Hugh Jackman fought against ‘poof’ prejudice to become an actor

Aussie hunk Hugh Jackman was scared of becoming an actor because he thought
people would think he was gay.

The star of ‘X-Men’ and ‘Wolverine’ was supported by his dad Chris when he
discovered a passion for musical theatre whilst growing up in Australia. One of
Hugh’s brothers, however, tried to deter his interest by calling him a ‘poof.’

Hugh, who has five siblings, told gay and lesbian news website Xtra.ca: ‘I would love
to say I was Billy Elliot, but I wasn’t. My dad was like, ‘Terrific,’ but my brother was
like, ‘Ah, you poof!’ I was only about 10 or 11, but I remember thinking that this is
not a good thing.’

Yet years later it was the same sibling who eventually ended up persuading the star
to pursue his dream after watching the musical ‘42nd Street.’

Hugh explained: ‘My brother came up to me and said, ‘Man, I want to say sorry. I’m
such an idiot … you should be up there doing that. It was really a kind of sweet thing
for him to say. I joined up the next day.’

The Australian finally decided that he had no choice but to become an actor after
taking drama classes whilst studying journalism at university.

Hugh said: ‘I was studying to be a journalist, but in the last semester I had to make
up two units. Our university had this drama class, and the teacher was famous for
just having to turn up to pass … I got the lead (in ‘The Memorandum’) and I begged
my teacher. I said, ‘I’m in my finals; I can’t do this play. But I loved it.

‘Have you ever had that feeling where you’ve found your people, your tribe? In that
week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years at
university.’