Hugh Jackman `panicked before singing national anthem`

The 43-year-old Aussie actor was terrified in the run-up to his performance in front of 100,000 people at an Australia VS New Zealand game at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1997. However, he was spurred on by the booing of the away crowd.

He told The Mirror, “I’d never been more scared. I’ll never forget it.

“I had a panic attack the night before because I was an actor and I didn’t know why I was singing the national anthem in the first place.

“Then when I went on, 30,000 New Zealanders who’d flown over were just booing me. I instantly felt this outrage that they would boo on Australian home ground and became like Henry V. Then it went well.”

Although the whole incident left him temporarily scarred, he believes that it helped him conquer his fears.

“The national anthem was one of those things where you wake up the next day asking why you’d agreed to do it,” he said. “I freaked out. The night before, my wife came up to me in the kitchen and asked me if I was all right. She pointed out that I’d been cutting the same carrot for 45 minutes!

“The worst thing is being scared. So, from that moment on I conquered my fear of everything and now I love it all.”