Hugh Jackman spoke with Marva in January 2015, after his performance in The River at Circle in the Square Theatre, New York. Sharing his thoughts about playing Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s 2012 musical film Les Misérables, he is helping Marva explore the power of Hugo’s work for us today. Jackman admires—and aspires to—Jean Valjean’s tenacity in the face of pain and his selflessness for his community.
Is Hugo relevant? Jackman thinks so: “I think what Victor Hugo was seeing in his backyard, really, in his country, this great inequity and this incredible injustice going on, is exactly the same today and sparking pretty much most of the conflicts in the world today. I know some of them seem to be veiled in religion, but I’m sure most of them start with poverty. And there’s about a billion people on the planet hungry right now—all the time.”
