Jude Law sits down to guess lines from some of his most well-known movies. He reminisces about the "golden time" he had filming 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', why he thinks 'Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow' would be a hit if it were released today, and working with Steven Spielberg to create the character of Gigolo Joe in 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence.' He also shares some of the 'Star Wars' secrets he learned while making the upcoming series 'Skeleton Crew'
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00:01Oof.
00:02This is tricky.
00:03Hang on.
00:04Damn.
00:05Oh!
00:06Yes, I know.
00:07I'm taking this so seriously.
00:14Round one.
00:20Once you've had a lover robot, you'll never want a real man again.
00:24Well, that is Juggalo Joe from AI.
00:28Once you've had a lover robot, you'll never want a real man again.
00:37It wasn't as much CGI as you'd imagine.
00:39They were using a technology which Stephen referred to as pie in the sky,
00:45but I learnt the other day that that was just his term for it.
00:48It was a stepping stone from green screen to volume,
00:51which is what we use nowadays, which are these vast LED screens.
00:55So there was blue screen around us, which was a sort of embellishment of big, big sets.
01:02And the pie in the sky, you were able to create a set,
01:06look with the pie in the sky at what was going to be added so that you could act around it.
01:11I mean, I've done films that have been entirely on blue screen,
01:15so this felt like a real playground for me.
01:17It felt pretty straightforward.
01:19And the creatures, the robots, were all puppets.
01:22They were all present.
01:24It was created by the great Stan Winston.
01:27In fact, that everything didn't go precisely to plan was precisely the plan.
01:32Ah! Oh, you know what? I've got a good story about this line.
01:36That's Dumbledore. I wrote this line.
01:38I just thought it was very Dumbledore.
01:40The fact that everything didn't go precisely to plan was precisely the plan. Yeah.
01:44The fact that everything didn't go precisely to plan was precisely the plan.
01:48I'd read all the books to my children, and I really loved that world.
01:52Harry was absolutely the sort of heartbeat of those books, or rather the spirit.
01:57Harry was the heartbeat.
01:59There was something in the heart of Dumbledore,
02:01there was something in the spirit of the man that I really liked.
02:05And in fact, playing him put me in a very good place.
02:08Joe Rowling always said to me that he saw himself as a monster
02:11because of the way he'd behaved in the past, and he was always trying to forgive himself.
02:16But I just always felt like he was a good, kind man, and it's nice playing good, kind men.
02:21You see a franchise like the Potter franchise, and similarly Star Wars.
02:26You're a Jedi.
02:31It was a world, a universe, a galaxy that I grew up watching and emulating,
02:36playing in the playground, in the play yard.
02:38I was just very curious to see how they made that universe, and what are the rules,
02:43and you know, there are great gatekeepers who cherish it
02:46and really know all the details and the lineage.
02:48Getting into that was an eye-opener.
02:50I learned a few new things.
02:52Did you know there are no buttons in the Star Wars universe?
02:54You never see any buttons on any clothes.
02:56They're all ties or buckles or velcro.
02:59There's no paper. You never see paper.
03:02And there are certain shots that you're not allowed to use
03:05because they would have been impossible to do when it started in the 70s,
03:12and they still try and emulate the sort of rules that Lucas would have had
03:17back in the 70s when they started it.
03:19Number three.
03:22Ah, yeah, I know this.
03:23I cry all the time, more than any woman you've ever met.
03:26That's the holiday.
03:27I cry all the time.
03:28You do not.
03:29Yeah, I do.
03:30More than any woman you've ever met.
03:32You hope that what you make appeals to people,
03:35and you hope what you make finds an audience
03:37and finds its way into people's heads and hearts.
03:41But for it to be returned to so frequently,
03:43and really to become a sort of store for people's celebration
03:47every year at Christmas is a wonderful thing.
03:49People assume that I've had this career of rom-coms,
03:53and this is really one or maybe two that I've done in 30 years.
03:57I avoided them for many, many years
03:59because I felt like it was going to lead me down a path
04:02where I became that guy who does those films.
04:05And then I was intrigued to do one.
04:08I sort of wanted to go there and test that muscle.
