Jude Law had no qualms about portraying the ruthless Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas‘ political thriller “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” which premiered Aug. 31 at the Venice Film Festival.
“I hope not naively, but I didn’t fear repercussions. I felt confident, in the hands of Olivier and the script, that this story was going to be told intelligently and with nuance and consideration,” Law said Aug. 31 at the movie’s official press conference in Venice. “We weren’t looking for controversy for controversy’s sake. It’s a character in a broader story. We weren’t trying to define anything about anyone.
Adapted from Giuliano da Empoli’s 2022 bestselling book by the same name, “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is a fictional account of Putin’s ascent to power amid post-Soviet chaos as well as his relationship with spin doctor Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano). Though the latter isn’t an actual person, he’s inspired by Vladislav Sourkov, a real-life fixer who’s been credited for playing key role in shaping Putin’s persona and authoritarian leadership style. Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge and Jeffrey Wright, all of whom attended the press conference, round out the cast.
Law altered his physical appearance but deliberately chose to use his own voice, rather than donning a thick Russian accent, to embody a young Putin.
“Olivier and I discussed this wasn’t to be an interpretation of Putin, and he didn’t want me to hide behind a mask of prosthetics. We worked with an amazing makeup and hair team and had reference of that period in Putin’s life. We tried to find a familiarity on me,” Law said. “It’s amazing what a great wig can do.”
Dano, meanwhile, was 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.”
The story has heightened relevance amid Russia’s continued full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin has been in the news lately after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been working to cobble together a peace deal between the two nations. Wright offered another reason for why “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is not just timely but needs to be “told in a mirror when it comes to America.”
“This film is about a specific place but it has global implications for all of us. There’s a specific Russian history and specific American history in contrast to that. Yes, we’ve had impulses toward fascism and autocracy and all manner of sins. But what we’ve also had from the very beginning, even within the original sins and that grotesqueness, the idea that we could be better. This idea that we could aspire towards some type of utopian perfectibility,” Wright said. “If that is lost as it is now, we become the thing we see in the film.”
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