British actor Jude Law appeared at Venice Film Festival for premiere of “The Kremlin Wizard.” He portrayed Russian President Vladimir Putin in movie.
Law wore light blue buttonless shirt, blue-gray jacket, and matching pants while facing journalists. He showed good spirits, posed happily for photographers, and smiled often.
Actor admitted striving to immerse deeply in role to avoid turning character into parody. He refused mimicking voice, opting for natural accent instead. To better understand how to portray Russian leader, Law studied judo basics and watched archival recordings of young Vladimir Putin, as reported by Variety.
Dano, meanwhile interested in exploring the internal more than the external of his character.
“I don’t think you need to look for a positive but you need to be willing to discover the point of view of the character. If you were to just label a character like Baranov bad, it would be a massive oversimplification that would do more bad than good,” Dano said. “We need to be asking ‘Why?’”
Assayas was asked whether he believes that Russia rules the world to which the director succinctly replied: “That’s an easy one. The answer is no.”
Although, yes, the film imagines the origins of Putin, the director elaborated that he envisions “The Wizard of the Kremlin” as a cautionary tale about the “transformation of politics during our lifetime.”
“The film is very much about how modern politics were invented. Part of that evil [was] raised from the rise of power of Vladimir Putin in Russia,” Assayas said. “We made a movie about what politics has become and the scary and dangerous situation that we all feel we’re in. It applies to a lot of authoritarian leaders.”
Co-star Alicia Vikander also attended premiere, appearing before journalists. For gala event, she chose short, fluffy Louis Vuitton dress in similar colors as Jude’s outfit.
