Jude Law is getting candid about aging.
The British actor played a series of swoon-worthy characters in movies like The Talented Mr. Ripley, Alfie and The Holiday early on in his career. Law, now 51, says he didn’t just go for parts that relied on his good looks — but he now wishes he’d taken on more of them.
“I didn’t feel like I really ever leaned into playing handsome, but there were roles that required an attractive energy,” Law told DuJour magazine in an interview published on Monday, June 10.
“I was trying to play against my looks in my early 20s, and now that I’m saggy and balding, I wish I had played it up,” the actor joked.
Sienna Miller’s Dating History: Jude Law, Oli Green and More
Law is in as much demand in Hollywood as ever, playing King Henry VIII in the new period movie, Firebrand, released in theaters on Friday, June 14. He also leads the cast of Disney+’s upcoming Star Wars series Skeleton Crew.
The actor’s son, Raff, 27, whom he shares with ex-wife Sadie Frost, is also making a name for himself in Hollywood. Raff appeared in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air earlier this year alongside Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Barry Keoghan.
Speaking to DuJour, Law said he’s “immensely proud” of his son.
“I’m thrilled because we get to share our enthusiasm, and I get to give him advice if he wants to hear it,” the actor said. “I’m immensely proud that he’s put himself out there because he found something that he loves. He’s obviously seen the way I work, and it’s rubbed off on him.”
However, the Peter & Wendy star admits to having some mixed feelings about Raff following in his footsteps.
“It’s complicated because I’m aware of how hard it is,” Law explained. “When I came into this business, I didn’t have the comparison, but with him, people might always say, ‘Oh, you’re just like your dad.’ Which is nonsense; his career is his career.”
Celebs and Their Look-Alike Kids: Photos
Following his divorce from Frost, Law dated actress Sienna Miller from 2003 to 2006, and again between 2009 and 2011.
Miller recently recalled the “madness and chaos” of her relationship with Law playing out in the public eye, including Law’s affair with his children’s nanny in 2005.
“It makes you go completely mad, which is ideal for them,” she said in an interview on SiriusXM’s This Life of Mine With James Corden in May. “The more you spiral, the better it is in terms of selling papers — that English thing of just wanting to tear people down. It felt so celebratory.”
Miller described herself as being so “in love” with Law, but “the flip side of it was so dark, so quickly,” noting that as a young actress at the time she had “very little agency” over how she was portrayed in the press.
