Jude Law is "very happy ageing"
The 51-year-old actor has embraced getting older because he's convinced moving away from his heartthrob good looks helped his career because he's been able to expand the roles he's able to play onscreen
19 December 2024
He told the Guardian newspaper: "I'm very happy ageing. There is a physical aspect to the job, but equally the business is about how you're perceived.
"Are you perceived as a person who can become someone else, who's expected to change, or are you perceived as the person you are?
"If you're successful for looking a certain way, that's where there's a bit more pressure. It's still much harder for women, and I think we could do a lot more to rebalance that."
Jude went on to admit he managed to avoid typecasting in Hollywood because he was so keen on playing different characters.
He added: "I think it's just curiosity. If I look back at the actors who inspired me, it was people who were playing different types of roles - Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth. Every time I saw them, I didn't recognise them.
"I found that fascinating, the idea of losing yourself in someone."
It comes after Jude dec lared he wants to go back to his theatre roots and end his career on the stage.
He started out in theatre in 1987 performing with the National Youth Music Theatre and drew acclaim when he starred in the titular role in William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' on the West End in 2009.
The 'Holiday' star returned to tread the boards as Henry V in Michael Grandage's season at the Noel Coward Theatre in 2013, but while he admitted he no plans to do a play in the near future because he has been busy with his production company, Riff Raff Entertainment, Jude wants to bow out on stage.
Appearing on Deadline's 'The Actor's Side' series, he said of a theatre return: "I certainly will go back. There's a momentum it feels with what I am doing on film.
"We talked about my company, and that feels like it's finding it's place and it's voice and a lot of the stuff that we put into development is coming through.
"I don't know that I am going to do a play anytime soon; it's where I started, it's in many ways my first love.
"I can see myself probably ending there as well one day. There are lots of roles I want to play."
Asked which ones, he replied: "Well, I played Hamlet and Henry VI. Somebody said to me once, 'To get to Lear, you have to play Hamlet, Henry, Benedict, the Scottish King, and then you are able to play Lear.' And Lear, I've got years, but those are just a few I'd like to tackle one day."
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