Jude Law took authenticity to a pungent new level while portraying Henry VIII in the film “Firebrand.”
“I read several interesting accounts that you could smell Henry three rooms away. His leg was rotting so badly. He hid it with rose oil,” the 50-year-old actor said at the Cannes Film Festival following the movie’s premiere. “I thought it would have a great impact if I smelt awful.”
Law said he sought a perfume specialist to create a custom blend to resemble the odors emitted from the infamous king. His stench came from leg ulcers he had in the last year of his life.
“She makes wonderful scents, and she also makes awful scents. She somehow came up with this extraordinary variety of blood, fecal matter and sweat,” the actor said, per Variety.
“Initially, I used it very subtly and thought I’d use it myself,” Law added. But then the actor said he got into it and started dousing himself in the noxious concoction. “It became a spray-fest,” he said.
“Firebrand” director Karim Aïnouz agreed that Law’s smell was overwhelming. “When Jude walked in on set, it was just horrible,” he said during the panel.
The film, which received an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes, was adapted from the novel “Queen’s Gambit.” It follows King Henry VIII’s final days as his sixth wife, Katherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), tries to outwit her murderous husband and save her own life.
Law said he’s not intrigued by the modern royal family drama, however.
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“I kind of see it like theater, although I’m slightly more obsessed by theater,” the actor said. “But I’m not one for gossip. I don’t really enjoy it. I find no interest in it, and I don’t really enjoy following tittle tattle stories.”
He said the recent coronation of King Charles III appealed to him because of its connection to the past. “There was something remarkable about looking at the photos of this medieval ceremony and how it applied to today made me feel very modern.”
