T AL K L I K E A P I RA T E
Hugh Jackman Did you have any say in your appearance as Blackbeard?
I did have a say in it. But I will be honest with you, when I met Joe [ Wright] for the first time, I said, “Explain the world, explain Neverland to me.” He had a picture of my face with white make- up like an old painting that was cracked. I had the wig of Marie Antoinette and the costume of Louis XIV. I was like, “I’m in!” How is Pan different from other versions of the story?
We were given licence because it’s an origin story. For example, there’s one line on page 53 of the JM Barrie book that says, “Hook learned his trade as the bosun for Blackbeard.” So there was freedom for us to do what we wanted. Will Blackbeard scare kids?
It should be frightening a little bit – uncomfortable. It’s got equal parts silliness and imagination, as well as being a little frightening. That’s the role of fairytales. How was it shooting the action scenes?
When I was at drama school, I loved fencing. I was a pretty good fencer, I don’t mind telling you. And I’ve never done it until here, so I loved doing the training. And then Joe had this idea… Blackbeard’s ship, every time he defeats another ship, he rips off the mast and places it as a trophy. So the front of his ship has 30 spikes going out. It looks
incredible.
