Jude Law doesn't think he leaned into 'playing handsome' when he was younger

Instead, Law said he played "against my looks in my early 20s."

Jude Law has at least one regret.

"I didn't feel like I really ever leaned into playing handsome," Law said in a new interview with DuJour magazine, "but there were roles that required an attractive energy. I was trying to play against my looks in my early 20s, and now that I'm saggy and balding, I wish I had played it up."

Related: Jude Law and Andrew Scott unite for a Talented Mr. Ripley crossover at 2024 Met Gala

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Law found mainstream success and was nominated for his first Oscar with 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley, which costarred Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was four days away from turning 27 when it was released, and he had already appeared in a supporting role in the sci-fi flick Gattaca, with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, and played a shooting victim in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, with John Cusack and Kevin Spacey.

After that, he went on to play bigger roles in hits such as Cold Mountain, Closer, and The Aviator, in which he played none other than Hollywood womanizer Errol Flynn. In 2004, in his early 30s, he starred as the title character in Alfie, a movie about a ladies' man.

Related: Talented Mr. Ripley star Jude Law got emotional watching Netflix's Ripley show: It 'kicked up so many memories'

Now 51 — and decidedly not someone who would be described as saggy and balding — Law said that he's had the opportunity to play parts that "have not leaned in to any sort of attraction." He added that "it's been satisfying not having to turn that switch on."

His upcoming projects include the movie Firebrand, in which he plays King Henry VIII later in his life, when he was bitter and gout-ridden.

Related: Jude Law had a perfume of puss, blood, feces, and sweat made to play Henry VIII in Firebrand

"He's full of regret, self-medicating with alcohol and trying to deal with intense pain and the madness that it brings on," Law explained.

Firebrand arrives in theaters Friday, June 14.

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