Holmes, sweet Holmes!

Hollywood stars Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law talk to Rajeev Masand about the (possibly) homoerotic relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, and why everyone wants them to do a romantic comedy together...

A suite in London's Claridges Hotel has been turned into something of a mini buffet, with finger sandwiches and cold cuts and candies laid out, even as the occupants of the room --- Hollywood pin-up boys Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law --- have settled comfortably into a large sofa at the other end, showing little interest in the goodies. The actors, who are roommates in their new movie Sherlock Holmes, reinvent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Baker Street detective and his faithful ally for director Guy Ritchie, but repeatedly insist their take isn't much of a departure from the original writings.

Downey Jr, an A-list star after the success of Iron Man and an Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder, is chatty and affable and regularly thumps Law on his back each time his British co-star delivers a smart one. Law, meanwhile, the tabloids' darling and an accomplished actor himself, is warm, and always volunteers a reply after Downey Jr has had his turn.

The film is a fast-paced action-adventure with many thrills, shockingly dissimilar to the dozens of movie and television versions that have existed before it. At its heart however, is the sparkling chemistry of its leads who, in the parts of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, turn what could have been just another chases-and-blasts picture into a witty, engaging character piece.

As you take a seat across from them and fire away your questions, it becomes evident that the camaraderie between the men wasn't manufactured for the screen.

Excerpts from an interview:

You've made a very different kind of Sherlock Holmes from the ones we've seen in the past. What do you think is going to surprise people about this version?
Robert Downey Jr: Probably how much more of a rediscovery of the original Conan Doyle description and stories it is. Of course it's a movie so it's a departure and it's an amalgam and all that stuff, but we worked real hard.
Jude Law: I think the energy level... People always think of Holmes and Watson and the way that they deciphered their cases as purely cerebral and all done in the head. And a lot of that is present in this and it's part of the fun --- seeing them unpick the problems.
But then, out on the front line when they're out there dealing with it and trying to put things to an end, and getting through hordes of bad guys, you know, in the books that's referred to as "apprehending" or "getting past". In the film --- fortunately because it's film, and it's Guy Ritchie's film --- it's incredibly physical and adrenalised, and that element is really going to excite people.

Robert, story goes, Guy Ritchie didn't want to cast you as Holmes, but the studio insisted...
Robert: Well I talked to Guy because I was a big RocknRolla fan, and I'm talking on and on about that. Little did I know that he wanted to talk about Sherlock Holmes. But I didn't know that he was calling me up to basically say, "I don't want to do this movie with you."

Then I think someone showed him the spreadsheet for Iron Man's grosses and suddenly he changed his mindu00e2u0080u00a6 (laughs)

In all the Holmes films and TV shows until now, Watson's always been the portly, bumbling sidekick. Isn't it true, Jude, that when you showed interest, they decided to sex him up? It even prompted a clever tabloid headline --- From Potson to Hotson!

Jude: When I was asked to get involved, Robert was already set as Sherlock, and Guy was directing, and I knew from then that it was going to be a different take on the older films of Sherlock Holmes and it fascinated me. Obviously they were coming to me not to put on two stone, fool around and put my foot in wastepaper baskets. They were coming to ask me to play Watson with a bit more edge.

What was intriguing was to go back to the books and realise how much of the new discovery, if you like, was also in the source material. So it was kind of a happy juggle between going back to Conan Doyleu00a0 and adding a new energy to an audience that we hope will rediscover a new Sherlock Holmes or discover Sherlock Holmes for the first time.

Were you ever scared about taking on such an iconic British role, Robert?
Robert: Scared? I don't get scared any more, I just get busy. I already knew by the time Guy was directing this that it was a fresh interpretation. I've worked with (producer) Joel Silver a bunch, I've lived with (his wife, and the film's producer) Susan Downey a bunch, and (writer-producer) Lionel Wigram is basically that person who figured out how to reprise this as a film, so I knew I was in good hands. Then it was just a matter of getting down to business.

