HUGH Jackman is rightly known as the nicest bloke in show business. But his kids, well, they're the gatekeepers from hell.
With his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, Jackman had formulated a plan whereby, if a fan asked for a picture while he was out with his children Oscar and Ava, Jackman could shut it down but keep it nice.
"Deb and I came up with this thing where I'd say, 'Look, I'm with my family, I'd prefer not to right now, but nice to meet you' - showing the kids that I can still be polite, but I wanted them to get the message that they were my priority.
"But after about a year and half, Oscar said to me, 'Dad, why can't you just be nice? All they want is a photo. I mean, really'. I said, 'Are you OK with that?' He said, 'Yeah, today I am'. I said, 'OK, so from now on I'll ask you'.
"They really love that power," Jackman laughs, "so I just leave it up to them. My son usually, particularly if it's a young girl, will like it. But my daughter's quite often like, 'No!' And I can see she's just loving having the power."
Of course, this leaves Jackman looking like the good guy, as in: "My, that Hugh Jackman is a nice bloke ... "
"But his kids!" Jackman hollers, falling into laughter.
The Sydney-raised actor, who turns 43 this month, seems happy to let his kids do the dirty work. If he's got a reputation as being nice, that's just because he's "ultimately not that different from a lot of people that interview me".
But he knows that nice is not necessarily cool or helpful as far as an actor's career.
"For actors, the word 'nice' is something to be wary of. It sounds pretty tepid and a little bit uninteresting, and that may be the case! Maybe journalists go back and go, 'How am I going to describe him? Quixotic, no. Enigmatic, not really. I suppose, nice!' The lowest common denominator."
Some people play on that fact - the character Doctor Cox in TV sitcom Scrubs always sounded off about his intense hatred for Jackman.
Jackman, as you'd expect, is not at all miffed.
"No! I think it's hilarious! I don't blame 'em," he says.
"Someone forwarded me that link where he does the long monologue of all the things he hates: ' ... and Hugh Jackman!' But my son came home to me and said, 'Do you know this show Scrubs?' I said, 'Yeah, I've heard of it'. 'Well, you've gotta say something to them 'cos I'm so mad!' He actually had a tear in his eye - he really couldn't distinguish why this person was so mean to me.
"I was secretly quite touched that he was being all defensive for me. It was kind of making me laugh. I should sooo have done a cameo on that show."
If he does have any nasty inside him, Jackman gets it out on film. Wolverine is famously gruff and in his new film, the family-friendly action flick Real Steel, Jackman's character is often quite unlikeable.
That was a big part of the appeal in what initially seemed like quite a silly idea for a film: washed-up boxer trains, erm, robot boxer to fight.
"I didn't hold out high hopes when I was reading the script," Jackman admits.
"Look, Steven Spielberg was attached and I knew there was going to be something there, but my gut feeling was, 'Hmmmm'.
"But at the front end of scripts they go into quite a lot of detail to explain to non-imaginative readers what characters are like, and reading that I was already like, 'This is interesting ... it's a DreamWorks movie, distributed by Disney, it's a father-son story and I'm trying to sell my son in the first 10 minutes. OK, this is not what I was expecting!'
"My wife saw it the other night, she elbowed me and goes, 'You made me cry in a robot movie'. It's good to be exceeding people's expectations, 'cos let's face it, it doesn't happen very often in the land of hype."
Making robot movies fly when they really shouldn't is the least of Jackman's endless talents.
After promoting the film in Australia last week, he headed back to New York to debut his one-man show on Broadway. In the new year he will take the singing and dancing to the UK - where he will join Russell Crowe and The King's Speech director Tom Hooper in making a movie version of famed musical Les Miserables.
After that, it will be time to bulk up and don the mutton-chops again for another turn as everybody's favourite super-mutant, Wolverine.
Few actors can get away with that kind of diversity without being ridiculed or damned to low-budget indie-ville.
"Well, I don't think Wolverine ever would have happened unless it was the first thing I did," Jackman muses.
"I would say 70 per cent of people on the planet know me for that only. I can't imagine if you became big as Peter Allen that you were gonna get cast as Wolverine next. So the order of things helped.
"But as you know here (in Australia), there is no luxury of being a movie star. We don't really have a star system, there is no living to be made in film, and you really need to be able to do other things. When you graduate from drama school, you just go for everything. That's why I went for a musical.
"And by the way, I snuck into that musical - it's funny how it's been remembered differently, but I was, I think, the only actor in history in a professional musical to have it in his contract that he must have singing lessons once a week," he laughs.
Jackman's musical side is especially advantageous these days, with the movie musical back in vogue. On that front, Les Miserables is his dream project - in fact, production on The Wolverine was shunted back to make room for it.
"I chased that thing," he says, furrowing his brow.
"I was offered the part in Chicago 10 years ago - I was 31 and I thought at the time, 'I'm just too young, I wanna play Billy Flynn, but how can I say, I've seen it all, kid - it's my second movie!'
"Then I saw the movie and I was like, 'I so should have put some make-up on'. It was so great, my palms were sweating and I was like, 'Oh my God, please don't let that be the only one I'm offered'. So when this one came up, I really chased it.
"Musicals have been around, but I s'pose this one really excites me with Tom and Russell and, of course, it's Les Mis, it's one of the greatest musicals of all time."
After doing some reading of Victor Hugo's original Les Miserables novel, he reckons the leap from playing Jean Valjean in the musical back to being Wolverine will be easy.
"They talk about his qualities, all the animalistic ... that could have been Wolverine! It's just Wolverine doesn't sing ... "
In between jobs, Jackman will continue to ensure Oscar, 11, and Ava, 6, know they're his No. 1 priority - even when the celebrity spotlight is shining its brightest.
