Hugh Jackman: Reflections on acting, identity, personal transformation, and the significance of being Wolverine

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
Hey everyone, welcome to The Drive podcast. I'm your host, Peter Attia. This podcast, my website and my weekly newsletter all focus on the goal of translating the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone. Our goal is to provide the best content in health and wellness, full stop, and we've assembled a great team of analysts to make this happen. If you enjoy this podcast, we've created a membership program that brings you far more in-depth content if you want to take your knowledge of the space to the next level. At the end of this episode, I'll explain what those benefits are, or if you want to learn more now, head over to peterattiamd.com forward slash subscribe. Now, without further delay, here's today's episode.
My guest this week is Hugh Jackman. Hugh is a name that a lot of you will recognize, of course, as he's an award-winning actor, but more importantly, he's just an amazing human being and a close friend that I couldn't wait to sit down with. Hugh and I did something a little different this time, kind of like I've done once in the past, where it's less just an interview of Hugh and in many ways, a discussion between us, though I think I sort of went out and probably get to ask Hugh more questions than he asked me.
Coming into this discussion, there were so many themes I wanted to explore, and we actually got to quite a number of them. There are a handful of roles that Hugh has played that I think actually get at some of the many themes that I think are interesting with respect to longevity. Two of them in particular, of course, being Logan and The Fountain, and we explore those in some detail. But I also talk about just Hugh's drive and what it is that led him to not just his craft, but to pursue it in the way that he's done so. And on the flip side, Hugh asks me a lot of questions, including more questions that have never been asked before. And I think this probably comes across as a bit more of an intimate discussion than a podcast, but nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy it. So without further delay, please check out My Conversation with Hugh Jackman.
Hugh, it's so awesome to have you here today. Although I do wish we were doing this in person. We've been talking about, yeah, we've been saying, well, well, let's wait and do this in person. Let's wait and do this in person. But between all that's going on, I think this is the next best thing.

**Hugh Jackman** (2:15)
So I mean, the best part of in-person, I know, I know the conversation is great, but the cooking is off the charts. You're cooking, you and Jill combine to like a crazy good dinner.
There's another whole avenue there for you.

**Peter Attia** (2:31)
I don't know. I still think some of the meals I've had at your place have blown my mind even more.
And including the meals I haven't had, do you remember the day I came over to your place? I think I was on day six out of seven on a fast.

**Hugh Jackman** (2:41)
Yes, yes.

**Peter Attia** (2:42)
And you and Deb really, really thought you were going to get me to cave, and instead I just walked around the kitchen smelling it and-

**Hugh Jackman** (2:51)
I respected that.

**Peter Attia** (2:51)
Regretting it.

**Hugh Jackman** (2:53)
Yeah. But I can't really take any credit for the meals at my house. You can take the credit. The ones are yours.
I mean, right down to sourcing the food, I'm impressed. Very impressed.

**Peter Attia** (3:04)
Yes. Yeah. I know you appreciated that.
I want to come back to that because there's an interesting story about some of those meals, but this is kind of a different podcast for us. We've talked about this a lot and we thought that what would be fun today is not just that I'm interviewing you, but in some ways that you're interviewing me. And I think that's in part because you're the most curious person I know.
And that's evident any time you are sitting down with anyone. I've watched you interact with so many different people. Even just in the few minutes before we were getting this podcast recording, when you were talking to Nick, you're just immediately obsessed with and interested in every detail of what another person knows and how they've come to know it and stuff like that. And so I think in the past couple of months as we were thinking about this, it became clear there was no way I was going to be able to get away with just interviewing you because you were going to end up asking me a bunch of questions anyway. So we said, well, why don't we just acknowledge that this is going to be a discussion and not an interview?