Eddie Redmayne has admitted that extreme exhaustion from anxiety was what ultimately won him the Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, not his acting talent.
The British actor, 42, captivated viewers and critics alike with his extraordinary portrayal of the celebrated theoretical physicist who lived with a rare form of ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
For the role, Redmayne trained for months with zombie choreographer and movement director Alexandra Reynolds, in order to accurately embody the scientist during the various stages of the disease.
But despite the training, Redmayne claimed that lack of sleep due to nerves was the cause of his Oscar-winning performance 10 years ago.
Speaking to a crowd at 92Y in New York City on Monday, he told host Josh Horowitz: “When I did The Theory of Everything… the thing that scared me the most about that movie was portraying it authentically.
Eddie Redmayne won the Best Actor Oscar in 2015 for his extraordinary portrayal of celebrated theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
But the actor (pictured with Professor Hawking in 2014), 42, said extreme exhaustion from anxiety was behind the win, not just his acting skills.
“I spent months preparing it, but the way movies work is that they obviously can’t be shot chronologically.
“And especially the first few days of filming, we had to shoot everything that was set in Cambridge, because the students hadn’t come back for the semester yet. So we had to do all the scenes that were exterior shots.”
The star went on to explain how he had felt immense pressure before his first day on set because he had to play the renowned physicist at four different stages of his life: when he was young, before the diagnosis, when the symptoms occurred. he could not walk without a cane, when the disease “really took hold” and when he was confined to a wheelchair.
“Every time I feel anxiety before shooting, it becomes very intense,” he recalls. “The night before filming, it was four in the morning and I wasn’t sleeping. And they picked me up at six!
“I got there at five in the morning and thought, ‘Okay, I’m just not going to sleep.’ I took a shower, woke up and walked the streets of Cambridge.
He later recalled: ‘I think the fatigue was overwhelming. At the end of the day, I had to do a full crisis scene and I was very tired and exhausted.
“Then when the time came, the director (James Marsh) pushed me and I just broke down… which probably went a long way and may have won me an Oscar.”
Redmayne’s Best Leading Actor Oscar was one of many during the 2014 awards season, and the star received a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Professor Hawking opposite Felicity Jones as his wife, Jane Wilde.
“I think the fatigue was overwhelming,” Redmayne said. “At the end of the day, I had to do a complete crisis scene and I was very tired and exhausted”
Redmayne photographed with his wife Hannah Bagshawe and his Oscar statuette at the Vanity Fair party in 2015.
But the final praise probably came from the eminent scientist himself, who said: “I thought Eddie portrayed me very well. At times I thought he was me. I think Eddie’s commitment will have a big emotional impact.”
Professor Hawking died aged 76 in March 2018.
Redmayne paid tribute at the time, writing: “We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an amazing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.”
Redmayne, who is married to Hannah Bagshawe, dedicated himself to training and research for the role and previously told The Guardian that he visited the Queen Square Center for Neuromuscular Diseases in London to speak to MND patients and their doctors.
He also treated the disease as if it were a dance and worked closely with choreographer and movement specialist Reynolds, who created the famous movement for the zombies in World War Z (2013).
Redmayne said he was so tired on the first day of filming that the director pushed him and he ‘fell apart’
“I had to train my body like a dancer, but I learned to shorten my muscles instead of stretching them,” he told the publication.
In an interview with Nightline he said: ‘I just needed to train my body, just to maintain the positions.
“I knew some of the positions would be specific and twisted and not necessarily comfortable.”
The film focuses on the love story between Professor Hawking and his first wife Jane, whom he met shortly before her devastating diagnosis when he was 21 years old and had only two years to live.
Redmayne is currently starring in Cabaret at Broadway’s Kit Kat Club, following a move from London’s West End, alongside The Greatest Showman’s Gayle Rankin.