"I try and remind them what I remind myself of - life is full of weird and wonderful, crazy, sometimes annoying experiences, that's part of the deal here," he says.
The things that really matter stay forever, so they're the things to focus on. The other things, even times when you feel down, they pass, you know. The things that matter are love and family and friendship.
"Those photographers are here today because they're interested in my movie, but there'll come a time when they're not and that's OK.
"I'm always your dad, we're always together, sometimes it can be frustrating, but that's what matters.
"It's the best way I've come up with yet."
The Sydney-raised actor, who turns 43 this month, seems happy to let his kids do the dirty work. If he's got a reputation as being nice, that's just because he's "ultimately not that different from a lot of people that interview me".
But he knows that nice is not necessarily cool or helpful as far as an actor's career.
"For actors, the word 'nice' is something to be wary of. It sounds pretty tepid and a little bit uninteresting, and that may be the case! Maybe journalists go back and go, 'How am I going to describe him? Quixotic, no. Enigmatic, not really. I suppose, nice!' The lowest common denominator."
Some people play on that fact - the character Doctor Cox in TV sitcom Scrubs always sounded off about his intense hatred for Jackman.
Jackman, as you'd expect, is not at all miffed.
"No! I think it's hilarious! I don't blame 'em," he says.
"Someone forwarded me that link where he does the long monologue of all the things he hates: ' ... and Hugh Jackman!' But my son came home to me and said, 'Do you know this show Scrubs?' I said, 'Yeah, I've heard of it'. 'Well, you've gotta say something to them 'cos I'm so mad!' He actually had a tear in his eye - he really couldn't distinguish why this person was so mean to me.
"I was secretly quite touched that he was being all defensive for me. It was kind of making me laugh. I should sooo have done a cameo on that show."
If he does have any nasty inside him, Jackman gets it out on film. Wolverine is famously gruff and in his new film, the family-friendly action flick Real Steel, Jackman's character is often quite unlikeable.
That was a big part of the appeal in what initially seemed like quite a silly idea for a film: washed-up boxer trains, erm, robot boxer to fight.
"I didn't hold out high hopes when I was reading the script," Jackman admits.
"Look, Steven Spielberg was attached and I knew there was going to be something there, but my gut feeling was, 'Hmmmm'.
"But at the front end of scripts they go into quite a lot of detail to explain to non-imaginative readers what characters are like, and reading that I was already like, 'This is interesting ... it's a DreamWorks movie, distributed by Disney, it's a father-son story and I'm trying to sell my son in the first 10 minutes. OK, this is not what I was expecting!'
"My wife saw it the other night, she elbowed me and goes, 'You made me cry in a robot movie'. It's good to be exceeding people's expectations, 'cos let's face it, it doesn't happen very often in the land of hype."
Making robot movies fly when they really shouldn't is the least of Jackman's endless talents.
After promoting the film in Australia last week, he headed back to New York to debut his one-man show on Broadway. In the new year he will take the singing and dancing to the UK - where he will join Russell Crowe and The King's Speech director Tom Hooper in making a movie version of famed musical Les Miserables.
After that, it will be time to bulk up and don the mutton-chops again for another turn as everybody's favourite super-mutant, Wolverine.
Few actors can get away with that kind of diversity without being ridiculed or damned to low-budget indie-ville.
"Well, I don't think Wolverine ever would have happened unless it was the first thing I did," Jackman muses.
"I would say 70 per cent of people on the planet know me for that only. I can't imagine if you became big as Peter Allen that you were gonna get cast as Wolverine next. So the order of things helped.
"But as you know here (in Australia), there is no luxury of being a movie star. We don't really have a star system, there is no living to be made in film, and you really need to be able to do other things. When you graduate from drama school, you just go for everything. That's why I went for a musical.
"And by the way, I snuck into that musical - it's funny how it's been remembered differently, but I was, I think, the only actor in history in a professional musical to have it in his contract that he must have singing lessons once a week," he laughs.
Jackman's musical side is especially advantageous these days, with the movie musical back in vogue. On that front, Les Miserables is his dream project - in fact, production on The Wolverine was shunted back to make room for it.
"I chased that thing," he says, furrowing his brow.
"I was offered the part in Chicago 10 years ago - I was 31 and I thought at the time, 'I'm just too young, I wanna play Billy Flynn, but how can I say, I've seen it all, kid - it's my second movie!'
"Then I saw the movie and I was like, 'I so should have put some make-up on'. It was so great, my palms were sweating and I was like, 'Oh my God, please don't let that be the only one I'm offered'. So when this one came up, I really chased it.
"Musicals have been around, but I s'pose this one really excites me with Tom and Russell and, of course, it's Les Mis, it's one of the greatest musicals of all time."
After doing some reading of Victor Hugo's original Les Miserables novel, he reckons the leap from playing Jean Valjean in the musical back to being Wolverine will be easy.
"They talk about his qualities, all the animalistic ... that could have been Wolverine! It's just Wolverine doesn't sing ... "
In between jobs, Jackman will continue to ensure Oscar, 11, and Ava, 6, know they're his No. 1 priority - even when the celebrity spotlight is shining its brightest.
"I try and remind them what I remind myself of - life is full of weird and wonderful, crazy, sometimes annoying experiences, that's part of the deal here," he says.
The things that really matter stay forever, so they're the things to focus on. The other things, even times when you feel down, they pass, you know. The things that matter are love and family and friendship.
"Those photographers are here today because they're interested in my movie, but there'll come a time when they're not and that's OK.
"I'm always your dad, we're always together, sometimes it can be frustrating, but that's what matters.
"It's the best way I've come up with yet."
