G reasy, hairy, large and smelly are not words that instantly summon up the image of Jude Law. Until now. Because the actor’s latest role, Henry VIII in the film Firebrand , will show him in an almost entirely unflattering light.
And the effect will be topped off in later scenes by the pustulant ulcers shown on his legs. Law is, perhaps unfairly, still best known for his line in clean-shaven leading men, from the inconstant Alfie to the suave Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr Ripley . He has clearly relished the chance to look so unappealing on the big screen.
In fact, it seems he also wanted to disgust his co-stars on set. According to Alicia Vikander , who plays his last Queen, Catherine Parr, he got fellow actors into the mood with a bottle of a vile-smelling scent he had mixed up to recreate the worst personal odours of the period. The film star is the latest in a blue-blooded succession of actors drawn to both the charisma and the self-indulgent cruelty of this famous monarch, known to every schoolchild for having had six wives.
“There will be a lasting fascination with Henry VIII, I believe,” said bestselling historical author Philippa Gregory, who is now working on a new story set during his reign, and whose hit novel The Other Boleyn Girl was filmed in 2008 with Eric Bana in the role of the king . “What makes Henry and the Tudors so interesting is that they were the first to get the idea they had to project an image down to their subjects. So, of course, the.