Jude Law Had A 'Just Horrible' Way Of Portraying Henry VIII, Director Says

The "Firebrand" star engaged in some putrid method-acting to play the British monarch in Karim Aïnouz's new film, he revealed at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Jude Law has confessed to stinking up the set for his new film, “Firebrand.”

The English actor wanted to get fully into character playing Britain’s King Henry VIII in the movie about his relationship with Catherine Parr, the last of his six wives, and recruited a perfumer to recreate the monarch’s pungent smell.

“I read several interesting accounts that at this period you could smell Henry three rooms away. His leg was rotting so badly. He hid it with rose oil,” Law told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

“I thought it would have great impact if I smelt awful,” Law explained.

The perfumer “somehow managed to came up with this extraordinary variety which was puss, blood, fecal matter and sweat,” Law recalled.

At first, Law said he used the scent “very subtly.”

But then it “became a spray-fest” as he thoroughly doused himself in the stench before filming.

“When Jude walked in on set it was just horrible,” admitted “Firebrand” director Karim Aïnouz, according to Variety.

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