Jude Law has late night pasta and ice cream to gain weight to play Henry VIII

Jude Law gorged on "late-night pasta and ice cream" to play Henry VIII.

The 51-year-old actor didn't have much time to prepare for his portrayal of the Tudor king in 'Firebrand' - which focuses on the monarch's final years with sixth wife Catherine Parr (Alicia Vikander) - but managed to "eat loads" in order to transform the shape of his face.

He told the Sunday Times Culture magazine: “It was a process. Like Charlie Chaplin or Father Christmas, Henry has a familiar silhouette, so if you get that shape, the brain fills in a lot of the gaps.

"So I grew a beard. I had bodysuits, clothes, weights on my legs and bits in my shoes to perfect his gait.

"I only had about four months to prep, so couldn’t balloon up to full weight, but I did eat loads — late-night pasta and ice cream — so I had a bigger face.

"I thought of him as a paraplegic gorilla. He had all this power but couldn’t move. He was weirdly helpless.”

Jude described the Henry in the movie as “a gangster — a former golden boy who’s rotting” and admitted he could see parallels between the king and disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

He said: "Honestly, I never thought of him specifically — I didn’t focus in on Harvey’s life and downfall. But I was very aware that Henry symbolises the downfall of many men who soared through life with great success and got drunk on power, abused it and fell.

"And so Harvey must have crossed my mind. That disregard …”

Despite playing a king in the film, the 'Talented Mr. Ripley' star doesn't consider himself a royalist.

He said: “I don’t know that I am. I’m intrigued by their history. But I’ve never been a great believer in treating someone a certain way because they are born under a title. And I don’t know that I want to bow down to anyone, personally.”