Jude Law didn't talk to Nicholas Hoult on The Order set

And speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Law revealed that he and Hoult were deliberately kept apart on set in order to keep the spirit of antagonism between them that was vital for the movie.

"It just felt distasteful to sort of break that opposition," he explained. "It also just timed out that he was doing a lot of his stuff and I was doing a lot of my stuff, and they were sort of separate stories, almost.

"And I think Justin quite liked it, and in the end kind of encouraged the schedule to keep us apart – until, in fact, the first time we met was on camera in the scene when we meet and I'm saying, 'Are you following me?'

"You know, you grasp on to any kind of truth, any kind of plausibility you can and it sort of made sense that we shouldn't sit down and have lunch and chat about the football. It felt like keeping those energies apart just was, I think, more respectful to the story we were telling."

In addition to avoiding Hoult wherever possible, there was one other unexpected thing that helped Law get into character – catching a cold just before shooting.

"I remember I'd arrived in Calgary, and we'd done some rehearsals, and we were about a week out from filming, and I got a cold, which I don't usually get," he explained.

"I'm usually quite healthy, and I got this sniffle, and I was tired because we'd done a lot of travelling, and my children were very young at the time, so there wasn't a lot of sleep. And I went back in on the Monday to rehearse, and I was like... I felt like a wreck.

"And Justin was just like, 'This is it! This is him. You've got to maintain this sort of sniffling, glazed eyed, exhausted energy.' I think it was that sense that he had very little left, and once we captured it, we knew how to recreate it."

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Although Law's character in the film is not based on one real person, he is an amalgamation of various officers who were involved in the real hunt for Matthews, and the film is largely based on a true story.

The official synopsis reads: "In 1983, a series of increasingly violent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations, and armoured car heists frightens communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.

"As baffled law enforcement agents scrambled for answers, a lone FBI agent, stationed in the sleepy, picturesque town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, comes to believe the crimes are not the work of traditional, financially motivated criminals, but of a group of dangerous domestic terrorists, inspired by a radical, charismatic leader, plotting a devastating war against the federal government of the United States."

The Order is released in UK cinemas on Friday 27th December 2024.

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