The Wizard of the Kremlin premieres at Venice Film Festival; Jude Law says, 'I went down a rabbit hole' for playing Vladimir Putin

Hollywood actor Jude Law has taken on one of his most challenging roles yet as he stepped into the shoes of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’s latest film, The Wizard of the Kremlin. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday in the prestigious Competition segment. Law’s uncanny resemblance to Putin has sent social media in a tizzy.

Adapted from Giuliano Da Empoli’s 2022 novel of the same name, the film is set in the early 1990s and traces the rise of Putin through the lens of a fictional filmmaker, Vadim Baranov (played by Paul Dano). Baranov, who transforms into Putin’s trusted spin doctor, explores the blurred lines between truth and propaganda, ultimately shaping a new Russia. Years later, retreating into silence, Baranov finally reveals the dark secrets of the regime he once helped construct.

At a press conference following the premiere, Jude Law revealed that preparing for the role pushed him into an intense deep dive. “There was a lot of footage one could watch. When I start going down that rabbit hole, it becomes obsessive; you're looking for more, newer material,” Law explained.

But portraying Putin came with a unique challenge. “The tricky side to me was that the public face we see gives very, very little away. There has been a term for him and that is ‘the man without a face’. There’s a mask. Understandably, Olivier would want me to portray this or that in a scene with a certain emotion, and I felt the conflict of trying to show very little,”* he said, as quoted by The Guardian.