A pungent mix of “blood, fecal matter and sweat,” Jude Law chose to play Henry VIII in “Firebrand,” a historical thriller about the final days of the king and his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr. wore a hideous mix of substance and sweat”.
“I’ve read many interesting accounts that you can smell Henry three rooms away. His leg was rotting so badly. He hid it with rose oil,” Law said Monday at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for “Firebrand,” which debuted at the Palais the day before. Will have a big impact.”
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So, he found a perfume expert to create a custom, rebellious blend to capture the scent of the king, who was infatuated swollen ankles and feet in his final years. “She makes amazing scents, and she also makes terrible smells. She somehow came up with this extraordinary kind of blood, feces, and sweat.
“In the beginning,” he said, “I used it very subtly and thought I would use it myself.” But then he went rogue. “It became a spray-fest.”
The film’s director, Karim Anooz, shook his head remembering the foul-smelling brew that pervaded the entire production. “When Jude walked onto the set,” he said, “it was terrifying.”
“Firebrand” was greeted at Cannes with an eight-minute standing ovation, which was cut short because Alicia Vikander, played by Katherine Paar, was motioning to the audience to stop so she wouldn’t cry. Adapted from the 2013 novel “The Queen’s Gambit,” the film takes place in blood-soaked Tudor England as Parr enlists her husband to survive his turbulent final days on the throne.
Despite playing the role of an emperor for the film, Law says he is not interested in aristocratic events. Earlier at the press conference, the actor laughed when a reporter asked him to share his thoughts on the British royal family.
“I approach it like theater, although I’m a little more obsessed with theater,” Law said. “But I’m not a gossip. I don’t really enjoy it. I’m not interested in it, and I don’t really enjoy small talk stories.
But he is fascinated by the way the past can inform the present. Law continued, “There was something remarkable about looking at pictures of this medieval ceremony and how it applies to today, I find very modern,” Law continued, alluding to the recent coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
Vikander is equally apathetic about the Swedish monarchy. “I agree with Jude with most of what he said. But yes, I don’t really follow it myself.”
Although he played a ruthless and insane character, Law remembers that he and Vikander kept it light on set. “It feels really twisted because of course we’ve done terrible things to each other,” he said. “But my memory is that we were laughing a lot.”
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