Riff Raff Entertainment’s Jude Law And Ben Jackson On The Secret Of Their Success

(left to right) Jude Law and Ben Jackson attend Netflix’s Black Rabbit NY Premiere on September 16, 2025 in New York City.

Getty Images for Netflix

It’s tough getting something made in Hollywood at the best of times, but things are more challenging than ever right now. Even having an Oscar, Tony, and Olivier Award-nominated actor like Jude Law as a co-founder of your production company doesn’t guarantee endless open doors.

However, that doesn’t stop him and business partner Ben Jackson, the guys behind Riff Raff Entertainment, the production company behind Netflix’s hit limited series Black Rabbit. It’s currently streaming and has featured in the Top Ten TV carousel for several weeks.

“The percentage of folk who are either actors, directors, writers, or producers, able to have a fast track because of their attachment, is tiny,” the British actor explains as we chat over Zoom. “I’ve had a very healthy career for 30-something years, but I’ve known rejections and challenges all the way along, whether it’s not getting a part I really want, or hearing about a part that I’ve loved and them not coming to me, or whatever. It’s always been the case.”

Jackson continues, “You still have to work for it. It doesn’t mean that people go, ‘Oh well, you’ve got him so in you come.’ It doesn’t work like that. You have to put the work in in the background before you walk it into wherever you are, and then they’ll take notice. Then you have something of substance, then you add Jude into the mix, whether he’s in it, whether he’s producing it, and ears prick up. There’s obviously always interest, and let’s be honest, I think you do have a slight leg up when you have someone you’re working alongside with this talent and experience, but it doesn’t mean it’s a yes.”

How Jude Law And Ben Jackson Used Hollywood’s Fallow Period Wisely

The pair launched Riff Raff Entertainment in 2017. Three years in, and just as they were starting to find their footing as a company, the pandemic hit, and the industry came to a halt. However, they saw that as an opportunity rather than a setback, and being a small unit paid dividends.

“Looking back, and I’ve not really thought about it until now, we were fortunate that we had not started down a path when that hit,” Law reflects. “We were still forming, and of course, that informed the decisions we then made. Everyone else was coming out into the light of a new market and a new world, in many ways, but all those issues that needed addressing were part of how we formed the company we are now.”

“”I think the fact that we were still in formation, and we had no great overheads or staff, which meant that we were still nimble, and I think that probably allowed us to dodge an awful lot of the fallout that hit so many other people. It was the same with the strikes. We were able to hunker down without much effort.”

“We actually made a film during the pandemic,” Jackson reveals. “We had time on our hands, as everybody did during that period, so we did a lot of talking and thinking about who we need to bring in, who is it, what are our goals, and how do we achieve that? We were very conscious that we’re two middle-aged white guys, and you need more voices in the room. It’s the same as when you have a writer’s room. We were very conscious of the age of the market out there, and a younger person bringing younger points of view, which we obviously know about and hear about. Still, when you’re a different age, you have a different opinion of what works and what people are watching and things like that.”

The Secret Behind Jude Law-Led ‘Black Rabbit’ Being A Hit

Following the pandemic, the writers and actors’ strikes happened, bringing Hollywood to a halt once again. It has been a relentlessly rough five years. Now, in 2025, the industry remains in turmoil yet equalized.

“It still feels like everything’s being reinvented on a monthly basis. We’re all still learning and figuring out the terrain,” Law says. “Even those people that we’re hoping to do business with are looking at us, and asking, ‘What works? Because we don’t know. Do you think this work?’ There’s a lot of second-guessing, but I would say to come out fast with a TV show and a film that weren’t obvious, commercial fair, but they were high-end pieces of work, got us a lot of attention.”

To date, Riff Raff Entertainment’s most notable projects include 2024’s crime thriller, The Order, and Black Rabbit. The latter eight-episode drama follows the owner of the hottest restaurant in New York, Law’s Jake Friedken, who allows his troubled, former musician brother Vince, played by Jason Bateman, to return to the family business, opening the door to old traumas and new dangers that threaten to bring down everything they’ve built. Black Rabbit is now available to stream on Netflix.

