Hugh Jackman and Tom Hooper on LesMis Movie

In a joint interview with Australia’s Empire Magazine, Tom Hooper who directed the movie of Les Miserables and Hugh Jackman who is starring as Jean Valjean  made the following points.

Jackman sings his songs live in the movie alongside his fellow cast members, and he admits the motion picture 'feels immediate and real' just like the emotional production. “So much of your brain is on the miming, then you've got to act. The very first scene that I'm in, we were close to the Alps. It was below zero, it was very windy and you can see steam, you can hear the cold in my voice. Les Misérables' is one of the most emotive musicals ever written. There's no walk in the park scene. Everything is full-on.”

Director Tom Hooper has ensured it is a sung-through musical like the original production and insists there is 'nothing camp' about the motion picture and it is very grounded, very masculine and very strong about the big universal themes. “It's not first and foremost a musical. It's first and foremost a terrific story that uses the musical form to express itself. The thing about singing it live is it allows the illusion that the actors are thinking the songs up. I say to Hugh [Jackman], 'With that verse, just give yourself a fraction more time to let the new idea form, then sing about it'. It's completely revolutionary."

Les Misérables is due for release on January 11th 2013 in the UK and December 14th 2012 in the USA.