Jackman plays Jean Valjean, the former prisoner who builds a new life when he is unexpectedly given a second chance, and Crowe plays Inspector Javert, the single minded, ruthless policeman who hunts Valjean down the years after he breaks parole. Find out how Hugh Jackman prepared and felt being Jean Valjean in the movie
Les Miserables.
Q and A follows:
Q: You’re attempting something that’s never been done with a musical before, singing live on every take. What’s it been like?
A: You know, the musical director, Stephen Brooker, said it’s even better than being on stage because when you are in the pit the actors are 15, 20 feet away on stage, whereas here, he said, ‘I know exactly when you are going to breathe and when you are moving on and you need to stop.’ It’s quite a production. And it’s never been done this way before. I spoke to Simon Hayes (production sound mixer), who is a really great sound guy, and he said that there really wasn’t the technology to do this until about five years ago with the standard and quality of microphone we needed. It’s as good as being in a recording studio.
Q: Let’s go back to the very start. Didn’t you film for a few days in France before switching to England?
A: Yes, we did. We were in the mountains, the Alps, in the South of France and it was below freezing and just going dark. I could see the steam coming out of my mouth (laughs). I could feel the cold in my voice and I was freezing! And somehow that was perfect for playing this guy, Valjean, who is on this journey of purgatory. And even though he’s just been let out of jail he is still carrying that weight of who he was and not being accepted by society. And I knew then and there that’s Tom’s gamble of singing live was going to pay off in a great way. This is a bold decision but I think it’s absolutely the right decision – once you accept that you have entered a world where everyone is singing, stay with it, and that’s how the musical was written. And the thing is, when you are singing outside – like those first scenes in France where it was freezing cold – it sounds like you are outside, when you are singing in a church it sounds like you are in a church. It doesn’t sound synthetic or like you are in a recording studio where all the rough edges, that immediacy, is taken out.
Q: It must be harder on your voice singing live for multiple takes?
A: I can remember singing at one in the morning inside this beautiful chapel where I literally had steam coming out of my mouth because it was that cold. Singing live for every take is not easy and you have to really look after your voice.
You wake up, say seven in the morning, and you are still singing at one in the morning - that’s a long game. It’s not like a theatre show where you pretty much shut down a little bit during the day, take it easy for a few hours, and then you gear up for your performance. You warm up, bang, you are out on stage for two hours. This is a long game. And because of the nature of filming, you don’t know exactly when you are on – you prepare for a scene but you might have to wait a few hours before you are called to do it. So it’s been probably one of the toughest, but most rewarding jobs I’ve ever done. The idea of singing live is daunting but it gives you freedom. I can go out and each and every take is different, you can play it with different emotions, speed it up, slow it down, put different emphasis on certain lines in different takes. It’s been extraordinary.
