At the Whitby Hotel in New York, Hugh Jackman talked through the unusually punishing experience behind “The Death of Robin Hood,” the film opening in theaters Friday, June 19 from A24. He described recurring roles where he dies on screen, the hours of prosthet
On a night when Hugh Jackman was talking about what it takes to keep stepping into stories that end with him dead on screen. he looked almost amused by the repetition. “I’ve done three films in six months that have come out where I die. ” he said at the Whitby Hotel in New York. “So I’m not sure what that’s saying. I don’t want to die; I just want to do it fictitiously, if that’s OK.”.
Jackman wasn’t speaking in theory. “The Death of Robin Hood,” the brutal revisionist myth he stars in, is about the end of Robin Hood’s life—and it also asks audiences to sit with uncertainty instead of comfort. The film opens in theaters on Friday, June 19 from A24.
The movie came to him after producer Aaron Ryder sent him Michael Sarnoski’s script. Jackman liked it and then checked out Sarnoski’s first feature, “Pig,” starring Nicolas Cage. “I was 10 minutes into watching ‘Pig. ’ and from the opening frame. you can feel his voice. how confident it is. ” Jackman said. “He’s only 30!”.
Still, the leap into a nihilistic, brutal, grim story wasn’t the easy kind of commitment. Jackman described the physical toll of the role: he endured hours of prosthetic makeup to turn a decade older, and he shot outdoors in Northern Ireland with “muddy chills.”
That first intense night shoot stuck with him. “That first scene in the mud, that fight scene…I was totally up for it, but I’ve never been so internally grumpy as I was that night,” he said. “I was not far off: ‘I’m done for the day.’ It was a night shoot, and I was so exhausted.”
He still has mud in places “that you don’t want to know about.” There was one moment before he got on top of an Australian actor to actually kill him when he was so tired he needed rest. “I was laying on him,” Jackman recalled. “When you fight to the death. and you’ve got fingers in eyeballs. and you’re fighting. there’s this weird proximity intimacy; I just lay there to rest. I thought there was something cool about that moment.”.
For Jackman, though, the discomfort didn’t cancel out the craft. It made the process feel more real. He framed Sarnoski’s direction in terms of trust and freedom. “I’ve been really lucky. I’ve worked with some great directors. ” he said. then named Darren Aronofsky. Christopher Nolan. Denis Villeneuve. and Baz Luhrmann as directors who. in his words. share a certain confidence. “What Michael brought out of me was an ease, and in my play, being less controlled. I trusted him. He shaped and crafted my performance.”.
Conversation quickly turned to Robin Hood as both figure and myth. Jackman said he read a bunch of books to understand the historic figure. noting that if someone wanted to believe Robin Hood was real. they could find records “since the 1100s.” He described how the legend shifted over time: up until the 1500s. Robin Hood was “just an outlaw. a horrible person. a cautionary tale.” But as England’s political landscape changed—especially the feeling of an uprising by serfs against aristocracy and landowners—the story of a “cultural hero rocking the boat” and stealing from the rich to give to the poor began to take shape.
Even in the early version, Jackman said Robin Hood wasn’t purely villain. “If you watch him. he was a bad guy with some honorable traits. ” he said. pointing to rules like “Do not harm women. ” and an order that outlawed violence toward women. He also said the legend included mercy—giving someone “a second chance if they were lying to him”—and that gradual transformation helped the outlaw become the hero. In his view, myths arise “for a purpose, for a need that already exists.”.
Asked if the film’s darkness echoes Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven. ” Jackman didn’t shy from the comparison. but he leaned into what he felt was specific about “The Death of Robin Hood.” “That film was right at the forefront for me. for sure. ” he said. “There was something beautiful and meditative about [‘The Death of Robin Hood’]. and this relationship with this woman [Jodie Comer]. and the meeting of their minds. or spirits. There was something beautifully redemptive and cautionary about it. I love this idea of a mythic hero, a cultural hero.”.
He sees the movie as a warning about story-making itself. “Be careful of the stories you buy into. ” Jackman said. linking it to how narratives come into people’s lives from birth—through media. parents. religion. and “all over the place.” He argued that stories have been used to cause “a lot of violent damage in history.”.
Then he pushed the film’s central uncertainty: what if the Robin Hood legend wasn’t just inspiration. but a manipulation?. “What if that story or legend of him was actually his own creation to make people do terrible things. to follow him?. Oh, what if it was all a lie?” Jackman asked. “What if maybe there was a couple of rich people he stole from. but what if he never gave it to the poor?. What if he was just a brutal murderer?. Now, even at the end of the movie, we’re not entirely sure.”.
