Maybe Russell Crowe could back out of starring in an epic titled "Australia." He was born in New Zealand, after all.

But Hugh Jackman? Not on your life, mate. The fellow who played "The Boy from Oz" on Broadway wasn't going to let Mother Oz or director Baz Luhrmann down when the chips were down. He signed on, replacing Crowe to star opposite Nicole Kidman in a cattle-drive epic of the Outback during World War II, a tale underscored by the nation's treatment of Aboriginal children in those days — "stolen generations" removed from their families and placed in the care of missionaries.

"Even before he changed the title to 'Australia,' " Jackman, 40, says he saw it as almost his patriotic duty to take work in the most expensive Aussie film of all time. He let his Aussie accent loose, mastered working cattle with a horse and dived in.

"Australia" is earning mixed reviews, praise for its scope, its ambition and Jackman (he has "tremendous charisma and charm," says David Stratton in The Australian). What matters the most, says Jackman, is how this blockbuster is received back home. We reached the once and future "Wolverine" in Hollywood.

Q. So no rest, then, for People's new "sexiest man alive"?

A. Now don't YOU start. But no, no rest. We finished this movie, have a little more work to do on "Wolverine."

Q. I'm guessing the homework started with that World War II Outback cattle-drive classic, "The Overlanders" (1946).

A. That's where you learn about drovers — our cowboys — and what they represented at the time. Then I spent time out in the country where I could still harbor my old fantasy of working on the land, being a jackaroo or drover. But I had no idea how tough that life is, how unforgiving that part of Australia is. The people who settled in the Northern Territory, out there, were just another breed, really. Very hard people.

Q. You grew up there. But what strange, alien places in your homeland surprised you, shooting "Australia"?

A. Hardly any Australians had been to these places. We have a country, the size of the (United) States, with only 20 million people in it. This whole middle of the country is vast, undiscovered, magical. It's like a frontier, still, to this day.

My absolute favorite was Carlton Hill, in Kununurra, which is where the homestead Faraway Downs is in the movie. There's another place called Digger's Rest, we had to get to by helicopter. There's nothing there but this tiny little house, which used to be a stop-off point for drovers moving cattle through. We put something like 300 tents up there around this little house with a bar, a pool table and a toilet. And that's where we stayed for weeks. I was with my kids, my family, brought them along because I knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Forget the movie, just seeing that much of Australia was a great experience. I didn't stay in the town. I stayed right on set with my boys, some of the best times of my life.

You've heard of the Outback. But in Australia we have different delineations of Outback. There's the Near Outback, which is about as remote as anything you'd find in the States. And then there's the OUTback, which is like being on Mars. That's where we went.