Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with an interview I did with mega-super-huge star Jude Law at the San Diego Comic-Con. While it is a short interview, it's also a one-on-one, so that resulted in me asking the real hard questions... like "What's your favorite dirty joke?" I never squander an opportunity, believe you me!
Law is one of my favorite young actors in the business today. He totally won me over in ENEMY AT THE GATES, one of my favorite under-appreciated films of the last 5 years or so, and he continues to prove his range in pictures like A.I. (he was asked many times to do the Gigolo Joe dance during the SKY CAPTAIN panel), ROAD TO PERDITION and eXistenZ. Throw into the mix how damn prolific he is and you got yourself a super-star... I mean, it feels like Jude Law day over at Apple.com. I HEART HUCKABEES and ALFIE trailers both hit yesterday.
Anyway, without any further ado, here is my brief chat with Jude Law!
QUINT: Thanks for your time and thanks for supporting a film like this.
Anyway, without any further ado, here is my brief chat with Jude Law!
QUINT: Thanks for your time and thanks for supporting a film like this.
JUDE LAW: It's funny, but it's kinda rare nowadays to see stuff that's clearly the vision of someone who has pushed boundaries. He's really trying to go somewhere... it's not so much that you go somewhere that other people haven't been. It's more, I think, kind of tipping hat in the right places, you know what I mean? With respect to past movies. It's funny, a lot of people asked me "Was it a big leap of faith because this guy really hasn't done anything?" But it was clear to me that we were in really good hands. This guy knew exactly what he wanted to do and what he wanted to get.
QUINT: I know you were shown a clip of what the film was that Kerry Conran had worked on for many years... Did you see that first or were you given the script first?
JUDE LAW: It was pretty close. It was one after the other. I think Jon (Avnet) did it very cleverly. He just said, "Look, come and see this. I think you'll be interested." And he was right. I was just taken with this guy's clear kind of taste, composition... everything! I also didn't quite understand how he'd done it. I thought "Well, this is great! This is exactly the kind of film that I've been looking to make." Exactly the kind of character... I mean, he kind of fit it into the boots of BUCK ROGERS and FLASH GORDON and BIGGLES and ROCKETEER and these characters. It's that kind of hero if I ever played one I wanted to play, rather than the slightly more demented or twisted kind of hero, instead of like the old fashioned quality simplicity to it.
Then I was like, "Well, what's the script like? Is there one?" Again, I was blown away a second time because this guy's writing is beautiful and at the heart of it there's a relationship that you can transplant from any genre and it would work. I always like to say it's almost like AFRICAN QUEEN meets BUCK ROGERS. At its heart it's a very simple, strong funny relationship that we all recognize whether it's a mother-son relationship, boyfriend-girlfriend, mother-father, you know. They came in close succession.
QUINT: So, you knew right away that you were going to do this movie.
JUDE LAW: Absolutely. And I was also keen to get them to include me as a producer because I've been developing stuff on my own for a while and I just felt with this it was something I really understood. It was a world that I really wanted to add to and help out and empower Kerry to see his dream through.
QUINT: Is this the same production company you started up with Ewan McGregor?
JUDE LAW: No, 'cause what happened there in the end was... We were all kind of so busy at the time when the projects we were developing were burgeoning our acting careers were taking off and we'd end up just putting these things on hold for months. We realized in the end that it was kind of detrimental to each other to stop work... that we were sort of relying on each others' thumbs up to greenlight anything or get anything going, so we decided to part ways and do our own thing. So, this is the first for me under my own banner.
QUINT: Now, I know most people really started recognizing you for TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, which I totally missed on the first go around. I probably didn't see it until about a year after its release, but the movie that you starred in that really blew me away was ENEMY AT THE GATES...
JUDE LAW: Oh, really? That's a good movie, man.
QUINT: I really don't understand why it didn't get more recognition when it was released.
JUDE LAW: It's just a weird world. These movies... you just never know. What I love about film, man, is that shelf-life is everything. It's always interesting the kind of recognition a project gets a couple years later. The number of people that enjoyed that film and have come up and say so is more important to me than the fact that when it came out it had this written or that written about it or it didn't make enough money. Because in the end it's all about its shelf-life, its longevity. If people are still renting it or buying it on DVD and still watching it, then for me that's a job well done.
QUINT: Back to SKY CAPTAIN... did you know what the process was going to be when you signed on? The way Kerry Conran was going to shoot it?
