Hugh Jackman Says He's 'Really Proud' of His Kids for Engaging with Mental Health

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman says he finds his kids and their peers are "totally fine having these conversations" about their mental health.

At a special screening of his new movie The Son in New York City on Monday, hosted by Sony Pictures Classics & The Cinema Society, Jackman tells PEOPLE that he made sure to speak with his kids, son Oscar, 22 and daughter Ava Eliot, 17, about his participation in the film.

"It was very important that I talk to them about what it was about, what it meant to me and why I was doing it," says Jackman of the upcoming Florian Zeller-directed drama. "When I saw the movie, I took them with me to see it and we had a long conversation. What I find amazing is the generation of 22 to 17-year-olds are totally fine having these conversations."

"It's more my generation that is a little more sheepish and shy around it," Jackman adds of talking about mental health.

Jackman, 54, says that The Son, which follows divorced parents Peter (Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern) as they struggle to help their troubled teenage son (Zen McGrath) with his mental health, was a "deeply personal" project for him as his children are similarly aged.

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"It's a cautionary tale, and it deals with some really difficult subjects and I'm really proud of them for the way they engaged with it," he says of his kids.

"Now, at this point, I have a very different perspective," Jackman adds of taking the role at this stage in his career. "I've got children who are either launching or getting ready to launch."

In November 2020, Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness opened up to PEOPLE about raising their kids.

"It's so interesting being a parent, and they've both made me smarter than I think I ever could have been on my own," Furness said at the time. "But when you're a parent, you can't lie to them or yourself. They will shine a light on every one of your flaws, your Achilles heel, whatever. You've got to look at yourself."

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"What I'm very interested in is epigenetics, and it's even more so when you have adopted children because I'm coming from my lineage of my mother, how she parented me, how her mother parented her, and I'm translating that to my children," she added. "But my children also have a separate lineage. So it's almost like we have more players at the table."

Furness said that her kids' backgrounds along with her and Jackman's Australian culture are "just another little hurdle to jump over."

"We've got cultural differences in there, and I do believe these will play out generation after generation," she noted. "So our family is just a little more late, I guess, at dinner time; a few more ancestors at the table."