04:12And Nancy talked about all my favorite rom-coms
04:15that she desperately wanted to sort of emulate,
04:18bringing up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace,
04:21His Girl Friday, films like that.
04:22So I was in, and we had a great time making it.
04:26It took a long time to make.
04:28Nancy likes a lot of takes.
04:31Ha ha ha!
04:32Does your depravity know no bounds?
04:36That's Sherlock Holmes.
04:37Yes.
04:38Do I have to guess which one?
04:40I think it's the first one.
04:42Yes!
04:43I'm not competitive.
04:45Ha ha!
04:46Does your depravity know no bounds?
04:49The idea of Robert playing Sherlock,
04:51Guy Ritchie's lens on that world,
04:54it just seemed like an awful lot of fun
04:57and a really terrific idea, and it proved to be.
05:00It was a wonderful triptych.
05:02You know, the three of us bounced off each other,
05:05heated each other up, provoked each other, loved each other.
05:08It was a very tight, creative unit,
05:12with lots of others, of course,
05:14but that was at the sort of centre,
05:16and they were terrific to make.
05:20It's simply your last connection to that banished world.
05:25His world, if you will.
05:29Ooh, this is tricky.
05:31Hang on.
05:33Is this Dumbledore?
05:35No.
05:38Gosh!
05:40That banished world, his world.
05:43OK, that's interesting.
05:45I wouldn't have...
05:46Well, I didn't connect it.
05:48Damn!
05:49That one goes over there.
05:51Is it simply your last connection to that banished world?
05:54His world, if you will.
05:55It was like a fairy tale.
05:57It was like a very particular universe,
05:59and the idea of stepping into it
06:01was like stepping into his world, his dream.
06:04He runs a very friendly, collective atmosphere.
06:08You all eat together,
06:09and we were staying together in this little hotel,
06:11which I think they used.
06:12They certainly used it as an exterior in one of the shots.
06:15You know, when you're in anything
06:17that is then embraced so much by others,
06:19it's a wonderful reward.
06:21You love her like a dog loves its owner.
06:24I'm going to guess that that's closer.
06:26Yes!
06:28You love her like a dog loves its owner!
06:30It was a renowned play,
06:32and by the great Patrick Marber,
06:34he had adapted it for the screenplay.
06:36There's a musicality to it, there's a rhythm to it,
06:39that, you know, you had to get it just so,
06:41and that's not always the case with even great writing,
06:43but with this, it was like you had to get the punctuation right,
06:47you had to get the rhythm right,
06:48like a game of tennis,
06:49so that you were setting up the return ball
06:52from your fellow actor.
06:58This may be our last moment together.
07:02There's something I need to ask you.
07:04Did you cut my fuel line?
07:07It's a great line.
07:09That's a really funny line.
07:11Damn.
07:15Who cut my fuel line?
07:17Is it Ripley?
07:18No, no, it's not Ripley, it's not Ripley.
07:20Do you know what I mean?
07:21It could be those, like Tom, did you, yeah.
07:23Oh, yes, I know.
07:25It's Sky Captain.
07:27Yes!
07:29I'm taking this so seriously.
07:33Did you cut my fuel line?
07:35I love that film, and you know, it's so interesting.
07:37I believe that had that film been released
07:39in the last five years,
07:41it would have been a really big hit
07:43because it had a sort of quality to it.
07:45You know, this is before the Marvel Universe
07:47and the DC world was really being explored again,
07:50but it has this quality of sort of steampunk,
07:53retro, future, comic book dynamics, you know.
07:57It was fun, great fun to make,
07:59especially with Gwyneth.
08:00I mean, we spent most of the time in a cockpit arguing.
08:05It's a dead end.
08:06That's not supposed to be there.
08:07It's a dead end!
08:12Yeah, I know what this is.
08:13Everybody should have one talent.
08:15What's yours?
08:16That's the talented Mr. Ripley.
08:19Everybody should have one talent.
08:21What's yours?
08:22That was a very golden time.
08:24I mean, looking back,
08:25it wasn't like we knew it was.
08:26It wasn't like we were constantly looking around
08:28saying, this is a special time,
08:30but there was a particular energy going on
08:32with all these actors at this time.
08:35You know, they're all in their mid-twenties.
