Jude Law on playing real-life 'faceless' character

Jude Law is known for playing versatile characters in his long career. However, in his view, his new role, based on a real-world personality, "doesn't have a face."

He is referring to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whom the star portrays in the forthcoming movie The Wizard of the Kremlin.

During the press conference at the Venice Film Festival, where the movie debuted, he opened up about the challenges of playing a politician.

"The tricky side to me was that the public face we see gives very, very little away. There has been a term for him and that: ‘the man without a face’. There’s a mask," the 52-year-old notes.

This, in turn, made Jude acknowledge that portraying Vladimir was challenging. "So I was conflicted as an actor because understandable Olivier would want me to portray this or that in a scene with a certain emotion and I felt the conflict of trying to show very little," he adds.

Apart from the Sherlock Holmes star, Paul Dano, the movie also featured Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright, and Tom Sturridge.

The Wizard of the Kremlin's logline reads, "A young Russian filmmaker, Vadim Baranov becomes an unlikely advisor to Vladimir Putin as he rises to power in post-Soviet Russia, navigating the new era's complexities and chaos."