JUDE LAW: Not completely. I don't think any of us did, to be honest. Maybe I'm sticking my neck out here, but I don't think Kerry did completely because Kerry was very clear about what he needed to do and what he needed to get from us in production to take back and finish the piece. What he didn't necessarily know was what we could do, whether it was Gwyneth or I or Jon (Avnet, producer) and I, but our experiences as filmmakers and how we could improve it, how we could embellish it, how we can give him more than he needed.
So, it was a median of two worlds, really, and we would all be looking to him saying, "Could we really get away with doing this? Can I do that?" He'd be like, "Totally. Do that." And then we'd say, "Wait a minute... don't just leave it at this... let us improvise a bit or let us do this." So it was really a healthy collaborative process where we were being led by someone who had a very clear vision, but we were equally able to say, "We can help you. We can give you more."
I think with any movie maker, if they're open to collaboration, if they're open to saying, "I don't know about this. What do you think?" You know you're in good hands as long as they know what they want to see through. And boy, did he know. And his references made it so easy for us to embellish and to make those leaps of faith.
JUDE LAW: (dramatic pause) A little. To be honest.
QUINT: So, were you disappointed that you weren't able to play with any real robots?
QUINT: Did you see those giant inflatable suckers they have out in front of the convention center?
JUDE LAW: Yeah, man. I want one!
QUINT: Did you see that the eye-visor things light up at night?
JUDE LAW: No! You're joking!
QUINT: I'm serious! It's very cool looking.
JUDE LAW: Awww! We gotta go and look! The only downside was that the gadgets in that world are so cool... Part of me was like... "Goddamn, I want that plane!" We had more of the plane than anything else. We had a wing and a cockpit, so I got to muck about with my gadgets in the plane. That's about it.
QUINT: I hear you're playing Robin Hood for Martin Scorsese...
[Law's eyes open a bit wider and he makes an inquisitive face... much like this one:]
JUDE LAW: Really?
QUINT: Well, you're playing Errol Flynn in AVIATOR, right?
JUDE LAW: (laughs) Oh! I see... I was going to say!!! Is he making ROBIN HOOD? I'm there! No... yeah, that's right. It's a blink and you'll miss it part. I'd met Marty a couple times and obviously was a huge fan and a great admirer. Not just of his films, but also of his commitment to preservation of films and his understanding and knowledge of old films. It was a really great piece. I haven't seen it yet, but I understand it's just looking wonderful. I had a ball. And what a joy, you know? For 5 days be Errol Flynn with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett at the same table. It's like... Goddamn! Fun to do! And a good excuse to read a great autobiography. WICKED WICKED WAYS is an awesome read.
QUINT: What's your favorite dirty joke?
JUDE LAW: Oh, geez... What's my favorite dirty joke? Um... It's a long one...
QUINT: That's fine with me if you want to tell it.
JUDE LAW: A guy (laughs)... A guy has a boil on his ass. He goes to his GP, his doctor, and the doctor says, "There's nothing I can do. I'm gonna refer you to a private doctor. It looks to me like you should go, because this thing could get infected." So, he goes to this private doctor and the private doctor looks and says, "Gee, there's nothing that I can do. This thing is out of control, but I know this specialist you should go to." He refers him to this specialist. The specialist has a look.The specialist is appalled. He says, "OK. There's nothing I can do, but I can refer you to this one guy who I think might be able to help you" and he writes the name down.
The guy follows this address. It takes him down to these docks. He's wandering around these docks and he finds this old wooden door with a name. It says on the front "Peter Puss-sucker." He opens it up and there's this guy in there who has one tooth. He says, "Let me have a look." The guy pulls down his pants and there's this huge boil on his ass. He says, "That's fine. Bend over. What I'm going to do is bite into this boil and I'm gonna suck out the poison... It's the only thing we can do."
So, he bends over and the guy bites into it and is sucking the poison out. The guy can't help it, he farts in his face. Pete stands up and says, "Jesus, man! Blokes like you make this job disgusting!!!"
There you have it, squirts! Leave it to a disgraceful sack like me to bring you fart jokes straight from the lips of Jude Law. I have one more interview, a two-on-one with the director Kerry Conran and producer Jon Avnet, to go, so look for that one in the next day or so! 'Til then, this is the crusty seaman bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
