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Jude Law was already a major star with two Oscar nominations under his belt when he played Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin in Joe Wright's 2012 film "Anna Karenina." Alicia Vikander , on the other hand, was near the beginning of her career — and four years away from her Oscar win for "The Danish Girl" — when she had her breakout role playing the supporting character Kitty in the same movie. Over a decade later, the two have reunited for "Firebrand," director Karim Aïnouz's film about King Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr.

The movie spotlights the lesser-explored Parr, whose story hasn't been told, and retold, the way the Tudor royal's other wives have (read: Anne Boleyn). Giving a revisionist history of their relationship (and Henry's death), "Firebrand" places Parr's accomplishments within a more modern feminist context. For instance, she's considered the first Englishwoman to print an original work under her own name in English.



"Karim has done a really great job of looking at the past in a way that makes it feel incredibly relevant on so many levels — the abusive relationship, the power and strength, the wit of this woman, and the appalling behavior of this man in power," Law told Business Insider. For Vikander, it was a no-brainer to sign onto the project when she learned Law was involved, telling BI she "had this instant feeling" she had to do it. And even though Law went to great lengths to capture the truly "appalling" nature of the king, wh.

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