Jude Law on playing King Henry VIII

Brut America

Does he identify as a feminist? What kind of king would he be?    He plays King Henry VIII in the film "Firebrand," screened at the Festival de Cannes. Brut's Augustin Trapenard asked Jude Law about the monarchies of the past and the present.  #cannes2023

Transcript

00:00Action!

00:05Do you consider yourself a feminist, Jude?

00:07Gosh, that term seems to be so complicated now.

00:11If you'd asked me that 20 years ago, I'd have said, yeah.

00:15I know I grew up in a household with two very strong women,

00:20my mum and my sister,

00:22and a mum who I feel gave me great guidance,

00:27but, I mean, that's such a dangerous area now,

00:30I don't even know what to say to it.

00:32So what does it mean to you to behave and to act maybe as an ally of feminism

00:36in your work, in your job as an actor?

00:39It feels important. It feels very, very important.

00:42I, for one, am very happy that I'm making films and telling stories

00:47at a time when women are getting more involved,

00:49both in front of and behind the camera, that their stories are being told.

00:52And like I said, it was one of the key elements to getting involved in this.

00:55It seemed just right that Karim wanted to shine a light, a spotlight,

01:00on an extraordinary woman whose story wasn't told.

01:03In Firebend, you play King Henry VIII.

01:05I was wondering what makes for you as an actor a royal, a great performance?

01:10I think understanding the person as a human.

01:15I think understanding their judgements and their decisions

01:19and their behavioural patterns and their physicality

01:23from the sort of essence of them rather than the legacy or the portrait.

01:29And so getting inside them.

01:32What struck me in Firebend was your intensity and the tension.

01:35I was wondering how do you feel after a violent scene?

01:38What kind of impact does it have on your body, on your mindset,

01:41especially when you're the violent one, precisely?

01:44It's a good question. It's not an easy space to be in.

01:50You have to hope, and we were fortunate that this was a very safe environment.

01:55It felt collaborative.

01:57I know that I had the trust of Alicia and the encouragement of Karim.

02:03It never felt like we went anywhere that no one was happy to go to.

02:08We all knew what we had to achieve.

02:11But honestly, playing Henry physically really beat me up.

02:18It was hard work, and I felt at the end very out of shape.

02:27I think a lot of that was also the abusive nature of what we had to achieve with him.

02:34So I was quite happy to shed him at the end.

02:37But it's a terrific and terrible character,

02:40part of a legend for divorcing and killing most of his wives back in the 16th century.

02:44What do you feel about the fact that five centuries later,

02:47society still hasn't solved the problem of male violence and male domination?

02:51I wonder whether a part of it is that we haven't looked at and investigated

02:55and celebrated the survivors and understood the scenarios.

02:59Instead, we almost celebrate the tyranny of this man

03:04more than the woman who survived him and outmaneuvered him.

03:08We hope that's what this story does.

03:11To what extent do you believe in the power of fiction to make collective mentality evolve?

03:17That's a great question.

03:19I have great faith in storytelling.

03:23I have great faith in communal gathering to experience stories,

03:28to understand stories unknown to us,

03:30but also to share positive experiences as well as moving experiences.

03:36I believe in it because I think it's at our essence.

03:41After lighting a fire to stay warm, after feeding ourselves,

03:46what we would have done as groups is tell stories about the dark,

03:50about the wolves, about great characters of the past.

03:55It's in us and it's a very important part of us. It bonds us.

04:00Where's the best lesson that a film taught you?

04:02I can't think of a film, but I can think of what storytelling and what filmgoing teaches me

04:07is to be fascinated by humans and to forgive them and to understand them and love them

04:13and embrace them, embrace humanity.

04:18Do you feel you're getting better with age, Jude, as a person but also as an actor?

04:24Again, I hope so. I don't know. I think my process is more tuned.

04:33What I hope to achieve and what I know I can get out of the park is more streamlined

04:39and the judgments I make and why I do things is more mature

04:44and I suppose comes from a place of more wisdom.

04:48But I've also lost certain things.

04:50I mean, there's an element of youthful enthusiasm and youthful ambition

04:54that you just get naturally in your 20s.

04:57Do you miss that?

04:58A little bit, but a little bit.

05:02But I think the parts available to me and where I'm seemingly being allowed to explore as an actor

05:09from people, you know, you have to wait to be asked to go to work as an actor

05:13or you have to generate it yourself.

05:15And it feels like that's broadening, which I hope continues.

05:19If you were a king, Jude, what kind of king would you be?

05:23You can be ambitious.

05:25What would I be? God, I would hate it.

05:30I'd be in denial.

05:33I'd hide.

05:35Of course you're a British actor.

05:37The coronation of Charles III has taken place a few weeks ago as a citizen and a royal subject.

05:42How do you expect him to rejuvenate the English monarchy?

05:48I don't know that I expect him to.

05:50I'm intrigued to see what happens.

05:52I'm not as obsessed as some.

05:54I'm sort of intrigued by the history of the family and therefore, you know,

05:59each one of them will indeed become another chapter in that history.

06:04I think the amount of money it costs is questionable.

06:10I think that needs to be addressed.

Category

Transcript

Recommended