Excerpts from The New York Times interview with Eddie and Emma by Philip Galanes (via)
Photos by Malin Fezehai/The New York Times (via)
to make one when he blew it out. “Is that allowed?” the actor asked, ...
“Absolutely!” declared Ms. Stone, ...
But she drew the line when Mr. Redmayne floated the idea of a second wish.
“You can’t make them all day,” she said.
Over a late lunch at Angus’ Cafe Bistro — a croque-monsieur for Mr. Redmayne and truffle fries (“without the truffle, please”) for Ms. Stone — the pair discussed their childhood ambitions, propensity to worry and the young actor’s life.
EMMA STONE: Can you imagine if your kid said that to you?
EDDIE REDMAYNE: I’d say, “Under no circumstances!”
ES: I would punish mine.
PG: So, how did you get away with it?
ER: I got the bug when I was 12 and did a production of “Oliver” that Sam Mendes directed. Not that I ever met him.
I was Workhouse Boy No. 40 in a cast of 800 children that changed every week.
ES: And you loved it?
ER: I got to leave school early and go into the West End. I got into the grubby artifice that created this extraordinary thing, so I kept at it. My dad works in finance, so he kept giving me the stats: only one in a hundred actors makes it. He’d ask, “Have you thought about producing?”
ER: I draw and play the piano badly. But when I’m doing those things, I’m concentrating so hard there’s no room for worry. I find that onstage, too.
ES: Once you lock into a role or improv, it’s like flying. When I’m trying to make a point, in life, I put a lot pressure on myself. I’m sure that’s related to the crying: the perfectionism, the need to communicate in the right way. It made me really, really anxious. All I wanted to do was sit in my bedroom and worry, but instead, acting threw me into situations where you just have to go with it. And it was good for me. Like the shy kid on the debate team.
ER: I don’t know about you, Ems, but I find that more onstage. You’re in place for a more extended period. In film, the takes start and stop, and the anxiety kicks back in. People say: “How can you do a play for six months? The same
thing every night.” But you never get close to getting it right, and every night, you get to go back and try again.
ES: That’s exactly the way I’m feeling in “Cabaret.” When Eddie came backstage after seeing it, I launched into a million things I should have changed. But there’s still that chance to go back and do it again and again and again.
ER: On my first film, I was playing this psychopath opposite Toni Collette, and we were doing this “Silence of the Lambs” scene. After an hour, she said, “Come and watch the playback.” And thank God
she did! My eyebrows were up to here, and I was projecting to the back of the room. Suddenly I realized why I’d never gotten a film job before.
she did! My eyebrows were up to here, and I was projecting to the back of the room. Suddenly I realized why I’d never gotten a film job before.
ES: When I first started trying for roles in L.A., this acting coach told me, “Teaspoons, not buckets.”
ER: It’s helped my stage acting, too. People can see closer than you think.
ES: And then in “Birdman,” [the director] Alejandro [Iñárritu] wanted performances that were so theatrical and big thatER: It’s helped my stage acting, too. People can see closer than you think.
it reinvigorated everything.
ER: Those challenges are amazing. I also found it in Hawking, where toward the end of the film he could do so little,
but as an able-bodied actor, you’re doing the most extreme facial expressions ever. I was terrified I was on the
borderline of being offensive.
PG: There’s a parallel between “The Theory of Everything” and “Birdman.” They’ve gotten so much press for technique: for Eddie’s bravura performance of illness, and “Birdman’s” appearance of being shot in a single take.
But the stories are so moving.
ES: If I even think of Eddie’s last scene too long ——
ER: When Hawking tells his ex-wife, “Look what we made” ——
ES: I can fall apart.
ER: When I got the script, I expected a Stephen Hawking biopic. But what I got was this scrutiny of love: young passionate love, family love, the boundaries and failing of love.
PG: If I asked you — as two young people in young relationships — is it scary or inspiring to think that you could love your partner so much you’d let them go?
ES: Inspiring, definitely.
ER: And constantly changing. I had one idea making the film, and then this whole other narrative comes as you hear other people’s opinions and weave them together with your own. But even as my own feelings shift, this film is grounded in something that feels very human.
ER: Pictures in airports tend to be paparazzi. I don’t have much experience. But it’s usually Los Angeles Airport, and it’s always when you’re coming off a plane. As long as you don’t think about it too much — like: Who told them I’d be here? — it doesn’t really matter.
PG: But doesn’t it matter a little, now that there’s a wife having her picture taken, too?
ER: It’s definitely more complicated when someone you love, who has nothing to do with the business, is dragged
into it. But Hannah and I do red carpets together; she wants to support me. So that was a discussion we had.
PG: How about modeling? Were you nervous about saying: “I’ll be a celebrity and let Burberry or Revlon into my life”?
ER: That one was simple for me. I’d been working as an actor for eight or nine years, and I was earning 350 quid a week doing “Richard II.” Then Burberry came along. They support young actors and musicians. And Christopher Bailey is a wonderful designer. So when he asked, I said yes right away. I probably should have thought about it more. You do sell a little part of yourself, but I was O.K. with it.
ER: That one was simple for me. I’d been working as an actor for eight or nine years, and I was earning 350 quid a week doing “Richard II.” Then Burberry came along. They support young actors and musicians. And Christopher Bailey is a wonderful designer. So when he asked, I said yes right away. I probably should have thought about it more. You do sell a little part of yourself, but I was O.K. with it.
PG: It’s important to have a through line in life.
ER: That’s exactly what I wanted, a through line. I needed a home, a place to invest in emotionally.
Where you can close the door and all the things are yours.
PG: Do you have it now?
ER: I do.
ES: Yes. Shout it from the rooftops!
ER: That’s exactly what I wanted, a through line. I needed a home, a place to invest in emotionally.
Where you can close the door and all the things are yours.
PG: Do you have it now?
ER: I do.
ES: Yes. Shout it from the rooftops!
Eddie Redmayne - 33 to the day, a recent Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee as best actor for his portrayal of the physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” He won a Tony Award in 2010 as best featured actor in the Broadway play “Red.”
Emma Stone - 26, a film actress best known for her roles in “Easy A” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” franchise. She made her Broadway debut last year in “Cabaret,” in which she continues through Feb. 15, and is also nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress in “Birdman.”
