He may have already played Dr John Watson in Hollywood rejigging of Sherlock Holmes, but it seem this medical experience wasn't enough to prepare Jude Law for his Steven Soderbergh's latest thriller.
In Side Effects, which had its international premiere this week at the Berlin Film Festival, the actor stars plays a psychiatrist who prescribes a new drug he’s testing out as part of a lucrative deal with a pharmaceutical giant. But it was actually psychological aspects of the role – convincing himself that he could play a psychiatrist properly – that troubled Law.
“I was overcoming the reality that I wasn’t going to be able to go to medical school in the time it took to prepare for the part,” he told reporters. “I didn’t have a huge relationship with pharmaceuticals or an understanding of them.”
Let’s hope Side Effect, which also stars Rooney Mara, fares better than the film Soderbergh brought to Berlin last year, Haywire. Despite an all-star cast featuring Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Michael Douglas, this distinctly average action thriller was widely panned by audiences.
