Award-winning actor Jude Law reveals he wore a "horrible" perfume containing fecal matter when readying to play King Henry VIII in Firebrand.
According to Law, the perfume contained fecal matter, blood, and sweat. "I read several interesting accounts that you could smell Henry three rooms away," he said. "His leg was rotting so badly. He hid it with rose oil... I thought it would have a great impact if I smelt awful."
As a result, Law asked a specialist fragrance maker to concoct the perfume before he filmed his scenes. "She somehow came up with this extraordinary variety of blood, fecal matter, and sweat," he said. "Initially, I used it very subtly and thought I’d use it myself... It became a spray-fest." Law's perfume put off everyone on the set of Firebrand when he wore it during principal photography, which took place between April and June 2022 in the UK. Director Karim Aïnouz summed up the feeling on set whenever Law wore the fragrance, describing it as "just horrible."
Firebrand follows Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, the former Queen of England and Ireland played by Alicia Vikander (Jason Bourne, The Green Knight). Based on Elizabeth Fremantle's 2013 novel, Queen's Gambit, Firebrand was selected for the Palme d'Or, the film festival's highest honor, at its world premiere.
