Hugh Jackman reveals he's no superhero to his family

Hugh Jackman has been wearing a sticking plaster on his nose since he had a cancerous spot removed a week ago.
It was his second brush with the disease in six months — a basal cell carcinoma was removed last November.
You can’t imagine his alter ego, mutant superhero Wolverine, star of the X-Men movies — with another one out next week — allowing a Band-Aid anywhere near his chiselled features. But Jackman says he’s taking no chances.
Hugh Jackman has been wearing a sticking plaster on his nose since he had a cancerous spot removed a week ago
And now he’s dishing out advice he wishes he’d taken himself years ago. ‘Stay in the shade, cover up, and splash on lots of high factor sun screen,’ he warns.
He has his wife Deborra-Lee Furness to thank for the early warning on both occasions. The first time, she saw a small spot on his nose, and had to persuade him to get it checked. It was quickly diagnosed as a slow-growing form of skin cancer, and was removed.
So when she saw another spot two weeks ago, he didn’t have to be talked into taking action. 
Over 6ft tall, Jackman, 45, comes across when we meet as a blend of an old school romantic lead and a rugged outdoorsman from his native Australia.
He met Deborra-Lee in 1995 when he was cast straight out of drama school in the Australian TV series, Corelli, the fledgling actor playing a prison inmate opposite the more experienced Furness, 13 years older, in the title role as a criminal psychologist.
It was his second brush with the disease in six months - a basal cell carcinoma was removed last November
They wed in 1996, and planned to start a family immediately, but discovered, sadly, they couldn’t have children naturally. So they decided to adopt — and it was, says Jackman, ‘the best thing ever’.
They now have two mixed-race children. In 2000 they adopted Oscar Maximillian — ‘he’s a bit of everything: African-American, Caucasian, Hawaiian, Cherokee’, Jackman later told Oprah Winfrey.
Four years later, Ava Eliot was born. ‘She’s half-Mexican, half-German, the sweetest little thing. We are a formidable family’.
But Jackman goes to great lengths to distance Oscar and Ava — and himself — from Hollywood exotica. ‘In real life I’m a little boring,’ he tells me, and I don’t feel it is false modesty. ‘I think that’s why I like playing extreme characters.
‘I heard Oscar telling a friend: “Enough about my dad, all right? The truth is he’s nothing like Wolverine. He’s not cool, he’s not tough, and he’s nothing like that.”?’
He resumes his role his alter ego, mutant superhero Wolverine, star of the X-Men movies in the latest film, out next week
Deborra-Lee also keeps his feet on the ground, he says. ‘We were visiting London, and at about one in the morning we were in our hotel and the phone rang. It was Steven Spielberg’s office inviting me to host the 2009 Academy Awards.
‘I turned to Deb and said, “You are about to go to bed with the man hosting this year’s Oscars”. She said, “Oh good. Is Billy Crystal here?”?’
His new £250?million movie,  X-Men: Days Of Future Past, is one of the most expensive movies made by 20th Century Fox, and Jackman continues to dominate the series.
Not for nothing was he crowned People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2008, although he’s still bewildered by it, preferring to be seen as an old-fashioned family man. ‘I’ve never believed the sex symbol thing,’ he laughs. ‘When I was 18, nobody was saying, “Whoooh, he’s the sexiest man alive”. Why doesn’t that happen when you really need it, like when you’re in your 20s? Not when you’ve been married for nearly 20 years.
‘I don’t wake up in the morning and say to my wife, “Hey baby, look at me”. She’s more likely to say, “Put the garbage out will you?”?’
X-Men: Days of Future Past, opens next Thursday.
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