The rip-out-your-heart drama is French writer-director’s follow-up toThe Father, his intense 2020 film that featured Anthony Hopkins as an elderly man with dementia. Widely acclaimed,it won Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best actor.
“It’s a really good ploy when an agent says there’s an amazing role but there’s a couple of other actors in talks for it,” Jackman says drolly. “That really motivates actors.”
TheX-Men,Les Miserables andThe Greatest Showman star,who has just finished a,knew Zeller had writtenThe Son as a play – part of a trilogy that includesThe Father andThe Mother –about mental illness or disorders.
Jackman at a screening of The Son in New York last October.Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
“I read it that afternoon,fell in love with it and felt an urgency to play it immediately,” Jackman says. “So I sent him an email. I just said,‘Listen,if you’re dancing with someone else,I’m not the kind of guy to cut in. But if you’re not,I’d love to play the part.’
“So I just laid my cards on the table and we Zoomed the next day and he offered me the part,which was a huge relief to me.”
The role that so interested Jackman was playing a successful New York lawyer,Peter,who has such a promising life with partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and their new baby that he is considering a dream job working on a political campaign in Washington. Then former wife Kate (Laura Dern) arrives at his front door distraught and scared that their 17-year-old son Nicholas (little-known Australian Zen McGrath) has been skipping school for a month and having dark thoughts.
I’m a different parent,a different person,for making the film. I certainly lead with more vulnerability with my kids.
Hugh Jackman
Feeling abandoned,friendless and worried about his sanity,Nicholas wants to live with his father.
But when Peter agrees Nicholas can move in,starting at a new school and seeing a therapist,the boy slides deeper into crisis. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he says through tears.
Zeller,a successful playwright turned filmmaker,was surprised and touched by Jackman’s humility and honesty when he wrote to him. “I felt very strongly that he would be extraordinary in this part,” he says. “He was already so connected with the emotions that I wanted to explore.”
Jackman with Zen McGrath (left) and Laura Dern in The Son.Rekha Garton/Sony Pictures Classics
Jackman,who also came on as executive producer to add his Hollywood clout to the production,sawThe Son as a film that could start vital conversations about depression,anxiety and suicide.
“The script is so beautiful,” he says. “It so smartly talks about this issue of mental health,without giving answers,without giving easy fixes,and just really understanding what it’s like for a family going through these issues.
“There’s not a person reading this who doesn’t know someone very close to them going through something like this. It’s so prevalent,it’s such an epidemic.
“It’s certainly something that I know. And I just felt this was a role that I rarely get offered and a level of writing and intelligence that was so incisive and beautiful and the kind of conversation we need to have as a society.”
Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Kirby in a scene from The Son.Rob Youngson/Sony Pictures Classics
Dern,on another Zoom screen from Los Angeles,says Zeller has fleshed out the many sides to a mental health crisis.
“You don’t read writing this beautiful,” she says. “He captured so many themes[about] navigating mental health crises – not just this boy and what he’s going through but parents navigating their own histories. Hugh’s character is caring for ‘the son’ but he is also ‘the son’.”
In one of the film’s most vivid scenes,Peter visits his political careerist father (Hopkins,returning fromThe Father before dementia). Over lunch it becomes clear that this distant,abrasive figure is still affecting Peter’s ability to be a good parent.
Jackman calls it intergenerational trauma. “We’re a bridge between the way we’re brought up and the way we parent,” he says. “If you have children,and even if not,the way you interact with the world and the relationships you have,there’s a lot we inherit without knowing it.
I was thirsty for that kind of really sometimes harsh,sometimes uncomfortable look at what really goes on in the human experience.
Hugh Jackman
“When I became a parent,there was a long list of things that I would definitely do differently – ‘I’m not going to do that’,‘I’m not going to do this’. Then it’s amazing how often things come out of your mouth and you go,‘Oh,I’m looking at that like my father’. In some ways,that trauma can be like a wildfire that goes down between generations.”
Both actors sayThe Son was a very emotional film to shoot,especially with Zeller wanting them to draw on their own lives to play their characters.
“Thankfully the production company had professional help available for everybody,” Jackman says. “There were some scenes in particular that were very upsetting,and it wouldn’t be unusual for a crew member just to take a couple of hours’ break to go off then come back.”
Director Florian Zeller and Hugh Jackman on the set of The Son.Jessica Kourkounis/Sony Pictures Classics
Dern says it has been common after early screenings ofThe Son for audience members to come up afterwards to talk about their own experiences of mental illness.
“Even at the Venice Film Festival,when we were first showing the film,journalists would come in and speak to Hugh and me with their own stories,deeply emotional.[At other screenings] people have just been bringing their hearts and their own stories and wanting to talk about it,needing to talk about it,feeling safe to talk about it.”
Jackman,who also had to deal with his own father’s death late in the shoot in September 2021,says the film has changed him.
“I’m a different parent,a different person,for making the film,” he says. “I certainly lead with more vulnerability with my kids. Prior to the film I was a little more feeling,I guess,that what kids mostly wanted was stability and strength. The idea that their parents have got the answers,they know where they’re going.
“And what I realised,particularly with a 22- and a 17-year-old,is it’s OK to say,‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure what to do here. Can we talk about it?’ And they seem to appreciate that.”
Jackman’s raw performance had him nominated for a Golden Globe and,after Venice,he was considered an early chance of an Oscar nomination. He is “super proud” of the film and keen to praise McGrath,a now 20-year-old who had shot not much more than the little-known American miniseriesDig,an episode of the ABC comedyUtopia and the filmRed Dog:True Blue beforeThe Son. He submitted a filmed audition to win a demanding first major film role.
“He was there with his dad,Craig,who flew over from Melbourne,” Jackman says. “I just thought he did an amazing job because a lot of the scenes he had were incredibly emotional and really,really difficult. Almost all of them,pretty much.”
So will audiences find watchingThe Sonuncomfortable,given the rawness of the emotion and the difficult subject matter?
“It is to me,” Dern says. “But I think uncomfortable is a blessing in art. Whether it’s fine art or film or music,we’re so fortunate for the storytellers that make us uncomfortable and make us look at what has previously been unseen or not discussed. What’s so magnificent about Florian’s commitment to mental health is inspiring these conversations.”
Jackman,who will return as later in the year,agrees there is value in films that make viewers uncomfortable.
“When I was growing up,I remember very clearlyThe Deer Hunter,” he says. “I rememberKramer vs. Kramer. I was a teenager but I remember these movies – they opened my eyes and opened my heart.
“It was like I was thirsty for that kind of really sometimes harsh,sometimes uncomfortable look at what really goes on in the human experience. And I can tell you from my children watching the movie with me,one thing I’m really proud of that generation is they’re not scared of these conversations. They’re not nearly as uncomfortable as our generation with this kind of thing.”
The Son opens in cinemas on February 9.
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