Jude Law knows his new movie The Order some people might be uncomfortable.
In the thriller, directed by Justin Kurzel, Law plays FBI agent Terry Husk, who is sent to the Pacific Northwest to investigate a series of violent robberies. What he uncovers is a domestic terrorist plot by a group of white supremacists intent on overthrowing the federal government.
‘You rarely read [a script] that has such an impact. Here’s a true story that none of us knew about; I was surprised that this piece of history hadn’t been told yet,” Law told Yahoo Entertainment.
The film is inspired by a real-life terror plot led by Robert Jay “Bob” Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult), a member of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations. The film is set in the 1980s, but it’s hard not to draw parallels between then and now, when hateful rhetoric can spread so easily in the digital age.
“There are clearly uncomfortable parallels with the political climate of the moment and the divisive nature of society worldwide at the moment,” Law said. “It just added fuel to the need to get this thing fixed.”
Although Kurzel said The Order can be seen as ‘a cautionary tale’, both the director and Law believe the film is essentially a ‘cat-and-mouse thriller’.
‘You can be excited and stimulated, but [are] also leave with a question in your mind, with a conversation ahead. I think this is a real plus in filmmaking,” Law said. “And then there was this great character, and it felt like a character I hadn’t played yet.”
Legal scholar and screenwriter Zach Baylin felt it was important that Husk not be based on real FBI agents.
“It would have been distasteful to add or embellish any of their lives in the way that was necessary to make the character effective in this drama,” Law said. “That was important to me [Terry] feeling a little broken.”
To get into character, Law has his two young children to thank.
“[Terry] is a tired man who carries quite a physical and emotional burden from his 30 years of service. We talked a lot about the relationship he left behind, that there is clearly a damaged family life… To be honest, sometimes I struggled to make the leap. It took quite a leap of faith, and then I was in the middle of the rehearsal process and actually caught a cold,” Law recalls. “My two kids were both under three years old at the time and I was exhausted and tired, and I came in to rehearse and Justin said, ‘Oh, this is it. That’s Terry, you have to keep it up.’ So the kind of sniffing, the kind of glassy-eyed sniffing, just tired run, that came about as a result of a happy accident.”
Law has two young children, whose names have not been publicly revealed, with wife Phillipa Coan. He is the father of seven children. Although Law’s character can’t separate life from work, the actor says he doesn’t have that problem.
‘It’s always easy to switch back [to being a father and husband] in my mind because their requirements should be and are completely separate from mine on a film set,” he said. “But we shot [The Order] very quickly. The shoot was very intense and because I was also a producer, I was involved 24/7. It’s a passion piece. We really believed in it and believed in the message and the subject matter, so there wasn’t a lot of downtime, and luckily my family was very forgiving and understanding about that.”
The Order is in cinemas from December 6.
