Beyond his role as Wolverine in the X-Men and now the MCU films, Hugh Jackman has given some phenomenal performances on screen. Starting his career on the stage, the actor has dabbled in various genres, including action, comedy, and his favorite, the musical.
While he got his Oscar nod for Les Misérables, Jackman’s best performance to date is arguably his role as Keller Dover in Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Prisoners. The actor was snubbed for the role at the Academy and was not even nominated.
Hugh Jackman Had Great Competition At The Oscars For Prisoners
Hugh Jackman reportedly received the script for Prisoners a year before it went into production. The actor was tapped to play the role of Keller Dover, a religious carpenter whose daughter is kidnapped, which sends him on a rampage over a suspect. The film also starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, and Terrence Howard.
Despite his amazing performance as a father desperate to find his daughter and it being considered a career-best for Jackman, he did not seem to get any love at the Oscars. He had already been nominated a year ago for his role as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables but had lost to Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln.
While fans have loved his performance in the Denis Villeneuve directorial, they also mentioned that the Deadpool & Wolverine star faced stiff competition that year from not just nominated actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey, but also amazing performances from other Marvel stars like Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, and others.
Prisoners had zero awards hype at all (excluding cinematography) and it was a great year of Best Actor nominees. Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave, Christian Bale in American Hustle, and Bruce Dern in Nebraska. All five of those are absolutely fantastic performances.
Other snubs that year were Joaquin Phoenix in Her, Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis, Tom Hanks in Captain Philips, Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Robert Redford in All is Lost, and Idris Elba in Mandela. No matter the lineup, there was going to be huge snubs.
The year saw Matthew McConaughey win the award for Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club. Prisoners only received a nomination for Roger Deakins’ cinematography.
Hugh Jackman Prepared Extensively For His Role As A Devastated Father
Hugh Jackman’s performance in Prisoners is harrowing. As a father who is desperately searching for his kidnapped daughter and is having a moral crisis, Jackman portrayed the role to perfection and it was one of the biggest snubs of the year. The actor reportedly prepared extensively for the role and tried to keep it as real as possible.
Since it took place over eight days, the actor mentioned that he and director Denis Villeneuve researched heavily on exhaustion and sleeplessness. Jackman also mentioned that he read up about torture a lot. He said to Screen Daily,
Denis explored what exhaustion did to everyone. Denis allowed things to sit. I read a lot about child abduction, alcoholism, sleep deprivation. I wanted to be very specific about when your hand starts to shake and you are a lot rawer…I read a lot about torture. I am sure I am on some kind of watchlist. I looked into that.
The actor also mentioned that they toned down on the religious aspect of the character as he did not want international audiences to think he was a “religious nut”.
Prisoners is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.
