In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Jude Law emerged as a leading man in Hollywood, captivating audiences with his performances. However, there was a moment when he almost shared the screen with Mel Gibson in one of the most iconic war films of the era, The Patriot.
‘The Patriot’ Was a Major Star Vehicle for Mel Gibson
Because of his deeply troubling personal scandals and waning reputation with the public, it’s easy to forget just how massive of a star Mel Gibson was from the late ’80s through the aughts. In 2000, he possessed a level of movie star omnipresence that seems unthinkable today, working in three drastically different tones and genres. As a romantic lead in What Women Want, a voice actor in Chicken Run, and a traditional action hero in The Patriot, Gibson was in full display at the turn of the century, and each film was a seismic hit at the box office. However, it was Roland Emmerich‘s Revolutionary War epic that proved to be the actor’s biggest paycheck, as he was paid a then-record $25 million upfront for his starring role as Benjamin Martin, a farmer who joins the colonial militia after a sadistic British officer murders his young son.
The Patriot, an old-fashioned historical epic evoking his Best Picture-winning Braveheart, is undoubtedly a Gibson star vehicle, so much so that his face takes up 75% of the film’s poster. Retroactively, the film is notable for being a notable early role for the late Heath Ledger, who plays Gabriel, Benjamin’s eldest son deadset on fighting in the war. Playing the antagonistic Col. William Tavington, the hyperbolically cruel British officer who becomes the Martin family’s source of vengeance, is Jason Isaacs, a reliable supporting actor still around today, who was recently seen on the newest season of The White Lotus.
Jude Law Was Almost Cast in Jason Isaacs’ Part in ‘The Patriot’
Red-hot off his electric, star-making turn as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley, Jude Law was offered the role of Tavington in The Patriot, according to Jason Isaacs in a Collider interview in 2025. “The Patriot wasn’t my part,” Isaacs said, admitting that he was “not the first choice for” many of his great roles. The part of Tavington “was on offer to Jude Law, and Jude hadn’t given them an answer yet.” Isaacs’ agent insisted that his request to send an audition tape was just a ploy to get Law to respond. Still, the casting department didn’t hear anything until Law finally agreed to withdraw from the movie after weeks of deliberations and receiving approval from Gibson. “That’s how I got the film part in The Patriot,” Isaacs said.
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In retrospect, Jude Law seemed overqualified to play the heavy in a Mel Gibson historical war epic in 2000. However, The Patriot was cast and filmed before the release of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Law’s subsequent Oscar nomination. The casting process, which Gibson certainly had an influence on, feels like a precise calculation of movie star gauging. After breaking out as a teen icon in 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger’s next step is to be paired with a star like Mel Gibson in a tentpole adult blockbuster. You can see the calculation in casting Law as Col. Tavington, as, despite not being the true villain of Talented Mr. Ripley, he brilliantly captured the smarminess of a socialite that could be transmuted into an over-the-top, devilish soldier. Ultimately, as we can tell from his later success, Law was simply on to better things.
Jude Law, similar to Ledger, was on the trajectory of becoming the next seminal leading man in Hollywood. Although he would’ve been too old to play Gabriel Martin, playing the heroic son and on-screen disciple of Mel Gibson would’ve been the ideal move for his career. If he were cast as Tavington, there’s a scenario where Law continues to be typecast as a European foil to the American star. Three years later, Law would get to play a soldier in a historical war epic in Cold Mountain, which earned him his second and last Oscar nomination. Everything worked out—Jason Isaacs delivered a theatrical but entertaining performance and Law would become one of the signature actors of his era, if only for a brief period.
