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Eddie Redmayne Explains His ‘Theory of Everything’ and Fear of Stephen Hawking

November 9, 2014 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Smart is sexy: Eddie Redmayne makes an example of himself

Smart is sexy: Eddie Redmayne makes an example of himself

A lithe, red-haired Eddie Redmayne slips into the banquette in a restaurant in Toronto, takes one look at the table’s snack mix and pushes away the bowl. Shaking hands, he remembers that the last time we saw each other was in New York at a lunch for Les Misérables. We had discussed how he lied about his equestrian skills to get a role in Tom Hooper’s TV mini-series Elizabeth I, and his matriculation at Cambridge alongside Tom Hiddleston.

That elite university was also where Redmayne first spied Stephen Hawking, the genius cosmologist and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) sufferer who Redmayne portrays in The Theory of Everything. The biopic delves into Hawking’s first marriage to wife Jane (Felicity Jones), as he suffers the effects of the neurodegenerative disorder that gradually robs him of muscle control. Redmayne and I spoke about meeting the real-life scientist, Redmayne’s terror at playing him onscreen, and the raves he’s earning at the Toronto International Film Festival for his immersive performance.

Had you known much about Hawking before you took the role?

I’d seen Stephen in his wheelchair from a distance at Cambridge. I’d studied history of art, and I just knew what I suppose most people know: the icon and the voice and something about black holes. Then I read this script and was embarrassed by how little I knew.

Did the role come easily to you?

There was a moment when I got the part where I felt a wonderful euphoria. It lasted about a second and a half. It’s been fear and trepidation ever since. The night before we started filming was the only night of my life that I did not sleep. It got to four in the morning, and I was being picked up at five, and I was like, ‘I haven’t slept. I can’t start this film without having had a minute’s sleep.’

Did it surprise you that Hawking was physically fit until he was an adult?

I didn’t know that much about him or ALS. I thought it was something that came on quite quickly. And in many cases, it does. But I found the love story aspect of it, this idea that there was this extraordinary woman named Jane, played by Felicity Jones, behind him completely riveting. I chased the role pretty hard, and I had a long conversation with [director] James Marsh. And I did that thing that actors do of pretending to sound really confident. I somehow managed to blag him into it.

Gentleman Ginger

Gentleman Ginger


What does ‘blag’ mean?

Blag means con him.

Well, maybe it wasn’t just blagging. You did an incredible job.

Thank you. My instinct had been that to approach a part like this, you needed to go back to an old school way of working. I felt that every single aspect of it would affect everything else. So the physical would affect the costume, would affect the makeup, would affect the voice. I worked with a dancer, an amazing woman called Alex Reynolds, and I spent a few months going to the London Motor Neuron Diseases Clinic to see how ALS manifests itself. It’s different in every single patient…. As the muscles stop working, you used other muscles. There are muscles here in our face that we never use, and [Hawking’s] mom and his wife Jane describe how he had incredibly expressive eyebrows. So it was trying to learn to isolate muscles, which meant a lot of time spent in front of a mirror with photos.

The movie frankly shows that Hawking remained sexually active post-diagnosis and fathered three children.

Completely. When you look at photos or hear about Stephen as a younger man, he was incredibly charismatic and flirtatious. The ladies loved him and still do…. It was absolutely apparent meeting him that he is a really strong, potent man in every sense of the word.

While a lot is made of the role’s physicality, the genius is that the illness never overcomes Hawking’s intellect or spirit.

The story of Stephen dwarfs the illness. For him, it is of no importance. He didn’t ever want to see a doctor again after he was diagnosed. He is someone that lives forward and lives optimistically. So, for me, what this film was about was an unconventional love story, a film about loving in all its guises. So, young love, passionate love, love of a subject, the tribulations of love, and the love of family.

With the current celebrity frenzy around the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it seems like a perfect storm for ALS awareness now.

For me, it’s a wonderful thing because as part of my research, I met 30 or 40 people suffering and their families. It’s a brutal, horrific disease. But because there is very little money invested in finding a cure, it’s been around for a long, long time, and they’re not much closer to finding one. I’m now a patron of the Motor Neuron Disease Association in London, and for them [the Ice Bucket Challenge] has been game changing.

Tell me about meeting Hawking.

