It's a sombre afternoon in Kensal Green. A shadow of mourners has gathered in St Mary’s Cemetery, the end destination of a funeral procession. By stark contrast, 200 metres away, this week’s ES Magazine cover shoot is taking place, soundtracked by the blaring synths of Hot Chip.
Twenty-seven-year-old Raff Law is having his hair fluffed while anxiously reciting lines for an audition he has later that day. He’s warned the team on set that he’s somewhat delirious — he’s been up since 5am, jet-lagged, having just stepped off the plane from Los Angeles, not so fresh from a press tour for his latest project, Apple TV+’s major new Second World War series Masters of the Air.
A companion to Band of Brothers and its sister series, The Pacific, Masters of the Air is based on Donald L Miller’s book of the same name and follows a brotherhood of pilots (the 100th Bomb Group) whose mission is to bomb Nazi Germany. With a budget of somewhere between $200- $300 million (£160-£235m) and an all-star cast and crew, it was always going to be a spectacle — which is the only way to describe it. The national press is already dubbing it 2024’s ‘must-watch show’.
‘I felt like I was in really good hands,’ says Law, referring to the series’ little-known producers, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. We’ve just wrapped on our cover shoot and he’s collapsed into a nearby sofa. His hoarse voice gives away his exhaustion, though the twinkle in his eye never fades. ‘It was at the beginning of 2021 and I got the audition through; sometimes they have code names and you don’t know exactly what it is. As the audition process went on and I realised it was part of the legacy of Band of Brothers, I just felt so excited and I really, really wanted it.’
It was during a rehearsal with his old band, Outer Stella Overdrive, that his agent called to tell him he’d got the part — ‘within 10 days we were on a boot camp’. Upwards of 50 actors, including castmates Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Ncuti Gatwa and Callum Turner, were made to participate in the training, not only to prepare them for the military roles they were playing but to connect them in camaraderie.
‘You’d think there’d be egos or competition but there was a real level of support from the beginning. My favourite thing was marching together, hearing everyone’s footsteps in sync,’ says Law. On set and during this press tour, he has become particularly close to 2023’s breakout star, Keoghan, whom he now considers a good friend. Though the pair didn’t get to shoot any scenes together, does he wish they’d been able to? ‘Definitely,’ he answers immediately, ‘We got on really well straight away. I’d love to work with Barry, I’m a big admirer of his work.’
In Masters of the Air, Keoghan takes on a New York-Irish hybrid accent (perhaps not deliberately), while Law embraces the Deep South Arkansas accent of his character, 19-year-old mechanic Sergeant Ken Lemmons. As well as the American hard ‘R’, he struggled most perfecting ‘literally’, he says. ‘I speak very English, so I say “literally” and they say “lidderally”.’
Law’s natural ‘very English’ accent comes from being the child of Noughties celebrity power couple, designer Sadie Frost and the very archetype of the English gentleman, Jude Law. Born Rafferty Jellicoe Frost Law and raised in the heart of the Primrose Hill set, his received pronunciation is also a product of a Bedales education — the liberal, aristocratic, Hampshire boarding school where alumni include the Delevingne sisters, Lily Allen and Jagger children, too.
Growing up, Law flitted between music, modelling and acting. When Blur and The Clash are close family friends it’s easy to see how a teenager could be influenced into starting a band of his own — which is exactly what Law did, alongside nephew of Damon Albarn, drummer Rudy Albarn. His band was Law’s focus during his early 20s, but the group disbanded in 2021 around the same time that he got the call about Masters of the Air.
Does he miss making music? ‘I do. I miss that feeling of rehearsing in a studio,’ he says, though he assures me that acting is his sole focus now. ‘There’s just something about [acting]. From a young age I’ve always felt really comfortable. I enjoy being around sets, I enjoy being around people who are willing to not take themselves too seriously. In my teens I was going back and forth between music and acting, but music is more of a hobby for me and acting is where I see myself.’
He made his big-screen debut in 2021 with Twist, a modern adaptation of Dickens’ classic tale, starring Sir Michael Caine, Lena Headey and Rita Ora (his rumoured romance at the time). Since then, his siblings — he’s the eldest of seven, with four half-siblings — Iris, 23, and Rudy, 21, have also appeared on screen, following in their father’s thespian footsteps. Is there ever a sense of competition between them? ‘We’re a very supportive family and the older that me and my siblings have got, the less we get to see each other, which is hard because we grew up together and we’re such a family support network. We’ve definitely always pushed each other in the right ways.’ He pauses to think. ‘But I wouldn’t say there’s a competition.’
Law is used to being asked about his family — especially about his father, whose classical good looks he shares. There are very few downsides to being born so attractive, though, I wonder, when trying to carve out your own path, does it get tiresome being the spitting image of a world famous heart-throb? ‘When people say I look like my dad, of course most people look like their parents, it’s not a rare thing, but I wouldn’t wish I look any different than I do. I’m very grateful for my life and my family. So no.’
‘I love making my family and my girlfriend proud, but I’m not trying to impress anyone’
Now, Law is at a point where he wants the world to see him as an actor in his own right. His role in Masters of the Air is his biggest and proudest project yet, so does he finally feel like he’s breaking away? ‘It’s always going to be a tricky thing. My surname is always going to catch attention and people are going to be interested by it,’ he says. ‘I’m aware of how lucky I am and I grew up being able to go on film sets and that’s what gave me the acting bug in the first place. But I just want to be able to speak about my work and people be interested in the story and the character I’m playing.’
Of everyone in his life, there’s only one person he seeks the approval of: ‘I like making my family proud, but I want to impress myself. I can be a big critic of myself, and I love making my family and my girlfriend proud, but I’m not trying to impress anyone,’ he says confidently.
Although he’s currently ‘taking each week as it comes’, he tells me he’d love to star in a music biopic and has his eye on a certain British spy, too: ‘I would love to play James Bond. At this point, I’m really excited to see what’s next.’ And if it’s not him who takes on 007? ‘I think Callum Turner could be a good, kind of rough around the edges Bond.’
‘I would love to play James Bond. At this point, I’m really excited to see what’s next’
As well as feeling drawn to crime, drama and characters with ‘a strong arc’, Law is also tempted by comedy. ‘At some point I’d love to be involved in a comedy,’ he says. ‘Some people say I’m quite funny but I don’t think I am. People have told me I should do comedy, and I’m like I dunno, I feel like people are usually laughing at my jokes and not with them.’ For his next chapter, Raff Law is hoping to swap talk of dad for dad jokes instead — ‘I like dad jokes. My humour is so unfunny that it’s funny.’
For now, he’s just finished filming a fantasy horror film in Athens (and has the Grecian glow to prove it), and is mentally preparing for the mysterious audition he has later today. He’s throwing himself into acting and looking to those he cherishes most for motivation. ‘My biggest goal in life is just to be happy and build a family. I love work but it’s important to put friends and family first,’ he says. ‘At the end of the day your support network is the most important. I haven’t got award shows in my sights, I just want to build creatively on set and within myself.’
