Jude Law is 'surprised' this Steven Spielberg masterpiece wasn't 'a monster hit'

Jude Law has never been one to coast on his good looks.

The British heartthrob made audiences swoon in "The Holiday" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," before dabbling in big-budget franchises including "Sherlock Holmes" and "Fantastic Beasts." But throughout his nearly four-decade career, he's continually tackled dark and compelling roles in "Vox Lux," "The Road to Perdition," "Gattaca" and "The Order."

Among those is "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," Steven Spielberg's haunting 2001 sci-fi drama. A futuristic riff on "Pinocchio," the film stars Haley Joel Osment as a humanoid robot named David, who is cast out by his adoptive family and sets off on a harrowing journey to find the Blue Fairy, in hopes of becoming a human and gaining his mother's love.

Law plays a suave sex robot named Gigolo Joe, who helps David escape from a barbaric traveling circus and joins him on his quest.

"It was an undeniable piece of exhilarating storytelling," Law says during a recent interview for his new Netflix series "Black Rabbit." "At that moment in my life, if Steven Spielberg calls, you go, 'OK, how high do you want me to jump?' I mean, it was that simple. And it was being produced by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was still alive when we started it and was going to be a hands-on producer, but he passed away (in 1999) when we were about six months in."

Law only read his character's scenes when he first signed on, and had no idea how the story ended until he saw the finished movie. He, too, was bowled over by the film's tear-jerking finale.

"It was pretty clear – as soon as I got involved in the makeup tests and developing this role and what the robots were capable of – that I realized the true vision and fairy-tale aspects," Law says. "It was groundbreaking. It was Spielberg going, 'Let's talk about abandonment. Let's talk about children being left. Let's talk about refugees.'"

Steven Spielberg 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' cast was star-studded

"A.I." featured a stacked cast portraying a variety of human and computer-generated characters, including William Hurt, Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, Ben Kingsley, Brendan Gleeson and Chris Rock. The movie was neither a box-office bomb nor an overwhelming success, although it was still considered a disappointment coming after Spielberg's Oscar-winning 1998 war epic "Saving Private Ryan." ("A.I." earned just two nominations in technical categories.)

But it has since been reappraised by many critics in recent years, and ranked No. 1 on Indiewire's list of the best films of the 21^st century last year. Law believes that audiences didn't quite know what to make of it at the time.

"It was post-'Schindler’s List,' but I think people were still quite shocked, which is odd when you think about it," Law says. "You go back to 'E.T.,' it's about a boy who's lost his father and is looking for a friend. 'Close Encounters' is about a guy so obsessed that he leaves his family. I mean, there's always darkness in (Spielberg's) worlds, so it's interesting that they reacted the way they did.

"I was surprised," he continues, "only because you assume you're in that kind of company and you're in a surefire hit. I don't think it flopped, but it wasn’t the monster hit they were expecting from him."

Law costars with Jason Bateman in the eight-episode crime drama “Black Rabbit,” which is now streaming.