Before talking to RedEye at the Dana Hotel’s Vertigo Sky Lounge about “Eddie the Eagle,” their Olympic ski-jumping movie opening Friday, Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton submitted to our random game of Trivia Olympics. One of the questions: naming all the members of One Direction.
“Zayn—no longer there, right? I’ve got a 10-year-old,” offers Jackman (the “X-Men” franchise, “Les Miserables”).
“I kinda like One Direction …,” admits Egerton (“Kingsman: The Secret Service,” the upcoming “Robin Hood: Origins”).
“Zayn, Stefano, Bob. Bobby, sorry.”
“What’s the one that everyone loves?”
“Stefano. Zayn.”
“Harry.”
“Harry. Definitely Harry. And Sebastian.”
“Paul, John, Ringo.”
“Stephanie.”
“Stephanie.”
“She’s awesome.”
“Stephanie’s so good. Baz.”
In other words, these guys are a riot together (see below for what director Dexter Fletcher thinks bonds them together), and they pair nicely in “Eddie the Eagle,” in which the 26-year-old Welsh actor plays real-life ski-jumping hero Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, who picked up the sport in adulthood simply because he wasn’t succeeding in downhill skiing and no one was representing Britain in ski jumping the Olympics. The 47-year-old Australian Oscar-nominee best known as Wolverine plays Eddie’s coach, a fictional character who has his own troubled history with the sport.
Watch the interview below and scroll to the bottom to watch/read the rest of Trivia Olympics:
This movie suggests that in competition it’s about the journey, not the destination. A lot of people, when they compete as kids, at least in American sports, get participation trophies. What do you think of that concept, and if you’re into it, at what age should people stop getting them?
Hugh Jackman: [Laughs.]
Taron Egerton: I don’t know. I think the idea of participation trophies has gotta be a really, really great thing. Kids are under enough pressure as it is without encouraging them to be the best too early.
HJ: My school had a thing which I still to this day think is awesome. So on your school report, the last thing anyone really looked at was the mark out of 100, like 70, 80, whatever. The first thing that was always mainly counted by parents and by teachers was the effort rating. Effort 1 to effort 5. It wasn’t just about, “Oh, you were in the race.” It was like how much effort did you put in. And the people who got certificates and were brought up in front were all the ones who got effort 1s. They may have been in the bottom of the class, but that’s what was prized. I actually think that was kind of ahead of its time.
Yeah, so if the person who came in first wasn’t really trying …
HJ: Totally. Right. If you think of this movie, you think Eddie never won a jumping competition ever. Spoiler alert—he comes [in] last. But you see what he overcame and you see what he had to do. He’s the most inspirational.
You praised his courage to do these dangerous jumps even though he had minimal experience. Where’s the line between courage and crazy?
HJ: Yeah, he was dancing on that line—
TE: He’s dancing back and forth, yeah.
HJ: [Laughs.] And by the way, anyone doing that sport is dancing on that line. It’s hard for me as an Australian to really understand ski jumping. I keep thinking of it in terms of surfing. Everyone surfs, but the people who do Jaws, that break in Hawaii, the 50- to 100-foot [wave], it’s that kind of thing. At the exhilaration when you nail that, when you nail a ski jump, the exhilaration is a high that you can’t really achieve anywhere else in life. And yet when you don’t make it, it could be the end of your life. And I think living on that edge is just intoxicating for those guys. And girls.
Is there something noble about if you die ski jumping, skydiving, whatever, as long as it was a thing you love? It’s like, “Well, he went out the way he lived.”
TE: Yeah, I suppose. It’s not an idea that speaks to me particularly, clearly. But I think Eddie would probably say yeah. If you love something enough and it’s what makes you truly happy, then it’s worth the risk.
HJ: Yeah. Same with racing car driving, all of that. There’s some pursuit in living on the edge of life and death, which is so admirable. I’ve got a friend who’s a racing car driver, and he said the moment he had kids it became really hard to justify his personal desire. I think it’s certainly good with ski jumping; it’s a young man’s sport. Or woman’s sport.
I know as a kid you jumped off the roof thinking you were a ski jumper—
HJ: Into the pool. [Laughs.] Not quite the same thing.
I was going to say, was there any injury you ever sustained from that? Or it was only into the pool and you were fine?
HJ: Into the pool. I was OK. But my form was spectacular.
TE: I’ll bet it was.
HJ: Yeah. It was a big jump. I got some air. I did feel like I picked up some buffering. [Laughs.]
Between the Olympic sports of luge and javelin, which is easier or harder than people think?
TE: What one’s luge?