Justin Kurzel, who directed The Order, directed two episodes of Black Rabbit. Zach Baylin, who wrote The Order, co-wrote and co-created Black Rabbit. It’s part of the bigger picture plan for Riff Raff Entertainment.

“Working with Zach again helped the process of getting these moving, because we had a shorthand, bringing someone like Jason and his team at his company, Aggregate Films, onto a project,” Jackson, who produced Sleuth and The Young Pope, reveals. “They obviously know what they’re doing, so that helped us, and also in that regard as well. I feel like we are very fortunate with the people we work with.”

Law adds, “When it comes to Black Rabbit, one of the things that we both responded to immediately was the references that were in the script that Zach Baylin and Kate Susman made as creators. We both knew the type of establishments, but more than that, we knew the atmosphere of those establishments in this city. Beyond that, we knew what made the city and those establishments unique. There’s a sexy dynamism in this city. It’s kind of glamorous and sleazy. If you combine the idea of high-end food with a nightclub, great music, and a clientele that of cutting-edge people, all of that is very specific. We really wanted to capture all those sides so as soon as you all are on the same page, references become very, very quick.”

Authenticity Is Key To The Narrative For Jude Law And Ben Jackson

Attention to period detail for the brothers was also key for Law, right down to a music video of the fictional band. Black Rabbit brings the industry connections up to date with an appearance by British singer, Raye.

“That was then woven into the fabric of the story, in the idea that these brothers had a connection to the industry and were in that scene, in the kind of ‘Meet me in the bathroom era,’ but maybe got left behind,” the actor enthuses. “We went to Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, and he wrote us a couple of songs as this fictional band, the Black Rabbits. Again, all that influence of what those music videos looked like in that era, shot on Super 16, on the street, no planning. Where Raye comes in, which I love, is that there’s also a relevance. She’s the perfect bridge between a classic sounding perspective of this city many years ago, but is a very modern and appeals to a young audience, which is exactly the sort of person, I think, a place like Rabbit and a guy like Jake would be like, ‘Come and do this.'”

As well as co-producing the show, Bateman also directs two Black Rabbit episodes, helming the others are The Orders’ Kurzel and three-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney.

“Jason and Laura obviously worked together before and were very close because of Ozark,” Law confirms. “Jason had encouraged Laura to direct when she showed interest, and she directed an episode or two of that show, and they were some of the best. He’s really smart. He wanted to keep it within the family and for us to know we were in safe hands. There were episodes three and four where he knew the story had to start to sort of breathe a little bit, and Laura has this very natural, gentle touch, both as an actress and as a person. Certainly, as a director, she brought that high intelligence and generosity.”

For both Jackson and Law, Black Rabbit is also a love letter to New York.

“Jude and I have spent a lot of time in this city over the past 20 or 25 years, and there’s an osmosis in this city,” the producer muses. “It’s in you, and when you’re here, you pick up on it. It doesn’t matter if you just got off a plane and are here for a day and a half, because you go out, have dinner, do whatever, and the city is a character in the show itself. The soundtrack was very important to us, being big music fans, but harking back to that sound of New York in the late 90s and early 2000s.”

Law concludes, “It’s also a reflection of one’s relationship with this city. It’s complicated. It’s not the divisiveness of love or hate, but it indulges you. It can be quite harsh, keeping you up and exhausting you, because it’s a living, breathing, 24/7 beast, and we wanted that to be in the DNA of the Black Rabbit. You see it in the people, too. Jake is complicated. You don’t like him straight away. He’s not an obvious protagonist. In fact, there’s a lot to dislike about him. There’s a lot to dislike about Vince, but who wants something that’s straight up and straight cut? Life certainly isn’t.”