Jude Law Wore 'Blood, Fecal Matter, and Sweat' Perfume While Shooting His Latest Film

Actors are known to employ all sorts of unique ways to get into character on set, but it sounds like Jude Law's new technique stinks—literally.

The actor stars in a new film called Firebrand, which follows the tumultuous final days of King Henry VIII and his sixth wife, Katherine Parr. The king was known to suffer from serious leg ulcers, and Law attempted to recreate the noxious odor caused by the character's health condition while he was filming the movie.

“I read several interesting accounts that you could smell Henry three rooms away. His leg was rotting so badly. He hid it with rose oil,” Law said at his Cannes Film Festival press conference, according to Variety. “I thought it would have a great impact if I smelt awful.”

Law found a perfume specialist, who he asked to recreate the scent for him. "She makes wonderful scents, and she also makes awful scents," he said. "She somehow came up with this extraordinary variety of blood, fecal matter and sweat.”

According to Law, he got carried away with using the scent soon after. “Initially, I used it very subtly and thought I’d use it myself," he said, noting that it later "became a spray-fest.”

The film's director, Karim Aïnouz, said that the scent permeated every aspect of the production. “When Jude walked in on set, it was just horrible," he said.

Firebrand stars Law and Alicia Vikander as Henry VIII and Katherine Parr. It made its cinematic debut at Cannes today, and is expected to be an awards season contender this year.