Fortunately, I'd spent some time in England in the late '80s making Chaplin, and I had a great tutelage in all things British from Lord Attenborough so I felt like I had passed go. I definitely felt the onus of --- it's not the fear of judgment of others, it's just at a certain point it comes down to --- will you meet the standards that people are expecting of you and you expect of them?

At its heart, this is really a buddy movie. How did you guys strum up the extraordinary chemistry?
Robert: It's one thing to promise you can get there and another thing to just roll up your sleeves and get into it. Guy created such a sublime atmosphere on set that really there was no looking back. We weren't sure it was going to turn out as well as it did, but we really just went on.

It's so funny to me because usually people say, 'You and so-and-so, (who's female), have this great chemistry', but this time they're talking about Jude and I like we should be doing romantic comedies together or somethingu00e2u0080u00a6 (laughs)

But this film is not a comedy, it's a love affair of sorts. I think that Holmes and Watson are aspects of all of us and I think that we knew when to yin and yang back and forth and we were just a good team.

Jude: As actors, initially, it was clear we both loved this idea of these opposing personalities having to live together and the domestic nature of their relationship. It spirals also into situations where they're up against like, 14 hooded dudes with sticks... and yet they're more interested in bickering about whether they left the hob on, or "Are those my shoes?" That kind of vibe... (laughs) And that as actors, really turned us on.
On a personal level, you know, you can't work that equation out. It just happens and you get on and you have fun, and you support each other when the other is down or feeling a little exhausted or whatever it is. And that's a beautiful thing, because that doesn't happen often.

Surely you're familiar with the incessant murmurs that Holmes was gay...?
Robert: Aah, we're going to have to reshoot the movie! (laughs) You know we did try to camp it up every chance we got, didn't we?
Jude:u00a0 No seriously, it says an awful lot that people think that codependency in relationships always have to end sexually. You know what I mean? What's fantastic and endearing about this couple is that there's nothing sexual going on. They're living together; they're like brothers.
Robert: You know, he (Holmes) is just making sure that Watson is too tired or absent to have a heterosexual relationshipu00e2u0080u00a6 (both laugh)
u00a0
Robert, there is a hint at Holmes' drug use in the movie, but no reference to his cocaine addiction that was recounted in such detail in Nicholas Meyer's book The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. Was that at your insistence, not wanting to glamorise cocaine use?
Robert: I loved The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. There was never a high enough percentage for me. That's a weak tepid solution. (laughs) But this is a PG-13 movie. Even if it wasn't, the idea is that if you go back to the source material, he's never described as being some strung out weirdo. And also back in Victorian times, it was legal and you could go down to a pharmacist and grab all that stuff, so we thought it would be irresponsible to not make reference to it.

But again, I think a lot of the flaming hoops we had to jump through doing Sherlock were: "How do you take what comes from the source material? How do you amend it that it's accessible? And how do you not whitewash it, but still be respectful?"

In a sense Holmes and Watson were the earliest superheroes, weren't they? Batman and Robin of the Victorian Age, if you like...?
Robert: Superheroes to me implies a different genre of movie. And this is an action adventure, but what it really is, is a literary national treasure of the UK and the world at large. So to me, it kind of transcends that. Superheroes are more of a modern idea to me.
Jude: The reason this duo and this particular legend has lasted so well is because there are human flaws to the both of them. And they both recognise that in each other, and they support each other when the other lacks. But it's their humanity, it's their flaws and their frailties in a way that make their brilliance all the more extraordinary.

Jude Law has acted in one of the episodes of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the TV series featuring Jeremy Brett

Apparently, during a fight sequence, Robert Downey Jr was knocked out for real by Robert Maillet, who plays Dredger in
Sherlock Holmes

The set for Sherlock Holmes' homeu00a0in this film, was previously used as Sirius Black's house in Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix

(Rajeev Masand is Entertainment Editor and Film Critic at CNN-IBN)