‘The Wolverine’ explores Logan’s “regret and pain.”

THE WOLVERINE star, Hugh Jackman recently spoke to CNN for their “Summer Movie Special,” which airs 7:30pm ET this Saturday and Sunday. The actor opened up about his character’s mentality in the James Mangold-directed which, which hits theaters July 26th.

“He’s sort of interested in [the idea of mortality],” says Jackman, “because if your life is not great and there is a lot of regret and pain, would it be great to live on and on?”

Jean Grey’s role:

“I don’t want to give away too much. She is there in the way that loved ones are always there … in a very real way, she’s there.

“(He) loses the love of his life, (and) we’ve seen that impact. He’s one of those people where whenever he gets close to someone, bad things tend to happen. So in a way, not only for himself but for the world, he decides to just completely go off the reservation and sort of deny who he is and be like a recluse.”

Filming the bullet train sequence:

“The only bad thing about filming a scene on the bullet train is that the wind machines are so powerful that when you watch it back on the monitor, you’re like, ‘man, I got to get a facelift because there’s just skin flying everywhere,’ ” Jackman joked. “When I was lying on that train, I would just get pushed back — and a couple of times, I just fell off of the train.”

The tone of the film:

“Yes, (‘The Wolverine’) is a character piece, and I would say it may be a little darker in tone than the others, and it certainly feels a little different, (but) it’s just as much fun,” Jackman said. “The action is probably in this is more inventive than we’ve ever had before.”

Playing Wolverine for more than a decade:

“He’s back, and I couldn’t be happier. I never in a million years would’ve thought (that) I’d still be playing this character (12 years later). It kind of really is shocking to me, but at the same time, it’s such an instant gratitude, because I love this character.”

Getting in shape for the role:

“I’ll be honest with you, I kind of love it; I love the challenge of it. My personality is, ‘I have to be in better shape than the last time.” … I feel really blessed to have the role, and I want to do it better every time, and so for me, the physicality of Wolverine is everything. I’ve realized it’s preparation, it’s time. Like in some of the old movies, you could see I didn’t have time to prep. And I’m 44 now, so I need the time.”

Click here for much more from the interview!