'Superstars are never as nice as Hugh Jackman'

"You could try forever, and I don't think you'd ever find anyone," says actress Claudia Karvan, about the potential of striking an ex-castmate, crew member or ticket-buyer who might utter a bad word against Hugh Jackman. "He's just a special human."

The local superstar returns to Australia next week for his The Man. The Music. The Show. tour, an arena performance that sees Jackman, 50, telling stories and singing songs from across his career: the star-making forays in musical theatre to recent blockbuster The Greatest Showman.

Hugh Jackman is back in Australia for his The Man. The Music. The Show. tour.Credit: AAP

For those who where there in his salad days, the journey's been remarkable.

"The sort of heights he's reached are usually beyond the grasp of Australian performers," says TV legend Bert Newton, who starred alongside Jackman, then 28, in one of the actor's first theatre roles, the 1996 musical Beauty and the Beast at Melbourne's Princess Theatre.

"It's a pretty big rap but it's true to say I've never worked with anyone who was as popular with his fellow workers as Hugh, even though at that point he was new to big productions. It was quite extraordinary. I mean, personally, I never liked him but..." Newton trails, wryly.

"All the girls would be swooning," recalls Rachael Beck, who scored "eight kisses a week" from Jackman as Belle to the actor's preening Gaston. "He was bonkers over [wife] Deborra-Lee [Furness] at that stage, they'd just met while filming [TV series] Corelli. He loved to play, but was also so focused."

Jackman performing at Madison Square Garden.Credit: Getty Images

Not long into Beauty's run, Jackman was tapped to take on Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, the male lead in the 1996 musical playing Melbourne's Regent Theatre. Even once his understudy took over, he'd be spotted backstage.

"He'd just call in to make sure his replacement was happy or needed advice, and made him feel a million dollars," says Newton.

"I'm making him sound as if he's direct from heaven, but really, even then you could tell he was the real thing."

Maria Mercedes, an onstage alternate with Debra Byrne, was playing Norma Desmond in Sunset.

"That first performance was pretty terrifying for me, because there was so much baggage back then that came with being an alternate. And every opportunity Hugh had where his face was away from the audience, he'd be giving me a wink, like a coach on stage. Just so supportive and a really good human being.

"People go like, 'Yeah right, can he really exist? He sounds perfect!' I'm sure he's had a lot of things to contend with – it can't be easy to navigate a Hollywood career – but he has done it with such grace."

Mercedes says it's essential to highlight Furness' role in Jackman's success.

"They are a power couple of love – no selfishness, just supporting each other all the way through. People forget, they look at Hugh as the end product but he has had an incredible woman backing him 100 per cent."

Karvan met Jackman on what was essentially his first film role, 1999's Paperback Hero, where he played an outback trucker who writes trashy romance novels.

Jackman and Karvan in Paperback Hero.Credit: Polygram

"We were in a very isolated town about five hours west of Brisbane," Karvan recalls of the shoot. "And we were in a tiny motor home where it was boiling hot – even the cold water was hot. He was always optimistic, always positive. I used to marvel at him."

Their friendship was a slow burn, she says, with Jackman regularly breaking out into Oklahoma! standards on-set, ahead of what would mark his West End debut just months later.

"I'm not a musical theatre person, I was just, 'Oh gawd!'' laughs Karvan. "I was in a different mindset; very pessimistic and sort of quite cynical and punk."

Impressed by his "extraordinarily gritty performance" in his other onscreen breakout, 1999's Erskineville Kings, she was still shocked when Jackman landed Wolverine, the part that brought him worldwide attention. Did she expect he'd become a global superstar?

"No, I thought he was too nice! Superstars are never as nice as Hugh Jackman. He doesn't have any ego problems, or that appetite for attention," she says.

"As you get older, you start to realise there's often a big gap between reality and perception. But Hugh Jackman is not testament to that. He is, seriously, one of the most gorgeous men you could ever meet..."

Hugh Jackman: The Man. The Music. The Show. begins at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Friday August 2, before continuing around the country.