08:36You think Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow,
08:38Matt Damon, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
08:40we're all there shooting this movie
08:42on location in this incredible country.
08:45There was a palpable sense of excitement, really.
08:49It's a bad day to be a racist monkey.
08:53That is Contagion.
08:55That's a bad day to be a racist monkey.
08:58I've got a feeling something happened
09:00the year it was released
09:01or the weekend it was released.
09:02It didn't make a huge impact at the box office.
09:04And then 10 years later, a pandemic hits
09:06and everyone's suddenly sitting at home saying,
09:08what should we watch?
09:09Let's watch a film about a pandemic.
09:10Aren't we odd?
09:12We're such odd creatures.
09:13I'd spent a lot of time on that film
09:15talking to the doctors who were advising,
09:17Scott and Steven,
09:19Scott Burns, the writer,
09:20and Soderbergh, the director.
09:21And they were such, such interesting folk
09:25who were saying to us even then,
09:27this is going to happen
09:29and you need to be ready for it.
09:31In fact, one of them then contacted us all afterwards
09:33and said, this isn't the big one,
09:36which is worth remembering.
09:42Didn't anyone tell you I don't eat much?
09:45Hardly anything, in fact.
09:46All I have in the morning is a cherry Coke Zero.
09:49That's the young Pope.
09:51That's all he ever ate or drank.
09:53Didn't anyone tell you I don't eat much?
09:55Hardly anything, in fact.
09:57All I have in the morning is a cherry Coke Zero.
10:00I wasted an awful lot of time
10:01trying to get through these poems of literature
10:05about past popes and the history of papal responsibility
10:09and the Vatican.
10:10And it was cold.
10:12I called up Paolo and I was like,
10:13what am I going to do?
10:14I don't know who this guy is.
10:15And he just said, just play the man.
10:17Play the man and let everything else,
10:19you're going to be dressed up like a Christmas tree.
10:21You're going to look like the Pope.
10:22Just play the guy inside.
10:25And that really helped.
10:26And in fact, the guy was much closer.
10:27I can talk about this now
10:28because Paolo made a film about his childhood
10:31just a couple of years ago,
10:32but back then it wasn't really known,
10:34but he was like Lenny, an orphan.
10:37He'd lost his parents.
10:39And I think really found a little bit of Lenny
10:43or projected a little bit of himself in Lenny.
10:47And that helped too,
10:48because to a degree I played Paolo.
10:51We don't have a choice.
10:53We must be in harmony with God.
10:59Popes get to choose the color of their slippers.
11:01They can either wear white, red, or gold.
11:03And apparently you can tell the type of Pope they're going to be.
11:06Someone told me this in the Vatican,
11:07by the shoes they choose.
11:09So all the cardinals are stood there
11:11when the Pope comes out in his finery for the first time
11:13and they all go,
11:14Benedictus, the guy who retired,
11:17wore very, very expensive red gold-lined slippers.
11:23And I think they think that reflected his papacy.
11:27The current one wears comfortable little black pumps, I think,
11:30because he's a good guy.
11:37Yeah, I'm going to find a nice place,
11:39have Molly and the girls move out here
11:41and start putting the pieces back together.
11:43That's Husk from The Order.
11:46I'm going to find a nice place,
11:48have Molly and the girls move out here.
11:52It's a rarity that you find an untold story from the past
11:55that has such resonance in the present.
11:58And the script did a great job of taking this untold story,
12:02shining a light on it,
12:03but also folding it into a genre piece.
12:07And it read with such pace and dynamism.
12:10If you think back to the huge crowd-pleasers of the 70s and 80s,
12:14films that we would all go to the cinema to enjoy,
12:16which had a kind of, they had a swagger and a punch,
12:19but they were also really intelligent.
12:21It was trying to emulate those.
12:22And a character that I felt I hadn't really played,
12:24perhaps couldn't have played in the past.
12:26I mean, he's of a certain age of my age,
12:28but there's something about him that I felt very familiar, again,
12:32to characters that we've seen in other films.
12:34It's a gripping ride.
12:36And I think it will also open eyes to behaviour
12:40that has been going on around the world, sadly, since time began,
12:44that we need to understand better.
12:47And this maybe aids that.