The Talented Mr. Law Ready to Delve Deeper into Dumbledore
From the day he swaggered onto the big-screen scene in 1994’s Shopping, Jude Law has been in demand. And fresh off his 47th birthday, that trend doesn’t look to be slowing anytime soon.
While the two-time Oscar nominee has worn dozens of hats over the course of his career, the one we’re most concerned with at the moment is the elaborate, tasseled chapeau belonging to Albus Dumbledore. Fantastic Beasts 3 is on the horizon, and we were thrilled to hear Law confirm to Kevin Smith during an interview at the Sundance Film Festival that he was sporting the early stages of his Dumbledore beard.
Law was in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of his latest release, The Nest, and you can watch his and his castmates’ interview with Smith, as well as view a gallery of photos, below.
Vanity Fair also recently took the actor on a journey through a timeline of some of his key roles to date, from The Talented Mr. Ripley to Cold Mountain and Sherlock Holmes to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
I read my children ‘Harry Potter’, took them to see the films, and I loved ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’. I don’t remember at what point, but someone suddenly said, ‘Oh, you know, they’re going to want a Dumbledore.’ I went through an auditon process, and it was a process I hadn’t done in a while, and it was fun to do because you also felt like you wanted to make sure you were married to this part. You didn’t want to get it and buckle, because there’s a great responsibility that comes with playing Albus Dumbledore.
Law has spoken before about the time he spent with J.K. Rowling in order to prepare for the role, and he recalls the author walking around the room in which they met for nearly three hours, delving into the enigma that is Dumbledore. “It just came out,” Law said. “It’s just living in her, and I’m sitting there scribbling down notes and getting all this incredible insight into this character,” a character he genuinely wants to do justice.
There’s something wonderful about embodying someone with magical power and trying to understand what that might be like. But there’s also something painful about Albus, something sad. It’s just a beautiful literary character that it’s a real privilege to be able to bring to life.
You can watch the full Vanity Fair interview below.
I always want to be considered an actor, and sometimes the other stuff is a distraction. Then you find yourself protesting too much, saying, ‘I’m an actor, take me seriously,’ which sounds pretentious. To get to an age where it’s just about acting and playing characters who, because of their life experiences, have a bit more weight and complexity is more freeing, fulfilling and challenging.
That said, Law set the Internet reeling back in April 2019 when he was photographed filming for The New Pope in nothing but a tiny, white Speedo. As he told the Telegraph, “You have to go for it. Otherwise, you could be seen as taking yourself a bit too seriously. As soon as a man puts on Speedos, you have to laugh. It makes me laugh, anyway.”
You can watch another interview with Law and The New Pope costar John Malkovich on IndieWire. As for the other irons in Law’s fire, The Rhythm Section is set to hit theaters January 31, his HBO and Sky miniseries The Third Day will air this year, Sherlock Holmes 3 has a December 22, 2021, release date, and while Law’s participation hasn’t yet been confirmed, a sequel to Captain Marvel is also in the works.
As for us, we’ll be waiting with bated breath for November 12, 2021, and the next chapter in the backstory of Albus Dumbledore, courtesy of one of acting’s best.
