Interview with Jude Law

The English actor and producer Jude Law had already been in Cannes in 2007 to present the film by  Wong Kar Waï, My Blueberry Nights, which opened the 60th Festival de Cannes. This year, he is back as a member of the Feature Film Jury.
He agrees to an interview with all the charm he is famous for.

How did you feel when the Festival asked you to be a member of the Jury and what did you expect?

I was obviously incredibly thrilled, excited, and as with anything you haven’t done before, a little bit nervous. Every day has really exceeded my expectations; I’m really having one of the best experiences in my life. It’s incredibly important, moving to me, to have an opportunity to really focus and embrace films as an art form, and to have the responsibility to sit and discuss it with wonderful people, watching films from all around the world, with an incredible diversity. It’s a reminder of how powerful, important and special this medium is. I’m lucky.

You played in Gattaca with Uma Thurman in 1997. As she is also a jury member, do you have an anecdote about your work together?

It was one of my first films, quite a long time ago! It was my first film in America, in Hollywood. Uma and Ethan were already very established actors in the world. My strongest memory is driving around in beautiful cars with these two incredible people, feeling that I was in the fantasy, the cliché that everyone has about making films in Hollywood. They were both wonderfully caring with me, and helped me with my inexperience.

What do you think the Festival can bring or should bring to cinema?

It’s a very important festival. Aside from the parties, the glamour and the business that is done here, what I’ve learned this year is that it’s a celebration of the art form, a reminder that this can be a ground-breaking, challenging art form that speaks a universal language. It’s storytelling and it’s most complex, it’s really asking the biggest question we can ask. We always needed stories, we always needed our imagination explained in some way, whether we’re sitting around a camp fire or now, sitting in the Palais watching cinema.

Being part of this jury, with artists from all around the world, does it make you think of doing films with foreign filmmakers?

Absolutely! I’ve learned so much about directors I didn’t know about. I’ve always had an aspiration to make a film in another language.  With French it would probably be the most obvious, because I speak a little French; my parents live here so I have an opportunity to learn it better, to improve it. Work in another language could be a real inspiration, an opportunity to push myself. It would be a great experience.

What made you want to make films?

I was just a huge fan of films, I loved it. I loved the physical proximity of being somewhere dark, being told a story. And I always enjoyed being part of storytelling.

What is your first film memory?

Watching, I think, a Charlie Chaplin film. My father used to project it on the wall at parties. That’s a very strong film memory. And Harold Lloyd.
There are many films I can watch over and over. To name two:  I love Ladri di Biciclette and Cool Hand Luke…

You also play on stage in London?

I started performing on stage first. I didn’t make a film before my early twenties. And I never really thought of working in films because where I grew up in London,  it felt like something that was done somewhere else. Even though I loved it, I didn’t feel a part of that culture.
Theatre, to me, is a place where I have always felt comfortable expressing myself. I love the demands it puts on you as an actor, so alive, and I love the opportunity of the sort of magic, once the curtain goes up, that you must see it through to the end, that nothing can stop it. I love the opportunity you have to rediscover it every night, with a different group, the atmosphere, the mood… Everything can affect your performance. It’s a really important medium for me.

What are your projects to come?
I’m doing a play by Eugene O’Neill called “Anna Christie” at the Donmar Warehouse in London this summer, that opens in August. And then I’m doing a film with Joe Wright: “Anna Karenina”.

What inspires you ?
My children, and fellow film makers, artists….

You like passing on your love of cinema to your children?
I love showing my children films. And I love hearing from them what films they’ve seen.
At the moment, I’m living a very particular time because my oldest son is fourteen, so I’m showing him films that I saw around this age, where I really started to fall in love with cinema. It’s the opportunity to introduce him to great filmmakers who inspired me. It’s wonderful, a great lesson. To show a film, explain what it says for you, what kind of feelings it brings, is a great gift.

Interview by E.B.