- “The Residence” is mostly set at a White House dinner that Hugh Jackman attends.
- “The Greatest Showman” actor is mentioned and his voice is heard off-screen, but his face is not shown.
- Here’s who is actually playing Hugh Jackman and why the real actor did not make an appearance.
Warning: Major spoilers for “The Residence.”
Netflix’s “The Residence” appears to have cameos from two Australian celebrities — pop superstar Kylie Minogue and Hugh Jackman.
While Minogue appears as herself in the show, three actors impersonate Jackman’s voice and body to simulate his “cameo” in the series.
“The Residence” is the latest of Shonda Rhimes’ collaboration with Netflix, which has already produced major hits for the streamer including “Inventing Anna” and “Bridgerton.”
The new series follows a murder investigation at the White House after the chief usher is found dead during a state dinner attended by members of the Australian government.
Minogue is performing at the event, and the White House staff mention that Jackman is also a guest, but we never fully see the actor onscreen.
In the early episodes, we hear someone who sounds like the actor off-screen, and in episodes six and seven, we see his back and legs.
Per the show’s credits, Justin Ellis-Johnson is the body we see on-screen for most of Jackman’s scenes, whereas Ben Prendergast is the voice we hear. Ben Bigler also portrays Jackman when the “Jackman” character is seen tap-dancing to entertain the other guests in episode two.
It’s rare for a show to go to such great lengths to simulate a celebrity instead of getting a real cameo. Paul William Davies, the show’s creator, told Variety he wrote Jackman into the series before he knew if he could cast him.
“I don’t know him, I’ve never worked with him, but I’ve only heard great things about him,” Davies said. There were people on the show that had worked with him on various things — people at Netflix — and my sense was very clear that if the schedule would’ve worked out, he would’ve been totally game for it, but it didn’t.”
Davies said he came up with the idea for the multiple actors after Jackman declined.
“And I thought, ‘Well, it’ll be fun.’ I think it’s just part of the humor of the show, so we left it in, and I thought that was a fun way to do it,” he said.
A representative for Jackman did not immediately respond to a comment request.
“The Residence” is streaming on Netflix.
