Hugh Jackman gets candid about mental health and the toll of filming her movie The son.

In an interview with the BBC as published online on Tuesday, the The greatest showman The actor revealed that the film’s producers hired psychiatrists to stay on set for the cast and crew if they needed to talk.

“It was the first time I had seen such a thing in a movie,” Jackman said. “And people used it and it was necessary.”

The sonwhich adapts one of director Florian Zellerof his own plays, tackles the theme of depression. The film centers on 17-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath), whose growing struggle with mental health begins to impact the lives of his parents, including his New York lawyer father Peter (Jackman) and mother Kate. (Laura Dern). Nicholas continues to blame his parents’ divorce and Peter’s recent baby with new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) for his declining condition.

In one maintenance with The Hollywood Reporter in August, Zeller explained why he made the decision to show depression for what it is rather than focusing on the cause, saying, “I think it’s part of the mental health issue, it’s like a mystery. You can’t figure out exactly why it’s there. This may seem unfair, as there is no clear explanation and, in a way, it is no one’s fault.

Jackman told the BBC that intimacy coaches have become more common on set when intimate scenes are being filmed, but that he believes mental health support is also needed, especially in films with difficult material.

“There’s a little part of the old school part of my brain [that thinks], ‘Well, it’s up to you.’ If you need to go to a doctor, for whatever reason, your foot, your sanity, you know, you’re on your own,” said the Wretched says the actor. “But I think it would definitely be a sign from an employer that we understand that taking care of the whole person, not just paying them, but taking care of their well-being in all its forms is really, really important. ”

In a previous interview with Who Magazine, Jackman revealed that he started therapy to help deal with unresolved childhood trauma. “Having someone really smart, who’s a bit removed from your world, can be really helpful,” he said.

The actor also told the BBC that he started seeing a therapist while filming The sondue to the film’s upsetting material, his own anxiety to return to acting after the pandemic shutdowns, and the death of his father while filming the film.

As he continues to learn more about mental health, Jackman hopes The son will also begin to spark conversations around the issue, saying, “There’s a real lack of knowledge and ignorance and shame around the subject and I think that’s something we have to grapple with, really, very rapidly.”

According to Center for Disease Control and Preventionone in five Americans will suffer from a mental illness each year, and one in five children now or at some point in their life has had a serious mental illness.

During The sons press conference in Venice ahead of its world premiere in September, Dern said the film was coming out during a mental health crisis resulting from the pandemic.

“It’s scary,” she said. “Even [when] you feel helpless, even when you feel alone in shame, guilt and blame, you can turn to so many people who have been there before and can advise you. We all yearn to feel a community in this larger conversation we need to have about mental health. »