Hugh Jackman rolls with the punches in the robot Rocky

How much time did you spend in the gym for this?

"Not long. There's really no action for me apart from one scene. I was doing boxing every day to look like a boxer but I was actually doing boxing training for two or three years before that. I found this boxing gym in New York and it's just one of the greatest ways to stay fit, one of the best workouts you're going to have. I find gyms boring so I really enjoy doing that."

Why did you reportedly beef up on milkshakes?

"I rang the director, Shawn (Levy), and said 'I'm playing an ex-boxer. I just ran into Mike Tyson and you can tell he was a boxer, he still looks formidable but you can also tell he's put on a few pounds'. I said 'that's the look' and Shawn said 'yeah let's go for it'. When I came in for a costume fitting 20 pounds heavier he said: 'Maybe not quite so realistic'."

You trained with Sugar Ray Leonard, who acted as an advisor for the film. What is it like to meet sporting heroes?

"I am an actor. I look like I can fight but I would be crying like a baby in a ring with someone like Sugar Ray. I am a little bit Wolverine-y. I haven't got a temper but you hit me in the face anywhere and I can go into a blind rage.

"Sugar he is so gracious, so generous and lovely, but there was a moment when he was showing us some combination stuff to the stomach. The behind-the-scenes camera thought 'this is a great moment' and came around. Out of the corner of his eye I could see he saw it and, man, he started whaling on me. I felt that."

Your dad boxed?

"Yes. He never spoke about it when I was growing up. Me and my brother Ralph, who is 18 months older than me, we fought from the moment I was born so he wouldn't allow us to watch wrestling, boxing, he never talked about it, he thought we would glorify it and bash each other up even more. Only now does he talk about it."

How much influence did your relationship with your own son and daughter have on the character?

"I can honestly say once you become a father those stories touch you more. The emotions were much closer to the surface. There were times were I had to keep them down doing the scenes. But jeez man, I really hope I'm a better father than my character in this movie."

"I'm pretty strict. My kids would tell you I'm a bit strict. I'm not nearly as strict as my father. That's how we compare ourselves as parents, with the upbringing we had. It's human nature, we want to do a better job than our parents did. I'm not quite as strict but my wife (Deborra-Lee Furness) is very 'Woo hoo' [waves hands in air], 'whatever goes'. I'm definitely bad cop."

What don't you allow?

"I'm big on respect and the better part of manners. I don't worry about elbows on the table like my dad used to worry. But in terms of being respectful, looking people in the eye, saying thank you and appreciating other people. Particularly as I'm aware that because of my job sometimes they get a free pass from people. People will allow them to do things because they see them with me that they wouldn't allow other kids to do. Because of that I feel I have to doubly be strict. We live in a building that has a doorman. If my kids don't say hello and thank you for opening the door I make them walk up the stairs, nine flights. I gave them one month, from when they were five. I said 'For one month I'm going to remind you and after that month if you don't say it, we're walking up the steps. It's worked. I've probably walked up the steps 50 times with my son, Oscar. Occasionally he'll forget and he'll walk in, say 'hi' but not thank you and it's [slaps forehead]...

"My father was strict. He was never a yeller, anything like that but he very firm with boundaries. I was at a dinner party last night, I could not take a nut or a chip without offering them to everybody else. My dad said I don't care if it's our house or someone else's house. You never see that any more but I make my kids do that."

Your father raised you as a single parent after your parents divorced and your mother left Sydney to return to England. How did that affect you in this movie, particularly as it deals with a parent who has left a child?

"Maybe that added to some of the emotions but to be honest the situation in the movie is so different. I am who I am and my emotions are made up of that. There's a scene in the movie where I found it very difficult to deliver the line without getting emotional, where he turns up on the doorstep of his son, basically saying I apologise, I realise I've made a lot of mistakes. That affects me because I imagine at some point every parent has to own up to their kids that they tried their hardest but... And every kid is going to be angry, 'why did you do that?'

"Every parent is going to get that speech at some point from their kids and at some point you have to say 'yeah, I did make mistakes, I love you, I did my best, I'm sorry for this or that'. That's what affects me more."

"There's a line in the movie where Charlie says 'I don't understand what you want from me?' and Max says 'I just want you to fight for me, that's all I ever wanted'. If you ever heard that from your kids I don't know how you'd ever recover from that."

"Yes I am who I am but I'm very much at peace with my mum. She's here (at the hotel). We've made our peace, with everything."

It was unusual at that time for children to be raised by their father

"It was unusual. I was eight at the time so my understanding of it is limited obviously. I think it's fair to say both of them feel they made mistakes, they wished they could have that time back to handle things better. As a kid, my mum lived in England but I never felt that I wasn't loved by her or by my dad. Now, divorce is pretty common. I have friends going through it and they all ring me, wanting my perspective as a kid who went through it. All I can say is 'At the end of the day your kid is going to grow up, they're going to have good relationships, bad relationships, they're going to have their heart broken, they're going to break people's hearts. They are going to understand relationships don't always work out and they are not going to be angry with you for it. But if they don't feel that somehow [they were your priority] they will be angry with you for that'."

You are godfather to Rupert Murdoch's daughter. When you saw him appear before the select committee was that an emotional moment for you?

"I want to be careful how I answer this. We're friends with them and we don't really ever talk business. It's a family friendship. I think he's an amazing man and I admire many, many things about him. I've never for a second doubted anything he said in that and I think he was truly remorseful for what happened. I don't think he condones it, as he was saying, and I believe that."

What is your favourite boxing movie?

"When We Were Kings. Then Rocky. I loved all the Rockys, even Rocky IV. To this day I listen to the Rocky theme when I'm in the gym. Corny but it works."

