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E ddie Redmayne can barely contain himself. The gangly， boyish， and eminently charming actor is meant to be seated on a 1）plush couch in his inordinately posh Manhattan hotel suite， but he seems incapable of 2）staying put. He frequently 3）springs up to further demonstrate whatever point he’s in the middle of making， and even when he is seated， his deep， throaty voice races 4）headlong out of him， his mouth often 5）tripping over his words.
Redmayne’s infectious 6）verve is， ironically， in service of explaining how he learned to keep his body resolutely stiff and static. With the film The Theory of Everything， the 32-year-old Redmayne has been winning the best reviews of his young career， for his performance as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
The film tracks Hawking’s physical decline from his early days as a doctoral candidate at Cambridge. Its main emotional focus， however， is how the disease affected his romance with and eventual marriage to Jane Hawking， whose memoir served as the basis for the film. Playing Hawking proposed one of the most intimidating challenges imaginable for an actor： Faithfully portraying the physical specificity of Hawking’s disease meant 7）bottling up virtually every tool available to capture his emotional inner life.
But according to The Theory of Everything’s director， James Marsh， it was a challenge that Redmayne was up to from the moment the two first met to discuss the role. “Eddie’s a very intelligent actor，” Marsh says a few weeks later on the phone. “I was struck by how much he understood the nature of the psychology of the role， and what he had to do is to physically prepare for what then would become an emotional performance.”
Back in his hotel suite， however， Redmayne often says， almost 8）contritely， that he had not gone through formal training as an actor （Instead， he studied the history of art at Cambridge）. “I’ve always wondered if at drama school you get a given process，” he says. “Every single job I do， whether it’s theater or film， I’m still grappling to find a process. But interestingly， when I got cast in The Theory of Everything， my instinct was to make it quite a formal one.”
Redmayne—as well as his co-star Jones， who also had to discover how best to play a living person—had to become something of a detective mixed with an investigative reporter mixed with a movement artist. After teaming up with dancerchoreographer Alexandra Reynolds， Redmayne met with doctors， nurses， and patients at the Queen Square Centre for Neuromuscular Disease in London. “They have an ALS clinic every week， and at the end the doctor would say， ‘There’s an actor here trying to play Stephen Hawking， would you be interested in meeting him？’” says Redmayne. “And 9）across the board， people were sensationally generous. … Some people would allow me to feel their hands， to feel the weight of their bodies.”
Redmayne’s infectious 6）verve is， ironically， in service of explaining how he learned to keep his body resolutely stiff and static. With the film The Theory of Everything， the 32-year-old Redmayne has been winning the best reviews of his young career， for his performance as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
The film tracks Hawking’s physical decline from his early days as a doctoral candidate at Cambridge. Its main emotional focus， however， is how the disease affected his romance with and eventual marriage to Jane Hawking， whose memoir served as the basis for the film. Playing Hawking proposed one of the most intimidating challenges imaginable for an actor： Faithfully portraying the physical specificity of Hawking’s disease meant 7）bottling up virtually every tool available to capture his emotional inner life.
But according to The Theory of Everything’s director， James Marsh， it was a challenge that Redmayne was up to from the moment the two first met to discuss the role. “Eddie’s a very intelligent actor，” Marsh says a few weeks later on the phone. “I was struck by how much he understood the nature of the psychology of the role， and what he had to do is to physically prepare for what then would become an emotional performance.”
Back in his hotel suite， however， Redmayne often says， almost 8）contritely， that he had not gone through formal training as an actor （Instead， he studied the history of art at Cambridge）. “I’ve always wondered if at drama school you get a given process，” he says. “Every single job I do， whether it’s theater or film， I’m still grappling to find a process. But interestingly， when I got cast in The Theory of Everything， my instinct was to make it quite a formal one.”
Redmayne—as well as his co-star Jones， who also had to discover how best to play a living person—had to become something of a detective mixed with an investigative reporter mixed with a movement artist. After teaming up with dancerchoreographer Alexandra Reynolds， Redmayne met with doctors， nurses， and patients at the Queen Square Centre for Neuromuscular Disease in London. “They have an ALS clinic every week， and at the end the doctor would say， ‘There’s an actor here trying to play Stephen Hawking， would you be interested in meeting him？’” says Redmayne. “And 9）across the board， people were sensationally generous. … Some people would allow me to feel their hands， to feel the weight of their bodies.”