LOS ANGELES—“We laugh about it a lot at home,” quipped Hugh Jackman about being named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. Hugh walked into a meeting room at The Ritz-Carlton in Central Park wearing a black shirt and pants one recent afternoon. With his new title, he probably got more scrutiny than usual.

A few days earlier, before we met him in New York, Hugh got wolf whistles from the audience when he was called by director Baz Luhrmann to help introduce their epic movie, “Australia,” in a special screening at Fox Studios’ Zanuck Theatre in LA.

“I bought about 400 copies of the magazine to give out to all my friends in Australia,” Hugh said with a smile. “These are my Australian friends who wrote me e-mails. I didn’t want to open them, I just saw the subject lines. Many of them sent me old photos of me as a young man or drunk, and they said, ‘I’m taking this photo to the press.’ There are at least 10 like that. They wrote, ‘So this is the Sexiest Man Alive?’ And I’m like, ‘Please, don’t show that photo!’ (laughs). Some of the ones I loved were: ‘I’ve got tennis shoes sexier than you.’ ‘This is more ridiculous than the Florida 2000 recount.’ ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! There’s Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and they give it to you? This is a travesty of justice. Give it back immediately. Love, Dad’ (laughs).”

Sense of humor

“So, there are plenty of people to keep my feet on the ground, that’s for sure,” added Hugh, who is tapping his Aussie sense of humor and down-to-earth attitude to deal with the wisecracks about him beating the likes of Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig (who was a close second), David Beckham, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Zac Efron, Jon Hamm, Robert Pattinson and Michael Phelps for the title.

First on the list of folks who are good-naturedly razzing Hugh about his new appellation is his wife, actress Deborra-Lee Furness. Hugh dished: “My wife didn’t miss a beat! The first thing she said was, ‘Finally, I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore (laughs).’ Then, she quite seriously added, ‘Really? So, how does it work? Does your publicist nominate you, or something like that?’ I replied, ‘No. They just kind of ring.’ She said, ‘Really? So, why didn’t Brad get it?’ (laughs).”

Asked about his initial reaction, the “X-Men” star answered, “I was like, ‘Huh? What?’ I actually did think it was a joke when I first heard it from someone I know very well—my producing partner. I thought, ‘Oh, this sounds like his sense of humor.’ To give you an example of how I felt, I’ve got to tell you a little story about when we did the shoot for that magazine issue. These things are shrouded in secrecy, to the point where we did a photo shoot and only the photographer and the person from People magazine knew. Nobody else was allowed to know what it was for!”

He added, “I didn’t know that when I went in. I have hair and makeup persons whom I work with in Australia whenever I do shoots. I walked in and said, ‘Morning, guys.’ They said, ‘Hi, how are you?’ I said, ‘Guys, now listen. Today, all I’m going to say is, you’ve got to really lift your game. Because you have to pull out a miracle.’ I told them what it was for. They said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I answered, ‘Well, People magazine has decided to put me on the cover as ‘The Sexiest Man Alive.’ This was their reaction (with his face, he demonstrated their disbelieving look for several seconds): ‘What? You?’ These are my hair and makeup people, right? It actually went a little longer than that. Then, I said, ‘Alright, this is way too long a pause (laughs).’”

Shower scene

The sexiest tag couldn’t have come at a better time. In “Australia,” a grand-scale movie of romance, drama, action, adventure and comedy in the tradition of those old Hollywood epics, Baz lovingly photographed Hugh as if the filmmaker knew in advance that People would crown his cowboy-playing star.

There’s even an outdoor shower scene that unabashedly shows off the buff physique of Hugh in all its oiled and fake-tanned glory. It’s a wink-wink, nod-nod moment. Had this film been done years earlier, it would have been Nicole, instead, pouring water on herself.

Asked about the scene, the 40-year-old actor grabbed the chance to explain “Australia” as pure entertainment, not a very serious work about his beloved homeland on the brink of World War II.

Hugh recalled, “That scene is a very good way to understand the film. I said to Baz, ‘I see what you’re doing. I understand the wink and the humor. I know what you’re going for. But, I’m not 100-percent sure that people will.’ I don’t remember him yelling ‘48 frames’ and shooting it in slow motion, either. But, people are getting it.

“He said to me, and this is pure Baz: ‘Hugh, I know what you’re saying. Only if we go for it 100 percent will it work. If we back off at all or if we show any lack of courage, it will fall flat, and it will be a total disaster!’” Well, Hugh’s admirers will be happy to know that he and Baz didn’t hold back.

The actor laughingly shared how some of the male crew members humored him when they filmed this shower scene: “We did one shot, and, of course, no one said a thing. We went in for the close-up, and I had to go and put on more fake tan. Trust me, I put fake tan more than I’ve ever put on in my life! I applied oil that didn’t make the fake tan run. So, I went off into the tent and did that. When I came out, half the crew had their shirts off and had oiled up. The boom guy was standing there like this (he showed how the boom guy flexed his arm muscles, as if competing for a bodybuilder title). I loved that moment!”

