Hugh Jackman defends 'pointless' fantasy Pan Media Man Int

Hugh Jackman defends 'pointless' fantasy Pan - 17th October 2015

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Hugh Jackman has told Sky News he needs to keep a sense of 'child-like wonder' in life to stay young - and on top of his acting career.

The star, who plays Blackbeard in his new film Pan, says he has 'pretty much stalled around the age of eight or nine maturity-wise - which is part of my job - and I kind of love that'.

The film has been panned by critics - and hasn't fared much better at the US box office - it took just $15.5m on its opening weekend - despite costing $150m to make - and is on course to be one of the biggest flops of 2015.

The film, directed by Joe Wright, has been described as 'entirely pointless' by The Hollywood Reporter and 'dour' by Variety but Wright and Jackman both say the film has been designed and aimed at children - rather than film critics.

'I loved it. Joe said he wanted theatricality, this is the world of a child's imagination, so all the adults had to be partly frightening and partly ridiculous because that's how kids see us.'

Pan is a prequel of the JM Barrie classic and shows how Peter Pan got to meet Captain Hook and the pirate Blackbeard on his journey to Neverland.

Jackman says it stays true to the spirit of Barrie's book: 'If you read Peter Pan again as an adult, which I highly recommend people do, there's a lot of warnings in there about a switch that happens where we decide to become an adult and we basically decide to become old and you lose that sense of possibility.'

And the actor added that he tries to keep that cynicism that comes with being an adult at bay: 'Cynicism is something you've got to fight.

'Sometimes it's fun to be cynical and see what's really going.

'But i think, not only as an actor, but also in life, keeping that sense of wonder and magic and possibility that kids have with every single day alive is really, really important.'

(Sky News)