The film, which Jackman produced, has been nominated for Best Picture and seven other Oscars. (It already took home Best Picture at the BAFTAs.) Fellow Penn Arts & Sciences alums Fred Berger, C’03, and Marc Platt, C’79, also received Best Picture bids for “A Complete Unknown” and “Wicked,” respectively.
When Mike Jackman, C’85, walks the red carpet with his wife, Lisa, W’88, at the Academy Awards on March 2, it will be his third time attending the event. “I’ve had the nosebleed seats twice,” he says. “Apparently, this time we’ll be pretty close to the stage in case we happen to win.”
Jackman is being modest, but he’s referring to the eight nominations for Conclave—a film he produced with Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell about the closed-door process to select a new pope. The list of honors includes a chance at Best Picture; though previous projects Jackman’s worked on have received the prized golden statuette, this is his first nomination. “It is truly a wonderful moment, both personally and professionally,” he says. “It’s kind of surreal, too.
At this year’s Oscars, Penn Arts & Sciences will be well represented: Alongside Jackman, Fred Berger, C’03, is nominated for A Complete Unknown, and Marc Platt, C’79, is nominated for Wicked.
The work lives of this trio have overlapped in other ways, too, Jackman notes. “Fred and Marc produced La La Land together, and Fred was an intern for me on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Jackman says. “He did the title sequence, and he was Jim Carrey’s hand double. You know, it’s interesting, we didn’t even have a film program when I was an undergraduate, but a lot of us ended up in film.”
This past Sunday, Conclave won Best Picture at the British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs. Ahead of the industry’s biggest night in the U.S., Omnia spoke with Jackman about his career path and his time at Penn, plus what advice he would give to today’s college students.
Can you describe the moment you learned you were nominated for Best Picture?
It’s such a singular thing to have happen, to expect anything was silly, but I was obviously hoping. Best Picture is also the last of the categories to get announced. We were keeping notes on which Conclave categories got nominated, and they finally get to that last one. You see your name up there and see it announced and it’s super exciting. I was just home with my wife. It’s funny, I have all these filters on my email, so I literally didn’t get the email from the Academy congratulating me until four days later.
What role does a producer play on a film like this?
The producer can be a lot of things. My role, and what I like to do most, is act as a liaison between the creative plan and roadmap for the movie from the director and other producers and everyone who reads the script, and the budget and resources available. How can we do this amazing project at the highest levels with the time and money we have? That’s a problem-solving job first and foremost, and we’re creating invisible compromises; they’re visible to us, but we like to think invisible to the audience.
There’s friction there across everything but it’s respectful and creative. That friction causes the need to defend what you’re going to shoot—and that creates a lot of thoughtfulness. I think there’s a disciplined nature to the art of filmmaking and there’s benefit to challenging those creative assumptions. What am I doing? Why is it there?
You were a psych major at Penn. How did you go from that to film?
I was interested in psychology, but I didn’t think I wanted to be a psychologist or psychiatrist. The only part of my “plan” was that med school was not part of it. I thought acting could be fun, and after graduation I was able to get a job as a production assistant on a movie. I figured, let me get into any job that gives me access, and I’ll find my way forward.
So, I spent the next three years as a production assistant. My second job was the care and feeding of Cher, Dennis Quaid, and Liam Neeson. They were great, a lot of fun. Then the third film I did was called Mississippi Burning, and I bugged the director every day to put me in the movie. Finally, he put me in, I got a speaking part, and I got into the Screen Actors Guild. But I had seen the life of an actor—it’s a really hard life, especially how much rejection it is, not because you’re good or bad but because of what you look like and what time it is and who you’re standing next to and 100 other reasons, including your talent.
The advice I was given is if you can live without acting, then for God’s sake, live without acting. I said, let me look at this producer thing, and then I spent the next 20-something years doing it. I was led by curiosity, learning something new, being challenged, a little bit of not being afraid to try anything. At least a third of the jobs I had I didn’t know how to do them when I got them. I just figured it out.
What are some of your most memorable experiences at Penn?
I loved Penn. In my freshman year, I played football, I rowed crew. I also got randomly assigned two roommates, and we were all very different but the chemistry between us was just great. We ended up living together all four years. We rushed frats and then just decided to hang out ourselves. Senior year I joined the a cappella group Pennsylvania Six-5000 (today called Penn Six).
I just had a great time at Penn. I enjoyed the people I met. I enjoyed the rhythm of it. I enjoyed getting to know Philly, the Penn pride of it all. My father went to Penn, class of ’53, my uncle went to Penn, class of ’56. My wife, I didn’t know her while we were there, but she was Wharton ’88. My daughter was College ’21, my son is Wharton ’25. We’re quite the Penn family. Two of my closest friends to this day are from my time at Penn.
What advice would you give to college undergrads today?
First, and it’s a little bit of cliché, but I do believe that if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. If you wake up and you’re excited about doing what you’re doing, keep doing it. If you’re dreading the day, give a thought to what you’re doing. There are lots of way to plan your life and your career. I led with curiosity.
Try to be fearless. Be curious and don’t be afraid to try something you don’t know how to do. And what’s that saying? You have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk. It’s something I’m still working on, too. Never stop trying.