Isabelle Huppert raves about Hugh Jackman's performance in Florian Zeller's 'Deeply Moving and Terrifying' Oscar Hopeful 'The Son' (EXCLUSIVE)

Revered French actress Isabelle Huppert loved Hugh Jackman's performance in 'The Son', the Oscar hopeful Florian Zeller, at a private event for Academy voters hosted by French film distribution brand Orange Studio at the Royal Monceau in Paris.

Huppert, who previously collaborated with Zeller on his play "The Mother", performed in New York in 2019, reacted to "The Son" minutes after watching the film at the screening.

"(Hugh Jackman) is truly extraordinary. The film gives almost more insight into his inner journey than from his son's," Huppert said, sounding moved.

"He is both completely helpless and… In this extraordinary scene with Anthony Hopkins, he embodies so well this link in the chain, both strong and weak, between the past, the present and the future,” continued Huppert.

The Sony Pictures Classics film revolves around Peter (Jackman) whose busy life with his new partner Emma (Vanessa Kirby) and their baby are upset when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) shows up with their teenage son, Nicholas. The young man is going through a depressive episode and has been skipping school for months. Peter strives to be a better father, seeking to help his son through those intimate, instinctive moments of family happiness, but the weight of Nicholas' condition puts the family on a dangerous path. Hopkins has a small but significant role in "The Son," playing another fatherly character.

Written in 2019, "The Son" marks Zeller's most personal work. Dedicated to his own son, the film is part of a trilogy of plays, including "The Mother" and "The Father", which have been performed around the world. All three plays explore the resilient bonds that bind families together with an emotional rawness that Zeller is able to capture through his close relationships with the actors.

Zeller said he formed an intimate bond with Jackman early on in their work together. Although he didn't write the part with Jackman in mind, as he did with Hopkins for "The Father", Zeller felt compelled to offer the role to the Australian actor for a few minutes. after listening to him talk about what the project meant to him. p>

"Hugh created this intimacy in a rather unique way. He wrote me a letter, telling me that… he had heard that I was working on the adaptation of the play, 'The Son' (…) and said that if I spoke to another actor, I should forget his letter, but that if I did not wasn't, he would like ten minutes to explain why he should have this role.

"After a few minutes I offered him the role, because I felt something in him …who understood what it was about, who had these emotions. So I felt like this was a chance, or an opportunity, for us to explore, together, something deep, buried and secrecy. Something real,” Zeller explained.

"It wasn't the actor who told me why he was interested in this role. I felt it was more the man, as father or son, who felt a connection to this story,” added the filmmaker, who recently moved to Los Angeles with his family and started a film company. Blue Mornings Pictures production with former CAA senior executive Federica Sainte-Rose and Mediawan (Plan B's new parent company).

Along with John Patrick Shanley, Aaron Sorkin and Martin McDonagh, Zeller is the rare playwright who managed to make the transition from stage to screen.

As in "The Father", which earned Hopkins a...