HJ: That’s the one where you’re lying—the bobsledding but single, right?
Yeah.
HJ: Are you on your front or on the back with luge?
You pretty much just lie down and zoom.
TE: You gotta have nerves of steel for that, though, right? ‘Cause they go pretty fast.
HJ: Ah, yeah. I remember it was the last Olympics where that person died on the practice jump. I think the thing is really anyone can throw a javelin. I’m not saying how far. But anyone can throw it. But I don’t think anyone can do a luge.
TE: No.
HJ: It is life-threatening.
TE: No disrespect to javelin throwers, though, of course. [Laughs.] No one can throw it quite as far as they do.
HJ: Exactly. No one can.
TE: Unless you’re Wolverine. [Laughs.]
HJ: No. What I said came off wrong. Anyone can throw 100 meters? No. Anyone can at least throw it.
TE: But I think the luge is pretty specialist I think. [It’s] misleading.
Which do you think would work better: Eddie the Superhero or Wolverine the Ski Jumper?
HJ: [Laughs.] I think actually Wolverine would be a good candidate because you’re gonna fall over a lot and break a lot of bones and he’s just like, no problem. He just keeps going.
TE: Wrong. Eddie would make a great superhero. I think that’s the movie we all want to see, right?
HJ: What do you think his superpower would be?
TE: [Laughs.] The ability to jump from great heights and bounce back.
HJ: And not charm the ladies.
TE: Not charm the ladies, no. So for example he could jump out of a window here to a sort of disaster scene below, and he’d just bounce back.
HJ: It’s kinda great. I love it.
TE: He’d gradually get down and then he could fight crime.
HJ: You’re not old enough to remember “Greatest American Hero.”
TE: No.
HJ: Who could fly but he didn’t know how to control it, so he crashed every time he came down. [Asks me if I remember, I say no.] You’re too young too. “Greatest American Hero,” come on, people! It’s a great TV series. [singing] “Believe it or not, I’m walking on air.” [Someone in the background says “no.”] That’s my publicist saying no.
Plus: Trivia Olympics
Watch Jackman and Egerton compete against each other:
What sport is dealt with in the movie “Varsity Blues”?
HJ: Basketball.
TE: Hockey.
Football. Still zero-zero.
HJ: [Laughs.]
TE: I just totally guessed.
Who won the Super Bowl last year?
HJ: New England Patriots.
That’s 1-0 Hugh. What won Best Picture last year?
HJ: “Birdman”?
2-0. Can you name both of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s kids?
TE: North.
HJ: Peace.
TE: [Laughs.]
HJ: Right? It’s Peace and Firefly.
TE: [Laughs.]
HJ: I’m pretty sure.
TE: Avocado …
HJ: [Laughs.]
We’ll give a point to Taron for that. 2-1. How about all the members of One Direction?
(See above)
I think we’ll give you both a point for that. Can you quote a line from “Cool Runnings”?
HJ: Uh, I’ve seen this four times.
TE: I can’t, no. I can probably do a John Candy line from another movie but no.
HJ: Can you give us that?
TE: [Laughs.] No, no!
HJ: It’s a half-point! … “Cool Runnings,” give us a line.
TE: OK, OK. “We don’t have a bobsleigh team in Jamaica!” That’s gotta be in it somewhere, right?
[Both laugh.]
“Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up”—
HJ: “And get on time!”
It’s bobsled time!
HJ: “It’s bobsled time!” Yeah. That’s what I meant.
Winner: Jackman, sort of.
Plus: Director Dexter Fletcher compares Egerton and Jackman:
“He’s sort of like a younger version of Hugh in a lot of ways. He’s sort of half his age and he’s just starting out this extraordinary journey, and he’s stepped into a movie that’s made him very close in people’s minds to one role as Hugh did. Wolverine for people came out of nowhere when Hugh had been at it for a long time in the business. And Taron studied for a long time and walked into something huge like ‘Kingsman.’ So I suppose there’s similarities in their trajectories. I think that’s why there’s a real bond between these two. I think Hugh understands where Taron’s at, and Taron understands here’s someone who’s been through what I’m going through. So there’s a real close friendship there.”
Fletcher on who wins a bar fight between Jackman and Fletcher’s “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” costar Jason Statham:
“Hmm, that’s tough. Because Statham will fight dirty. But Jackman’s taller, he’s powerful, he’s quick. I’d put my money on Hugh because he’s taller. Not by much but enough. Tall enough that he’d be able to grab Statham by the top of his head and launch him across a bar.”
@mattpais, mpais@redeyechicago.com
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