Thirstory: ‘Jude Law Gets Us Wet!’

Welcome to Thirstory, where we whet your appetite with pages from the Interview archives that were almost too hot to print. This week, we resurface Jude Law’s July 2001 cover, photographed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. 

Earlier this month, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio dashed our dreams of a summer swim. But while public pools might remain closed, that won’t stop us from soaking up the beauty that is Mr. Jude Law.

For his 2001 cover story, the actor was photographed neck-deep in water, in a state of undress. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this isn’t the first time, thankfully, Law has lost his shirt. We’ve seen it before with his performance as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley; as Bosie in Wilde; and even as Pope Pius XIII in The Young Pope, where he nearly recreates this very shoot as he communes with the Lord Almighty. 

In these photos, Law, then 29, glares up at the camera, hands together as if to pray. But for what? A towel? Is Law wishing he’d packed his swimming trunks? Will his jeans linger with the smell of chlorine forever? We’ll likely never know. What we do know is that if Law’s our swim instructor, we’re about to get fluent in the art of fake-drowning.