Jude Law created a perfume to smell like he was 'actually rotting' to play King Henry VIII in 'Firebrand'

In the movie portrays as he nears death and reaches an apex of paranoia at the end of a megalomaniacal life. The last of his six wives, Katherine Parr ( ), struggles to appease him while keeping her radical religious beliefs a secret. Suffering from ulcers and an infection that would eventually kill him, the king was more than just unstable and feverish — he probably smelled pretty bad too.

Law told Yahoo Entertainment that the film’s director, Karim Aïnouz, wanted to create a “360-degree set” that included an authentic scent, though the story itself diverges from the historical record. “I read that Henry, because of these agonizing ulcers he had on his legs, really smelled like he was actually rotting,” Law said. “So we came up with this disgusting odor that created a pungency and sickening scent around him.



” Law consulted with a perfume specialist, who created a blend of blood, fecal matter and sweat. He used it subtly at first, but eventually it could be smelled from “three rooms away.” The actor explained that Aïnouz is committed to creating “an ambience of truth” — he starts rolling the camera before they begin filming something scripted, and makes sure that the sensory experience is true to the time period, which in the case of was the late 1540s.

For the film, which had its North American premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, Aïnouz kept animals around, paid close attention to the temperature of the room, kept fires burning and str.