Hugh Jackman fans should ready themselves for an onslaught of Aussie goodness in the coming weeks as he prepares for the release of The Wolverine. As such, Hugh covers the August issue of Good Housekeeping, and I do adore Hugh, but this is one of the cheesiest covers he’s ever done, right? I mean, it’s par for the course with Good Housekeeping, but it’s still hilarious. The magazine hasn’t released any good excerpts yet, but they have revealed a few tidbits, including that Hugh’s “recipe for romance” is “surprise.” Hugh told the publication, “If I bring Deb flowers every Tuesday, yeah, it’s nice, but is it romantic? Especially when a couple has children, so much of life is about your routine.” Then he revealed how he once surprised Deborrah by pretending he wouldn’t be home until very late and then arriving home early from a film set to sweep her off to a lunch at their favorite restaurant. That’s sweet, and I’m sure it was a much appreciated gesture and just the right amount of spontaneity without throwing an entire day’s schedule out of whack.

Hugh’s also entered the press conference realm (he is shown below at NYC’s Mandarin Oriental hotel), and he sat down for an interview with the Mail while recently in Montreal. Hugh has previously spoken about how his mother abandoned him with he was 8 years old, and touches more upon the topic (as well as many others) here:

On the appeal of Wolverine: “Kids can relate to it. Every teenager feels murderous and marginalised — just like the mutants in X-Men. I was bullied by my big brother. Playing Wolverine makes me think how I used to fight with my brother. He used to call me poofter and sissy for being interested in dancing. And by the time he said there was nothing wrong with that, I was too old. I was 18 then.’

He was abandoned by his mother at age 8: “She saw me off to school wearing a towel round her head and when I came back she was gone. Two days later there was a telegram saying she was in England. It took me years to realise it wasn’t temporary. I’ve been reunited with Mum since. We see each other four or five times a year.”

Is he lowering himself with a comic-book character? “I find it interesting. If I didn’t I’d get out. I was given three pages of script. [My wife] read them and said, ‘There are words like *kerpow* here.’ She thought it was beneath me. I was working with Trevor Nunn at the National Theatre (playing Curly in the 1998 production of Oklahoma). It’s the only time my wife has ever been wrong — and you can quote me on that.”

He gained 25 pounds in 12 weeks for the role: “The problem is my height. I’m 6ft 2in and lean but in the books he’s 5ft 3in and stocky. Part of the bulking-up was to make me look squatter — more Mike Tyson than Hugh Jackman. He was a touchstone because he’s ruthless and has that Wolverine build.”

Never meet your idols: “I said, ‘Good day Mr Eastwood, Hugh Jackman.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ So I said, ‘I’ve been told I occasionally look like you in films.’ And Mr Eastwood replied, ‘You’re holding up the line, kid.’ Well, I still watch his movies for inspiration …”

The trials of wearing claws: “In my living room, I’d walk around wearing the claws, to get used to them. I’ve got scars on one leg, punctures through the cheek, on my forehead.” But he stuck at it. “No one apart from Sean Connery has been in so many films in the same franchise.”

On his Wolverine fitness plan: “I used to go to the gym and see these guys pumping iron and I thought they were idiots. In what situation could you need to bench 350lb? I never understood the addiction, it’s just painful. But that’s what I do to become Wolverine.” Worse is the diet. “It’s not good for me to eat 6,000 calories a day. I have to eat a dozen eggs every day. I worry I’ll have a heart attack.”

It’s not all bad: “I shouldn’t gripe so much about what I have to do to become Wolverine. One thing that is good about having the body I have is it makes you more physically imposing. People back away when you’re in a crowd and give you more space.”

What went wrong with Australia? “Dunno. Was it a failure? I’m really proud of it, an epic about my homeland. Fantastic! I loved working with Baz. I guess somehow it didn’t catch fire at the box office.”

[From Daily Mail]

Aww, I feel kind of bad about Hugh’s feelings on Australia. It’s not his fault that the movie was an overwrought mess with hardly any commercial appeal whatsoever. It must be pretty crushing (to both him and Nicole Kidman) to try and honor one’s homeland in an epic film only to have it come crashing down. I remember reading that Baz hadn’t even finished editing the film until a few days before it was set to hit theaters. Yikes.

You know what’s even crazier about the fact that Hugh had to regain all that weight to play Wolverine in this latest movie? Well, he also had a false alarm a few years ago when the movie was set to begin production in spring 2011, but Darren Aronofsky dropped out of the movie at the last moment. So the entire production was postponed for several months, and then Hugh had to go and regain all of that muscle yet another time. He also had to lose and regain more weight for Les Miserables too. Ouch.

Now for absolutely no reason at all, here are some photos of Hugh riding a scooter around NYC’s West Village on 5/13. He’s adorable.

Photos courtesy of Good Housekeeping and WENN