hugh jackmanHugh Jackman has revealed he had a difficult decision to make on stage before his film career took off: hit the high note or pee his pants.

He explained to Playboy magazine recently that he was playing bad guy Gaston in Melbourne’s Beauty and the Beast and before he took to the stage, he drank plenty of water to avoid dehydration - but that left him needing to pee: “I thought, ‘I’ll be all right.’

“The number featured [the character of] Belle and me; I chased her around the stage, lifting her up, dragging her, singing the whole time. Then I realised, ‘No way!’

“I was sucking in air, trying to sing and dance. I picked her up and realised I peed my pants a little. The very last note is a big time F sharp… [and] you have to release certain muscles to hit it, the same ones that allow you to hold on when you have to go to the bathroom.

“I thought, ‘S**t, if I sing this note, I’m going to pee my pants; if I don’t, I’m going to look humiliated. The actor in me took over.”

A sneaky-peek down convinced him he’d got away with it: “I thought, ‘These red tights must be waterproof’. I was laughing as if I’d gotten away with it. But the audience was looking at me funny. It had seeped through and my pants were completely wet.”