Jude Law is still nursing that burn Chris Rock dealt him at the 2005 Oscars

Jude Law is the subject of a compelling new Vulture interview in which the actor’s “blinding” beauty serves as a means of framing his artistic journey over the years. Speaking of Law’s recent turns in The Young Pope and The New Pope, for example, director Paolo Sorrentino says, “The beauty of Jude was very helpful for the character because the quintessence of beauty as pope was something, not provocative, but unpredictable.” He continues, “Beauty is something that changes the relationship between the pope and all the people around. All the men, all the women. [It] puts the people in a different condition.”
That beauty, weaponized into art in in Sorrentino’s hands, was a gateway for the young actor once upon a time. But, as Law himself admits, it also made it easy to discount his actual talent. In 2005, following a year in which he led two notable box office bombs in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Alfie, he was the butt of a cutting joke at the Oscars. “If you can’t get a star, wait. If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait! It’s not the same thing,” cracked host Chris Rock. “Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen the last four years?” He added, “Next year, he’s playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a movie.”