Celebrity True or False: Hugh Jackman Talks The Rock, David Bowie & More

Hugh Jackman submitted to a round of Celebrity True or False, and the answers were even better than the premises.

First up: did he sing the Australian anthem at a rugby match and get booed by 30,000 New Zealanders? True, Jackman said, and possibly more than 30,000. But it wasn't the loudest he's ever been booed. That honor belongs to a burping contest final against Justin Timberlake at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Jackman is convinced Timberlake, a clear professional, may have rigged the microphone, and when Jackman delivered his own epic belch, an arena of 10,000-plus kids responded with pure hate. Even Kenny G emerged from his dressing room to tell him he sucked.

Next: during a stage production of Beauty and the Beast, did he drink too much water and pay for it mid-song? True, and committed. On the big final note, while carrying Belle over his shoulder, Jackman realized a little had escaped. Faced with a choice on the last note, front and center, he could either not sing or pee his red tights. As an artist, he sang the note. Pressed on whether it was the high F-sharp that did him in, Jackman agreed, because hitting the big notes requires release while holding on requires clenching, which was precisely his dilemma.

Then the Wolverine diet: 6,000 calories a day on a regimen from The Rock? Absolutely true. After seeing him ripped in a film, Jackman called him, and The Rock picked up with "Yo, Wolf Red," even pausing to tell someone at his trailer door that he was talking to Wolverine and would be out when he's done. The cheat-meal lesson became legend. Jackman sent a photo of his cheat meal, a burger and fries, and got disparaging comments back, followed by The Rock's own: a store's worth of chocolate-chip peanut-butter cookies, a bottle of tequila, and three pizzas. His rule: if you're not sick at the end of your cheat meal, you haven't cheated.

On The Greatest Showman, did Jackman perform the song "From Now On" to push a hesitant studio into greenlighting it? Partly true, and the backstory is brutal. The day before the final presentation, Jackman had surgery for skin cancer on his nose with about 80 stitches, and his doctor told him not to sing. He'd arranged for someone else to sing while he read the lines, but when the spoken open gave way to the song, he couldn't hand it over. He sang, burst the stitches, finished with blood running down his face, and had nearly all of them redone. The movie got its green light.

Finally, the David Bowie story: did the Prestige co-star nickname him "the scalper" for once selling a Bowie ticket? The story is true, Jackman said, but the label is false, and the reality is worse. As a 13-year-old, he sold his $20 ticket to what would have been his first concert, Bowie in Sydney, for $50. Years later, telling Bowie the story, he watched the icon glaze over halfway through and simply walk away without a word. Jackman appeared in support of The Death of Robin Hood, in theaters June 19th.