didn’t satisfy Jackman.

“I’m scared of my top (coming off) – this is the wrong network,” she quipped before he finally dismissed the relieved-looking star from the stage.

Sarah Jessica Parker, explaining her outfit wouldn’t lend itself to Jackman’s dance moves.

“I really felt for her that night,” Jackman told Variety, 18 years on.

“As soon as she got up onstage, I could tell those boobs were about to come out.”

Check out the whole very awkward segment below:

Elsewhere in his Variety interview, Jackman opened up about the sad loss of his beloved dad, who died on Father’s Day last year.

Jackman decided not to take any time off to grieve the loss of his father and continued working on his latest film, The Son.

“My father never missed a day of work,” he said.

“I could feel him. I knew if he could talk to me, he’d be like, ‘You got to go to work! What are you talking about?’ I felt his presence on the set.”

Originally published as Hugh Jackman reflects on live TV stunt with Sarah Jessica Parker