Hugh Jackman Struggles with Mandarin Song
By wchung | 15 Mar, 2026

Actor Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness attend the premiere of 'From Paris With Love' at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

He’s mastered the role of a mutant with metal claws — but foreign languages are a tall order for Hugh Jackman.

The Australian actor who rose to fame by playing the superhero Wolverine in the “X-Men” series is in Shanghai to shoot scenes for director Wayne Wang’s “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” in which his character breaks into song — in Chinese.

Jackman, who plays a nightclub owner, joked that his pronunciation was lost on the movie’s ethnic Chinese producer Wendi Murdoch — the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

“I sang it and the very first couple of syllables she was like, ‘great,’ and then gradually she said like, ‘what?’” he told Associated Press Television News in an interview late Thursday.

“But I think I got at least one take,” Jackman added.

The movie is based on Lisa See’s novel by the same name, which follows the friendship of two women in 1800s China.

2/19/2010 12:22 PM SHANGHAI (AP)