Jude Law shares J.K. Rowling's advice on playing Dumbledore

Jude Law wanted to do right by fans with his portrayal of young Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films.

In a recent chat with Variety, the 51-year-old actor got a chance to reflect on some of his most iconic roles throughout his illustrious career — more specifically, his most iconic lines.

“The fact that everything didn’t go precisely to plan, was precisely the plan,” he read the line and immediately connected it to 2022’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

“I’ve got a good story about this line. That’s Dumbledore. I wrote this line! I just thought that it was very Dumbledore,” he revealed.

The Talented Mr. Ripley alum shared that he instantly connected to Dumbledore after reading the Harry Potter books with his children. “He was absolutely the sort of heartbeat of those books. Or, rather, the spirit. Harry was the heartbeat. There was something in the heart of Dumbledore — there was something in the spirit of the man that I really liked. And, in fact, playing him put me in a very good place.”

He then shared the key advice he got from Harry Potter author J.K Rowling about the essence of the character.

“Jo Rowling always said to me that [Dumbledore] saw himself as a monster because of the way he had behaved in the past and he was always trying to forgive himself, but I just always felt like he was a good, kind man,” he recalled.

Law portrayed young Albus Dumbledore in two of the three Fantastic Beast films: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).