Jude Law

“I don’t want to do anything I’m not passionate about.” These words from Jude Law may explain why all the roles he plays are so intense. He must choose them with a magnifying glass and it seems that it is not an impediment that it is a secondary role. It happens, of course, that when he gets into the work, the secondary inexorably passes to a main place, as he made clear in his first American film, Gattaca . , his launching pad from one day to the next. Since then, all of his characters have had a strange, disturbing magnetism, always accentuated by a face that seems to hide unstable passions and a blue gaze that is too direct, which makes you uncomfortable and makes you feel bad. I don’t know.

David Jude Law – according to him, Jude is due to the Beatles song – was born in south-east London on December 29, 1972. He is the son of retired teachers, Peter and Maggie, owners of a theater company. That family influence made itself felt very soon. At the age of twelve, he began acting at the National Youth Music Theater and five years later he dropped out to pursue acting exclusively. In 1990 he landed a role in the British television series Families , but the theater remained his first occupation at that time. In 1992 he achieved his greatest success on the stage with “Indiscretions”, his Broadway debut with Kathleen Turner . Law picked up the Theater World Award and a Tony nomination.

His first big screen appearance was in Shopping (1994), a science fiction thriller directed by Paul W.S. Anderson . In that film he met actress Sadie Frost , with whom he would later team up in four other films, including Bent (1997) and Love, Honor and Obey (2000). But the relationship went far beyond the screen and they got married in 1997. Also, together with their friends Ewan McGregor , Jonny Lee Millerthey founded their own production company, Natural Nylon. Law and Frost have had three children since then, although they sadly divorced in 2003, when – of course – the actor was already a big star. Before, Law excelled in the role of Bossie in the film Wilde (1997), his last British production, before playing the depressed Jerome in Gattaca , his American debut opposite Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman . Immediately, great directors required his services: Clint Eastwood ( Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , 1997), David Cronenberg ( ExistenZ , 1999), Anthony Minghella ( The Talented Mr. Ripley , 1999). His role as the handsome Dickie Greenleaf in the adaptation of the novel by Patricia HighsmithIt marked his definitive consecration –Oscar nomination included– and convinced the studios of his ability to sustain category roles.

Since then, Law, apparently a simple and kind guy – with some oddities like being a vegetarian or keeping the clothes that some of his characters were wearing at the time of their death – has been able to make his words come true: “I just want to make the guy of films that I would like to go see, those in which you learn something new, in which you work with people who can teach you and to whom I can offer something”. Said and done: in 2001 he refused to work on From Hell to star in the war Enemy at the Gates , the most expensive film in the history of European cinema, a complete success directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud . He then made his dream of working with Spielberg come true, becoming the robotic Gigolo Joe fromArtificial Intelligence (2001), a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination. The following year he embittered Tom Hanks ‘ life in the fantastic Road to Perdition , in one of his darkest and most unpleasant roles. The last we have seen of him has been the epic and romantic Cold Mountain , his second work with Minghella. For her Law received 10 million dollars and has revalued his cache with the second Oscar nomination. Not bad. At this moment, the actor has four films in post-production, including the comedy Alfie , a remake of the one starring Michael Caine in 1966, and The Aviator , directed by Martin Scorsese ., where he plays actor Errol Flynn . But first we will see him in the futuristic Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow , along with Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow , whose premiere is scheduled for September in the United States.