Bald Jude Law: The Actor's Evolution in 10 Movies

A version of this story appeared in the January/February 2015 issue

Jude Law has had a nice career. There was a momentum to it for a while: interesting costarring roles in really good movies, like The Talented Mr. Ripley, that led him, almost overnight it seemed at the time, to a starring and leading-actor-nominated role in Cold Mountain. More lead roles seemed inevitable. But then Alfie happened, and then he was more or less unmanned by an amazing performance by Clive Owen in Closer, and he settled into a nice groove as the second or sometimes third lead. He seemed to wither a little, especially as the sidekick to Robert Downey Jr.'s mania in the Sherlock Holmes franchise and even as the repulsive reporter in Contagion. A nice career, but no one was shelling out specifically to see Jude Law movies.

And then he cut his hair. Grabbed what I would estimate to have been a #2 Oster clipper and took his hair down to just a little more than nubs. And suddenly, he's the man. He's the man in the new movie Black Sea (out today), which is a submarine movie. Yes. Submarines! And it's not some historical epic. It's set right now, and the rest of the cast is made up of hooligans of British and Russian descent who would easily have overwhelmed the man and actor Jude Law had become before he cut his hair. He seems larger. He looks angrier. He seethes menace. You realize you've just seen a Jude Law movie.