The actor has played with beauty throughout his career.
But its never been more chilling than on HBOsThe New Pope.
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Jude Law is looking at art.
I am looking at Jude Law.
When he squints to examine a work, a fine spray of crows-feet sprouts alongside his temples.
At 47, Law can now be mortal, a far more interesting place to be as an actor.
Its not about proving; its not about feeling like you better be cutting edge.
Sorrentino imagined an actor like Paul Newman; his wife suggested Law.
Jude doesnt like the fact that, for the world, hes a sex symbol, says Sorrentino.
He would love to kill me.
But then he says, Yes, Ill do that.
In Sorrentinos hands, Laws own persona becomes an added layer of significance, another opportunity for play.
Overcome by the sight, she masturbates on the couch.
Its objectification with a smirk, the Holy Father as the ultimate unfulfillable fantasy.
Law gamely embraces the part with a verve reminiscent of his youth.
He goes on, Living with those perceptions means that youre playing with it, too.
In Laws youth, his beauty was blinding.
It became a recurring theme in the roles he played, particularly in the late 90s.
Artificial Intelligence(2001); and a Dorian Graylike vampire inImmortality(1998).
He is charismatic because he doesnt care and doesnt have to.
Coveting it costs you a piece of yourself or maybe your sanity.
Anthony saw my potential and breadth, he says.
It was like he was looking into my soul.
He could ask me to do anything, and I would try and pull it off.
If you want Tom Cruise and all it’s possible for you to get is Jude Law, wait!
Its not the same thing.
Who is Jude Law?
The dig still stings.
Im going to be really candid, Law says.
Chris Rock slagging me off at the Oscars was upsetting.
Whatever, it couldve been anyone.
He pauses, maybe worried that he has said too much.
It was probably a bubble that needed bursting around myself.
Like,Oh, this could be brutal.
This isnt all plain sailing.
In the post-Alfieyears, the shallowness of the role seeped into his personal image and became difficult to shake.
Because you dont want to say, Thats not true.
[But] to address it or argue it is giving it limelight.
And so over the years, Ive just retracted.
He answers questions at length while avoiding specificity, like an athlete running down the clock.
He does not have an official Instagram.
He isnt on Twitter.
And the years have made him realistic about the business.
I have quite a big responsibility base that I need to support.
Thats just a reality check.
Im constantly going through battles with my relevance, my integrity, or sense of self as an artist.
Its a palimpsest of history, as the curatorial notes put it.
Law is particularly taken by the word.
They say, You are your last film, he explains.
It has to be, Who am I right now?
Where have I gotten to?
His role as Lenny (Pope Pius XIII) is a revitalization.
A reminder of a young Jude Law, only sedimented with age and complexity.
Lenny uses it to chillingly authoritarian ends.
Demagogue or demigod, whats the difference?
Beauty is something that changes the relationship between the pope and all the people around.
All the men, all the women.
[It] puts the people in a different condition.
Read in another light, Sorrentinos shows are a meditation on stan culture and beauty as a social force.
We are sad, simple creatures in its presence, reflexively equating looks with a moral good.
Sorrentino can find only the Italian word for it:soggezione,translated as awe.
I dont know why.
And beauty combined with political power of the highest religious magnitude?
We tremble, we weep.
His followers wear black hoodies emblazoned with Piuss photo, as though they were at a concert.
He has already won.
Laws performance as Pius is virtuosic.
Power convulses off him not only through what he says but what he doesnt.
He is restrained, forcing his subjects to hang on to every flickering gesture.
(InThe New Pope,they literally hang on to his every breath.)
It was really lovely playing someone who was so still.
What I recognized finally was that if you do the work, you dont have to project the work.
I felt a confidence, I suppose, with Lenny and a demand.
There was nowhere to hide with [him].
Law is interested in thejustbeingness of acting.
He enjoys pushing his own body to extremes as a way to get in touch with himself.
Right now, hes intermittently fasting, eating only between noon and eight.
No booze, very little red meat.
And then I love excessive banquets, trying different types of foods and wines.
I mean, were only here once, right?
We walk up to the second floor for the rest of Mehretus retrospective.
Its a feeling that hits home.
What if people were just meetinghimnow?
I am pleased withThe Young PopeandThe New Pope, he says.
Look at the journey, not just at the immediate.
