QA: Jude Law picked up some bad habits for 'Dom Hemingway'

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Face2Face with Jude Law

British star talks 'Dom Hemingway'

NEW YORK – Jude Law transforms into “Dom Hemingway” in the new dark comedy. Law told FOX411 what bad “Dom” habits were hard to shake even when the cameras stopped rolling, plus how much fun he had getting into the crude criminal character.

FOX411: The makeover for this one, what was it like not to have to be so debonair all the time?

Jude Law: It was kind of hard work in a way because I don’t eat a lot of food. I’m not a big foodie. I like food, but I don’t eat it to excess. I don’t have that kind of relationship with it. So by the end of a three month period of just gorging and trying to put on or change shape in all the wrong places was kind of hard work, but all the other stuff was great fun. It’s what makes what I do enjoyable. It’s like dressing up, creating something believable and having a story for all the reasons… the side burns… but it was a very collaborative experience too because you know, we had an amazing team.  Richard, the writer-director who had dreamt this insane character up had really strong opinions as to where we went and I think in the end, it was him that encouraged me to grow the massive mutton chops. I came up with the idea of the broken nose and the teeth.

FOX411: You couldn’t shake some habits?

Law: It was more the kind of swagger and the bravado. If I bumped into anyone while I was making this, I apologize. I was very loud and uh, exuberant. Well there was a certain confidence to Dom that had kind of left itself in me… It’s gone now.

FOX411: Confidence, he could be crude, obnoxious… was it fun to show that side?

Law: It is fun, especially when you’re delivering beautifully written…  well not necessarily beautifully but well written lines (FOX411: Full, full lines) full and as you said, playing someone in a world that’s so sort of uptight and PC nowadays, you can’t say this, you can’t say that about someone, he’s like an open sewer. It just pours out. But weirdly poetically too. Like he’s offensive, but he does it with a great kind joie de vivre and wit. I think that’s the kind of contradiction of the character that makes him for me makes him so enjoyable I think certainly to play and I hope to watch. It starts one way, it starts off and you feel like he’s offending you and abusing you. Then slowly you realize, actually I kind of care about this guy, and that’s what I got when I read it and that’s what I hoped everyone would get.

FOX411: From this to “The Grand Budapest Hotel” there’s a mix of Jude Law films in theaters. Is it conscious effort to mix it up, feel you have the freedom in your career now to choose what’s next?

Law: I wish. You choose from what’s offered. I’m just curious about trying new things. With Wes (Anderson), I wanted to be in one of his films, I’ve loved his films for many years. I always feel like going and seeing his films is an amazing place of comfort and security.  So I would have played any part. I wrote to him a few years ago just saying I’ll play a butler, I’ll do anything. And with this (Dom Hemingway) it was just clear from the reading that it was something I’d never done and it interested me because it had elements that I’d never kind of tapped into. So I guess I’m always sort of sniffing out in different areas, different challenges.  And that’s what just kept me interested.