Sarnoski’s film isn’t the only time Jackman has backed challenging material. When he talked about his broader career, he brought up the confidence that has shaped his choices, and the willingness to go where audiences might not expect him to go.
He said he hopes he can get “pretty much anything you want made. ” but he didn’t pretend the path is always simple. With “The Death of Robin Hood,” he said the goal was bigger than just getting the movie made. “We wanted to shoot on film and shoot on an island; that made it more expensive,” he said. “It’s probably not as big a budget as you think, and that’s all OK.”.
Still, Jackman connected the decision to a pattern of taking swings. He pointed to “The Greatest Showman. ” saying he felt compelled by the script even though not everyone would bet on it. “I’m blessed that I can be in the position of doing things I really. really want to do. ” he said. adding that it “actually did great. for the second-worst opening in history.”.
He also described the behind-the-scenes resistance he faced around “Logan.” He said there was pushback because the project played with established IP. wasn’t called “Wolverine. ” and was R-rated. “Why are you doing this?” he remembered people asking. “You know what, let’s go for it. Let’s just take the swing and go with our gut.” In his telling. those bets exceeded expectations—and gave him confidence.
Musicals and darker turns have both found a place in his orbit. “Song Sung Blue. ” he said. was another moment where the pitch clicked: “I felt. ‘I gotta do this!’” He also remembered how “Treasure Island” pulled him in. He said he read a script by Jack Thorne—the showrunner on “Adolescence”—and felt the same spark. “It’s ‘Treasure Island,’ playing Long John Silver,” Jackman said. “I’ve never read ‘Treasure Island,’ never seen it. So. I’m the only person on planet who has no idea what it’s about. but I read this script by Jack Thorne [the showrunner on ‘Adolescence’]: ‘I’m absolutely doing this.’”.
Even the Robin Hood look came with history. Jackman talked about the wild, long hair and makeup created by Pam Westmore and Sean Flanigan. He said Pam’s family lineage runs deep in movie makeup: “Pam’s great-grandfather [George Westmore] was the first ever makeup artist in movie history.” He explained that actors at the time came from theater and often handled their own work. but George Westmore was brought in for a famous silent movie actress and became iconic himself. From there, Westmore did Douglas Fairbanks in 1922 as Robin Hood, and then his son did Errol Flynn. “And now the granddaughter does my hair,” Jackman said. “We were in the makeup trailer, playing with ideas. So, you have this long hair and beard, and we went, ‘Oh my god, this is it.’”.
As the conversation moved toward artistic choices, Jackman returned to what draws him to challenging material even when it’s not built to please. “I watch this movie, and it feels beautiful to me in a human way,” he said. “It makes me relish the complexity of life and of being human.”
He also talked about what he’s been trying to make next. One project he said he tried to get made but couldn’t was “The Overstory,” Richard Powers’ book, which he called “beautiful” and noted that it won the Pulitzer Prize. He described it as a story “about trees.”
Broadway, meanwhile, isn’t far away in his plans, even if he’s not chasing it full-time right now. He said he was “literally off Broadway” on the night of the interview because he had a night off after finishing a play the previous night. He also said he started a theater company called “Together.” “We’ve been down at the Audible Minetta Lane Theatre. ” he said. “This is our second season.”.
Jackman said the company ran three months and he was in two plays. He described new writing where “half the tickets are 35 bucks,” aimed at making the work accessible. He added that the productions lean “low-fi. ” with “not a lot of set. not a lot of sound. there’s no microphones. ” and a focus on doing new works.
For him. the “hardest thing” to get up now is the service he’s offering audiences through the company. and the work he’s pushing himself to do. “I’m serving myself,” he said. “Because I love acting. and I want to do great work and great material. and I want to push myself. and those pieces. they’re not all crowd pleasers. They’re thoughtful, thought-provoking.”.
By the end of the conversation. the throughline was clear: Jackman’s willingness to go after stories that cost him—physically on set. and emotionally in the way they ask the audience to rethink what it believes—has always been part of his appeal. And this time. it arrives with mud on his skin. uncertainty in the plot. and a film release date circled on the calendar: Friday. June 19. from A24.
Hugh Jackman The Death of Robin Hood A24 Michael Sarnoski Aaron Ryder Jodie Comer Whitby Hotel Northern Ireland prosthetic makeup Robin Hood Ensemble Broadway Together theater company Audible Minetta Lane Theatre Song Sung Blue The Greatest Showman Logan