Jude Law Recalls Ominous Warning From Virologist Advisers On ‘Contagion’

As actor Jude Law hunkered down during the coronavirus pandemic, he couldn’t help but notice that his 2011 film “Contagion” had become a popular rental and streaming hit.

“I find it a little odd that everyone went back to watch that in the middle of the real thing,” he told host Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” Monday. “It’s like you just turn on the news. You don’t need to watch it.”

Part of the lure of the film today ― which also starred Kate Winslet, Matt Damon and Laurence Fishburne ― is its apparent prescience. It follows a fictional pandemic caused by a novel virus that U.S. and global authorities are scrambling to stop while dealing with public mistrust.

Law, who played a blogger and conspiracy theorist, told Fallon that he recently wrote to the movie’s director, Steven Soderbergh, to say Soderbergh was 10 years ahead of his time.

The film had several doctors and virologists as advisers, and Law said they provided one of his most “affecting memories.” In assessing the possibility of a real pandemic, he recalled, “They were all saying to us, this is a matter of when, not if.”

Watch the interview above.