Jude Law is no stranger to bi characters. Neither is Michael Caine.

Law played Oscar Wilde's bisexual lover in "Wilde" and the will-do-anything hooker in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." He was the libidinous prostitute robot in "A.I.-Artificial Intelligence" and the spoiled Dickie Greenleaf in "The Talented Mr. Ripley." He played the rumored bi star Errol Flynn in "The Aviator," a stormtrooper in "Bent" and a wheelchair-bound guy who would have gone for Ethan Hawke if he could in "Gattaca." Law played Caine's famous film role "Alfie" in an unsuccessful remake and in that there was a homoerotic defining moment in a men's room with his sleep-with-anyone character. A similar thing happens in his latest film, "Sleuth."

Michael Caine & Jude Law in 'Slueth'

Caine, of course, has played plenty of ambiguous characters, such as the bisexual husband in "California Suite" and the playwright in "Deathtrap."

Both the characters in "Sleuth" are battling over a woman who's never seen, and there's palpable sexual tension between the men as they argue.

Law is responsible for putting the package together as the producer, convincing great writer Harold Pinter to rewrite the script, great director Kenneth Branagh to helm the project and great actor Michael Caine to take the older guy's part. Caine has played the younger role in "Sleuth" opposite Laurence Olivier and was nominated for best actor at the time, but they all insist that this is not a remake of the 1972 two-man show.

"I don't think he would have agreed to be a part of this if he felt we were going anywhere near the earlier version, he's done that," Law says about his co-star. "I think what interested me as a producer was just this notion of two men fighting, why men fight, why we return to the sort of animal, primal urge and almost forget about the thing we're fighting over," Law says. "And when Harold [Pinter] agreed to do it with me, for me, he made that clear that it wasn't going to be an adaptation. He said it was going to go somewhere new. When I started I really felt like it was a new character, I was creating a new character."

Director Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine & Jude Law

In person, Law is as stunning as his characters on screen. He walks in the room rather meekly and slinks over to a water pitcher and pours himself a drink. He just was chased by paparazzi into the Park Hyatt hotel where he's attending the Toronto International Film Festival, and he's not looking his best, but he's still undeniably handsome even in a state of minor disrepair. A slight build, with his thin hair a mess, he is dressed in jeans and striped shirt and wearing scuffed tennis shoes.

It's poetic justice, because the last time I was in a room with Law alone-while on the phone with Julia Roberts (who was about to give birth to twins)--he teased me by pointing out that I was wearing two different style loafers, setting his co-star in "Closer" cackling hysterically. At the time, he said he was playing the role of a poorly-dressed reporter (for "All the King's Men") and he'd have to use that. Today, I was dressed a bit better than Law, but then again, he's being chased by photographers and just was arrested in London for allegedly grabbing one.

When I interviewed him for "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," in which he played a rather foppish futuristic pilot along with Angelina Jolie, I teasingly asked him what it was like working with a bisexual woman. He smirked and said, "They're certainly more interesting, aren't they?"

In this latest film, Law acknowledges the tension written in by playwright Pinter. "I don't know, in a funny way Harold never gave us any answers. I rather enjoy saying I don't know. It's all up to you. I think there are just certain words he uses which suggest sexual connotations."

Caine says he read about a study of "morbid jealousy," given to him by Branagh. "This was the study of morbid jealousy where men will actually kill the lovers of their wives and you had several cases of that instance and then it continued saying that if the man can't kill or doesn't want to kill he will try to reek the ultimate revenge which is to engage in a certain homosexual relationship and so humiliate the woman. She can't be more humiliated than that, to have a husband take a lover away from her. We never carried it quite that far."

Michael Caine & Jude Law go head-to-head in 'Slueth'

Branagh says as the director, he's not even sure about the sexuality of the characters. "I found myself asking questions like that and not really quite knowing," he says. "This is what I find very rich about this particular version of this piece, that there are good and positive question marks that you leave the theater asking. . . . I think that's one of the secrets. It's a positive question mark and not an irritating one. "

Law points out that Pinter has had sexual ambiguity in his other plays.

"That kind of ambiguity's very Pinter," says Law, musing about the bisexuality of his character in his first Oscar-nominated role "Talented Mr. Ripley" as Dickie Greenleaf. "I think that Dickie would've lasted five seconds, and he was maybe bisexual for no more than that. In this one, I still don't know . . . . That's what makes it so interesting. . . . We just play the truth. I just play the moment."