Actor Jude Law tells Steve Pratt he's finally ready to take on the realities of relationships for the sake of the silver screen, not that he enjoys being a heart-throb or the intense interest in his private life.

WOMANISING Alfie, declares Jude Law, is very much the part he's been avoiding for ten years. The 31-year-old London-born actor says he's never really wanted to play the lothario or the young buck. Only now he's chosen to follow in Michael Caine's footsteps to play Alfie Elkins, the charmer who beds a variety of women and confides his thoughts to the camera. "Those kinds of roles are the challenging parts because I've not gone there," he says.

"What was interesting about Alfie was it's about a crux time when you can't pretend you're not a man now and your responsibility is as a man and not a kid. Which is something I'm going through.

"I'd never had an interest in looking at films about relationships, sexual relationships in particular, centred around the world of a guy who's sort of 20. There's a sort of flippancy about them," he says. Entering his 30s caused the change of mind. "They're not necessarily the muscles I've flexed as an actor. Not that that's the direction I'm going in, but it's the reason for the direction I went with Alfie."

That film is one of half-a-dozen movies Law made back-to-back over an intense 18-month period. Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow was released earlier this month and Alfie will be followed by I Heart Huckabees, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (in cameo role as Errol Flynn) and Closer with Julia Roberts. He's also narrator of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

"They're all very different and hopefully people will enjoy the variety rather than the overkill," says Law, who was Oscar-nominated for Cold Mountain at this year's Academy Awards.

His busy work schedule coincided with problems in his personal life which saw the end of his six-year marriage to actress Sadie Frost, a year after the birth of their son and after their two-year-old daughter was rushed to hospital, suspected of swallowing an ecstasy tablet.

Filming Alfie brought him fresh romance as he met his current girlfriend, Sienna Miller, on the set. But they've denied press reports that they're engaged. Law's equally bashful about being labelled a heart-throb. "You can work for another ten years, pushing yourself as hard as you can, and you are still accused of that. You're still tainted with that brush," he says. "To tell you the truth, it's a bore. The last thing you want is a label like that. I personally cringe when I read anything about my private life."

Maybe, but the turmoil in his personal life was evident during the filming of Closer, based on Patrick Marber's hit play about four strangers who fall in love and then tear each other apart. "I did Closer at the end of an emotional year for me and I was able to open up and purge all that on camera," he says. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't use a lot of what was going on."

Doing films like Alfie and Closer is something of a cathartic relief, he says. "They can't help but be. Sometimes there's nothing more revealing than letting it all kind of hang out in front of a cast and crew."

Since his first film Shopping a decade ago, the actor has tended to play supporting rather than star roles on screen in films including Wilde, Gattaca, Speilberg's AI, The Talented Mr Ripley and The Road To Perdition. Cold Mountain and Alfie have changed that.

"It wasn't necessarily that I was avoiding playing the leading man, it was either I didn't feel I was right for the part or other parts were more interesting," he says. "My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing."

Law has been taking time off since finishing his six-film run in April but next month goes back in front of the cameras, joining Sean Penn and Meryl Streep in a remake of the 1940s classic All The King's Men. That will be followed early next year by a role as a blue collar worker in the drama Dexterity. "The thing is I don't think I've changed in my own head or my attitude to acting, even though a lot has happened. I'm still one of those guys who is happy to go to the pub."

* Alfie (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 21/10/2004