Jude Law didn't fear repercussions about playing vladimir Putin

Jude Law didn't "fear repercussions" about playing Vladimir Putin.

The 52-year-old actor portrays the Russian leader in The Wizard of the Kremlin and he didn't hesitate about signing up for the political thriller because he had every confidence in director Olivier Assayas' work.

Speaking at a press conference for the movie at the Venice Film Festival, he said: “I hope not naively, but I didn’t fear repercussions. I felt confident, in the hands of Olivier and the script, that this story was going to be told intelligently and with nuance and consideration.

“We weren’t looking for controversy for controversy’s sake. It’s a character in a broader story. We weren’t trying to define anything about anyone.”

Jude changed his physical appearance but used his own voice in the film, rather than adopting a Russian accent because he and the director didn't want to show an "interpretation of Putin".

He said: “Olivier and I discussed this wasn’t to be an interpretation of Putin, and he didn’t want me to hide behind a mask of prosthetics. We worked with an amazing make-up and hair team and had reference of that period in Putin’s life. We tried to find a familiarity on me.

"It’s amazing what a great wig can do.”

The Wizard of the Kremlin is adapted from Guiliano da Empoli's book of the same name and is a fictional account of Putin's rise to power and his friendship with Vadim Baranov, a spin doctor who is inspired by real-life fixer Vladislav Sourkov, who is credited to have played a key role in the Russian leader's persona.

Paul Dano plays Sourkov and was keen to look at the internal aspects of his alter ego.

He said: “I don’t think you need to look for a positive but you need to be willing to discover the point of view of the character. If you were to just label a character like Baranov bad, it would be a massive oversimplification that would do more bad than good.

"We need to be asking ‘Why?'”

Meanwhile, director Olivier believes the movie is more of a cautionary tale about the “transformation of politics during our lifetime" than Putin and Russia specifically.

He said: “The film is very much about how modern politics were invented. Part of that evil [was] raised from the rise of power of Vladimir Putin in Russia.

"We made a movie about what politics has become and the scary and dangerous situation that we all feel we’re in. It applies to a lot of authoritarian leaders.”