Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on research trip for new broadway production

31-Jul-2009 • Actor News

James Bond and the Boy From Oz are not regular visitors to the Cook County courthouse. But then, Thursday was an unusual day at 26th and California - reports the Chicago Tribune

Around noon, the movie stars Daniel Craig (the current Bond) and Hugh Jackman (a Broadway star and the most recent host of the Academy Awards) arrived at the Cook County Criminal Courts at 2600 S. California Ave., unannounced.

Before long, deputies' hearts were a-twitter. "They came in, best we can tell, with everyone else and walked around pretty nondescript," said Cook County Sherriff's spokesman Steve Patterson, adding that the court was not told of their arrival in advance. The actors confirmed their identities when asked.

Craig and Jackman were traveling incognito on a Chicago research trip for their upcoming Broadway play, "A Steady Rain." Penned by the Chicago writer Keith Huff and first seen at the Chicago Dramatists theater, "A Steady Rain" is an intensely realistic play about two born-and-bred Chicago police officers trying to deal with the pressures of their job.

Craig (an Englishman) and Jackman (an Australian) are playing those police officers. In short, they were spending time scoping out Chicago cops in their natural habitats. According to a New York spokesman for the play, the visit to Chicago had been kept a closely guarded secret to allow the actors time and space to do the requisite research for their roles. It's no secret anymore. By late Thursday night, innumerable tweets had reported Jackman and Craig sightings at various iconic Chicago locales.

If only Jackman and Craig had announced themselves in advance, Patterson said, there were several female courthouse deputies "who gladly would have provided a personal tour."