Jude Law: The Leading Man

By: Jordan Riefe

Tuesday January 18, 2005

One of the best character actors in the business for a long time, Jude Law has been a leading man in waiting since he first stepped in front of a camera.
With the success of "Cold Mountain," Law has arrived. Here he talks about his latest film which he starred in and also produced. "Sky Captain" was shot by a neophyte director without the use of sets, only blue screen on which an entire world was created by the computer. Law talks further about a spate of upcoming films including "Lemony Snickett," "The Closer," and "Huckabees."



Jordan Riefe: When you finally saw the whole thing together - What did you think?

Jude Law: I was thrilled and incredibly proud because it was the first time I felt the responsibility of giving my name to something to empower someone - first time director. There is something that was literally not there, apart from being a great script, to empower them to see this thing through. I never had any doubt, from the tease that I've seen of Cary's and from the script that he had written, that this was a guy with incredible vision. He has a natural kind of understanding of composition, but also a natural understanding of what's necessary in film.

But you can't just rely on that. You have to come up with a content of relationship. A kind of humor which I think he found beautifully in this. I also realized what a leap of faith we'd all taken. I was dead sure on what he was capable of doing. And then I became so driven as to how to empower him and allow him to do it, and how best to serve that. Understand how best to give him, if you like, the best of actors, so that he could do the best work in post-production as possible. I was completely unaware that in fact, of course, we were relying on this visual, this vision that this didn't exist.

I was proud of that. I was also immensely proud, which I have to be honest, with - or not proud, but just blown away by Gwyeneth. The first time I saw it, I mean, we had so much fun playing this duo, this kind of "will they-won't they" banter between us. I suppose sometimes you kind of just get lost in that rather than actually sit back and watch someone performing. I think she's just fantastic in this film. And, I think it shows a side of - a dual side of her ability. She's incredibly glamorous and sexy and she's very, very funny in it too. And that's something that I'm sure everyone knows, but hasn't necessarily seen in all of her performances.

Angelina Jolie was wonderful in it, wasn't she?

Angelina is wonderful in this. Yes she is.

She just came in for a few days on this film?

Three days I think. Yeah. Yeah, she was very game.

Now, what about the possibility at this point of a franchise? You know, are you up for a "Sky Captain 2"?

Absolutely. We are already inventing prequels and sequels. It's the kind of world that once you step into and play along with, you can't help but start thinking about what he's done in the past and how they've all met. The one big question in all of our minds is what actually happened in Nanjing? And we all kept thinking, 'Okay so the next one starts in Nanjing, right?' And, in the restaurant, this is before Frankie has her eye patch and you find out what happened, you know what I mean? You can't help a think like that in this sort of film. We started talking about it, but we'll just wait and see.

You have been working a lot. What are there, like six movies this fall?

Yeah, It's strange, really because I made those over a period of two years, and it's just my luck that they all come out in four months, you know. It's not the way I'd have had it myself, but…

Which one should we see?

All of them. I mean the only good thing is they're - I can certainly say they're all incredibly different. The films are very different roles, as well as very different genres. So, hopefully one won't stand on the other's foot or get in the other's way. I'm immensely proud of all of them. I've seen every one. Two of them I'm barely in, however. I'm in one scene in Aviator and in Lemony Snicket it's only my voice, you know. I'm not really in the film. So it's really four.

Have your children seen "Sky Captain" yet?

They've seen some of it, yeah. No, no, I've been in audiences with the children. It's just the timing hasn't been right yet. I didn't want to show it to them with the work in progress, you know?

Is there a hero in this movie? Wouldn't you like your kids to see that?

Of course. They never get to see any of my films really. They are like, "Why can't we see 'Road To Perdition'?" or any of those other films. Well, maybe not.

When they become young adults maybe?

Yeah, maybe when they're a little older.

This is a good time for you and the Hollywood machine kicking in and, "Ohhhhhh, let's work on him. Let's make him a big star." How does that feel?

This isn't like me burying my head in the sand, but I don't know if I could have seen it like that so much. I mean, when I made these back to back, I had to treat them as a kind of a coagulation of work in so much as one supported the other. This film was a risk, but was also me kind of playing my type of action hero rather than stepping into a summer success. It might be that this is something that was more interesting than that and would take that kind of genre a little further. Being in a film like Huckabees was something purely from the heart. I believe in it. I believed in it and because I believed in David Russell. And that sort of supported the idea of bigger films like Alfie, which supported the opportunity of doing a smaller film like Closer, which was done for scale.

I just sort of like doing stuff that interests me and keeps me interested or keeps other people interested in what I'm doing. And I don't see how, eventually, that could have an effect because I always end up doing kind of what I want to do work-wise. I can't see myself ever doing stuff that I have to do to fulfill the requirements of any studio. But, at the same time, if the success of the film were like this and it would make people or encourage people to go and see a Closer or a Huckabees , then all the better for it, you know. Or if being the voice of Lemony Snicket makes people go and see Alfie, then again we're better for it. And if everyone who goes and sees these films comes and sees me in a play in London, and then all the better for that. But I sort of bunch myself necessarily up in the roles now. I don't only do big-budget films because I think then you all are kind of asking for trouble. I think it's more interesting to keep things varied.