Who is your favourite boxer?

"I was in awe of Tyson. Ali was the most famous but I didn't have as big a connection to Ali as I did to Mike Tyson because that's when I started watching [boxing]. He was the smallest, shortest and the most feared. For an 18-year-old guy, we all looked up to him, we were in awe of him. Not so much near the end of his career obviously."

Are you more passionate about boxing or musical theatre?

"Musical theatre. I'm doing the screen version of Les Mis next then I'm going to do my one-man show. I'm not a massive musical theatre fan, I don't really listen to it a lot, I like some, so my show has some standards, some rock and roll, all the kind of music I like, not just musicals."

It's just you and an 18-piece orchestra accompanying you?

"I'm very greedy. I like the attention."

Your son, Oscar, 11, came on to play the didgeridoo at one of your shows

"I was so proud of him, he was so scared but he got through it. He asked to be in it and I said 'of course'. He got up in front of 3000 people, it was a big call."

Is there something cathartic about putting yourself in front of all those people?

"Yes. The most cathartic is when it's pure. It's very difficult to describe it. There are moments on stage when you've got 1000 people, they're strangers, you don't know any of them, by the end there's an intimacy with those people that's almost as strong as people you've known for 20 years. I don't know what it is, but when the material is right and you're coming from the right place there's a genuine sharing, dare I say the word communion, it elevates beyond 'I'm a singer and you're going to enjoy the music.' There's some connection. That's why I love theatre and why I don't think theatre, or live music, or stand up comedians, will ever fail. No matter how good the technology gets in movies, what we crave as humans is that connection."

How important is it to make that sort of connection with an audience in a movie?

"Really important. I saw Real Steel in Paris for the first time completed and it threw me. I saw people crying, cheering, clapping through the fights. It's so gratifying That's really what you want more than anything, that shared experience. Sitting with an audience in a film is maybe the closest I get to that feeling I get on stage".

Is there going to be a sequel?

"I am in the UK doing Les Mis with Tom Hooper, and there is prob another Wolverine happening but I am sure we will find time. I loved this movie, this character and it is something I really would love to do again."

You have just turned 43 but you are still looking pretty buff. How do you feel about being called a sex symbol?

"I don't know, I really don't. I'm not comfortable with the label. I don't own it. If you dropped by before noon you'd be like 'Sex symbol. Really?' I don't really relate to it that way and I don't ever want to, I think it's dangerous. If you're attached to your body as that, what happens in the last 30 years of your life? That sounds like jail to me, a self-imposed kind of bondage. It's important to feel good about yourself and healthy, I have young children I like feeling healthy fit and I try to encourage them. I'm an actor, my body is vital, my voice is vital. I see them as instruments."

Did it help you were already married and had started a family before you became really famous following X-Men?

"Absolutely. I have friends who become famous and they are out there single and for a while they're like 'This is awesome, unbelievable, I don't have to work at all, I just go out and people come to me.' Then comes the time when they are really looking for a partner, because of course that gets old, and I see it's difficult, I really do. Something gets in the way, either from them or the other people. There's a kind of mistrust. It's not pure any more. It's not just 'Hey, do I like you? Are we connected?' It becomes a bit of 'What are you in it for?'. I'm really grateful. I was doing theatre when I met my wife, earning a thousand bucks a week, I had one bag with clothes, I was a student for seven years. She certainly didn't fall in love with me for anything to do with fame, position, money, any of that."

"I can't give him any advice, the guy is the funniest man I know. I grew up with Raw and can quote to you verbatim. I don't know when he last did stand up. He's movie royalty, unbelievably funny. It's an inspired choice and I'm so excited. If he did ask me for advice, which he won't, I would pass on what Steve Martin passed to me. He said for the first 45 minutes it is the greatest audience you'll ever have, mainly because they are looking up at you thinking 'Thank God it's not me.' From that moment on the room is filled with more losers than winners so just hurry up, get to the end, motor through. If you think 'oh I might go out and tell a few jokes', don't. Just go, go, go."

As a struggling actor, what did you feel when you got your first role in a movie? That your life was going to change?

"No. The first movie I did was Erskineville Kings, a movie I'm really proud of and about 11 people saw it. It won a few awards. We shot it in three weeks. It was very strange for me because I came out as an actor, ostensibly classically trained, not as a singer in any way. I did a TV series with ABC then I did two musicals. All of a sudden I was written up in the paper as a singer .... I tried to get into film for 18 months to two years and couldn't get arrested.

"In Australia, more than anywhere else even though I do see it in other places, the perception is if you do musicals you are a performer, an entertainer, you're not an actor. The hardest acting I ever do is trying to communicate thought through song. Trust me, it's not easy."

Landing Erskineville Kings I was so grateful. For a second I thought I would never do a film."

"There was also in Sydney in particular a bit of a film club. Everyone was leather jackets, cigarettes, cooler than cool. I've never felt cool in my life. I'm not a cool guy. I always felt a bit like I'm not grungy enough, not screwed up enough, not cool enough to be in film. Everyone was like James Dean. I was really grateful to get a gig."

How have you kept your feet on the ground, have your children helped?

"They do. There's also now probably a kind of healthy gratitude for everything that happens and constantly the knowledge that it will go away. I think that's good. It's a bit like going on vacation. When you go on vacation you know it's coming to an end. Some people go on vacation and become depressed from the second day in because it's going to end in seven days. I think, 'You know what, I'm just going to enjoy it while I'm there,' and hopefully have enough wisdom to be okay when the vacation is over."

"We come into the world crying and if you can go out happy with life and content that's probably the definition of success."

"We're cheaper." [laughs] "There's a lot of reasons but we're just good man."