It was five days before we started filming, which was not ideal. I’d spent all these months prepping, and I was a little worried: What if everything I had prepped was wrong? Our first half hour together was pretty hilarious in a kind of awful way. I basically just vomited forth information about Stephen Hawking to Stephen Hawking. But he was very generous…. Above and beyond the specifics I gleaned about how he slurred his words and such, was that he emanates this humor and wit. And that is what ended up being the most wonderful thing because it meant that I could start each scene — whatever obstacle’s been put in his way, he still finds humor and he still finds joy.

What’s your biggest takeaway from the whole experience?

The film quotes Hawking’s line: “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” I’m a massive culprit of all the foibles in your life taking all of that joy away. But, actually, when Stephen was given a death sentence at age 21, he committed to living each one of those moments fully.

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: ALS, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, biopic, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Focus Features, Oscar, Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything, Toronto International Film Festival

TIFF Countdown – 17 Days – Movie Trailer “Anna Karenina”

August 20, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

A year ago I hung out with Keira Knightley at the Sony Pictures Classics party at Creme Brasserie in Toronto, talking about “A Dangerous Method” when we were interrupted by Vogue’s John Powers asking Keira about her frock, and co-star Viggo Mortensen playfully approaching in a silly hat. It was one of those moments that I treasure at TIFF, the kind of privileged access that makes me laugh when fellow critics complain about the job. Really! It was a moment when I actually found a pause between the fluff to discuss with an actress I adore — Keira — the arc of her career, and what parts there are for women, even beautiful, intelligent, talented ones. That’s when she first told me she was going to shoot “Anna Karenina” with Jude Law and Aaron Johnson and Kelly Macdonald. Joe Wright was directing, and I loved “Atonement” and his “Pride and Prejudice.” And, now, here’s the trailer for Joe Wright’s “Anna Karenina” and, yes, I’m breathless in anticipation although I confess it’s one of those novels I’ve started and regret I never finished.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: A Dangerous Method, Anna Karenina, Focus Features, Jude Law, Keira Knightley, movie trailers, Oscars, Sony Pictures Classics, TIFF, Viggo Mortensen

Christopher Plummer, esteemed elder thespian

October 5, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

In penance to Focus Features, and to Mr. Plummer, for slangily referring to his eminent maturity, I’m posting this video of him singing Edelweiss in his own voice for the beloved classic The Sound of Music, one of the first movies I ever saw as a child in Bombay.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Beginners, Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer, Focus Features, Oscars 2012, Sound of Music

Christopher Plummer: he’s no “geezer.”

October 5, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Geezers come from behind.

Woke up to be e-scolded by a publicist who I’ve known for years, and respect, about the use of the word “geezer,” in a column referencing Christopher Plummer.

After recovering from my bitter hurt — sip of coffee — raging anger — throw the coffee cup — milder reflection — lapping coffee off floor — I reflected on the fact that while I will continue to write in large, full sentences, and without emoticons, I will also return to a style that I’ve always embraced: the vernacular.

If I can call myself a chick, or even, tongue in cheek, an Oscar’s Angel, then I suppose I could use the term geezer in reference to Plummer, who at 81 has certainly heard worse. It’s a slang word, for sure, defined by dictionary.com as an odd or eccentric man: the old geezer who sells shoelaces on the corner. OK, he must be really old to be selling shoelaces on the corner in this Velcro era, and calling him and old geezer is redundant, oxymoronic.

 In the same Oscar’s Angels roundtable on best supporting actor contenders that irked the publicist — reading glasses on — we gave Plummer more positive ink, with USA Today‘s Susan Wloszczyna saying:

Next to Clint Eastwood, Capt. Von Trapp is just about the sexiest octogenarian still making movies. He was great in The Insider and fine in The Last Station, but there is a reason he has gone Oscar-less this long: His career in movies pales next to his stage work. True, they gave Helen Hayes a gold guy late in life. But it isn’t the same as Glenn Close never winning. But he does have an ace in the hole beyond his terrific role in Beginners: What can be a killer role as the family elder haunted by his long missing daughter in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Is he a shoo-in to win, though? Not necessarily.

Plummer is not the oldest man in the field, either. Odds are he will contend with the 82-year-old Swede, Max von Sydow, who has a pivotal role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

The real damage control that Focus Features faces is that Plummer is up against a slew of male supporting talent in the Focus stable, including the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy crew led by Tom Hardy and including a brilliant Mark Strong, John Hurt, and a foxy Colin Firth. Ultimately, who will they back in this heated supporting actor contest? Possibly a knottier issue than an adjective as tame as geezer.

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Christopher Plummer, Focus Features, Oscars 2012, Publicists

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