Hugh Jackman responded to a question about what else he could do to “cement his status as a gay icon” while speaking at a New Zealand university on Tuesday.
Replied Jackman: “I have absolutely no idea.”
Jackman then launched into a story about playing Peter Allen in the 2003 Broadway production of The Boy From Oz, and repeated an anecdote he has told since at least 2008 in response to rumors that he’s gay.
Said Jackman: “I don’t know if [Allen] was out, but everyone knew he was gay. I’ll tell you a funny story. Deb, my wife, came to see [The Boy from Oz] about 40 times. She loved that show. She was in the bathroom at one point, and, for those of you who don’t know Peter Allen, he was a very sort of flamboyant … everyone knew he was gay. I was playing this character. Deb is in the stall, and she could hear two women outside going ‘Is he or isn’t he?’, ‘I think…no, no he’s married…oh what does that mean, is he or isn’t he?’. And she was just listening for about two minutes, then she just yelled out, ‘He isn’t!’ Silence in the bathroom.”
“Anyway, I love what is happening in the world,” Jackman continued, “not just in that community. For women, for many many minorities, or groups that have been overlooked or discriminated against and I’m all for it in every single aspect and I’m proud to be a part of any solution to that through storytelling.”