Grand entrance

Hugh acknowledged that he probably never looked so good onscreen as he does in this movie. He declared, “In a Baz film, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re never going to look as good again in a movie!”

We teased him: Nicole should have demanded just as many loving shots as Hugh had. In one formal-ball scene, Hugh makes a grand entrance in a dazzlingly white dinner jacket. “It’s the very first scene we shot, because I was still clean-shaven,” recalled Hugh, who evokes Clark Gable, definitely not Wolverine, in the scene (he sports a beard through most of the movie).

“We had to do it either at the beginning or the end. That first close-up was the very first scene, and it took three hours to shoot! That’s two and half hours of lighting. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I love Baz Luhrmann, this is fantastic!’

“I also remember my wife being there that day,” Hugh shared with a naughty grin. “She said to me, ‘Make sure you wear that costume home tonight.’ And I thought, ‘Yes, this is going to be good for me!’ It’s a little worrying, though, because, aesthetically, you probably will never look as good as you do in a Baz Luhrmann movie.”

Since he and Nicole (whom he calls Nic) have been friends for years, we asked Hugh how they both shed their inhibitions as lovers in the film. “You’re presuming that I’m inhibited about it,” he joked. “She and my wife shared a house together when Nic first came to Hollywood. So, they’ve been really close. When you get married, you become friends with your partner’s friends, but you’re not always the closest buddies. She was always Nic’s friend. We socialize a lot. But, in some way, I never really knew her. We didn’t have an independent friendship, so to speak.”

Best situation

He continued, “In hindsight, it was really the best situation when we started working together. We were friends, but there was a lot that I didn’t know about her. The worst thing that can happen in onscreen relationships is you hate each other. That, without a doubt, is the worst! The second worst thing that can happen is you really like each other, and you’re too familiar. All the tension and air go out of the room, and it’s boring, ultimately. Nic and I went on a four-hour horse ride down to Kangaroo Valley, south of Sydney. Just before we were about to cross a river, she rode up beside me and said, ‘We should talk about our screen relationship.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, OK (laughs).’

“We had a very frank, honest and, dare I say it, fairly adult conversation about what we needed to achieve. That’s sort of where it began. I’m thankful for that, because it’s a hell of a lot easier when you’re just upfront.”

So, how did Deborra take his kissing scenes with Nicole? “I was very relieved when I saw the movie with my wife,” Hugh answered. “That first kiss, which is long, right? Nic and I are coming together, and trust me, when you’re sitting with your wife and watching that kissing scene, it’s even longer! Nic and I are going together, and then finally, my wife leaned into me and said: ‘That was great!’ I thought, that was the actor in her. But, about 10 minutes later, there’s a montage of us kissing. Nic and I are kissing on the bed, on the porch, on horses, in the hillside. In the middle of that, Deb literally said, ‘Alright, that’s enough!’ She didn’t say it quietly. Baz was behind me. I heard him laugh.”

Kissing scene

“She’s not bossy at all, no,” Hugh said of Nicole, who plays a prissy (well, at first) aristocrat from England who goes to Australia and meets his character, a cattleman simply named The Drover. “Not with me, anyway (laughs).” He cited the advantage of smooching an actress who’s almost as tall as he is: “It’s nice to do a kissing scene with someone, where I don’t have to be in a ditch, or the girl has to stand on a box!”

Nicole’s present and ex-husbands, Keith Urban and Tom Cruise, respectively, should take note. Hugh said with a chuckle: “I remember her saying to me, ‘Wow, there you are!’ I don’t think she’s used to looking up before kissing.”

When asked to describe what he finds sexy, Hugh quipped, “Like I’m somehow an expert now…” He obliged with, “Probably, the defining thing about sex appeal or sexiness is . . . confidence is not exactly the right word. It’s knowing who you are. When you’re with someone who’s got a deep understanding of who she is—and she’s comfortable enough with herself to not be self-obsessed. I find that sexy in women. It’s beyond looks. It’s indefinable, because I can think of the different types of women I find sexy.

“Definitely, a sense of humor is important. In my wife’s case, it’s courage. The more you get to know someone and her vulnerability, you see her in a situation where you may be the only person in the room who knows what she’s going through. When you see people triumphing over their fears, I find that sexy.”

So, what is the Sexiest Man’s take on romance? “I’m not a huge fan of cheesiness, schmaltz or routine,” he replied. “In romance, the key element is surprise. Probably what that shows is that you’re thinking about them all the time. You try to make them feel special. I’ve been married for 13 years, and I know that in the history of the world, that’s not long, but in Hollywood, that’s fairly long! After 13 years, you can sometimes get into a rut. You do the same things. I go to the same restaurants. My wife never gets in a rut. She’s amazing that way. If we go to a restaurant more than twice, she feels like: ‘I’m wasting my life. There are so many other restaurants.’ I find that really romantic and sexy, too!”

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.