This article was published in the Newspaper yesterday
Article in the Mirror:
Here are some interesting related parts and beautiful photos of the
...One of the wonderful things about my job is you’re taught bizarre and wonderful skills. I mean I hadn’t sung in a long time, and I was able to train with some of the best people in the world. And I worked with Tom before, on a production of Elizabeth for the BBC, and at the end of the audition, the last thing Tom says to me (REDMAYNE impersonates TOM HOOPER)
Eddie, you ever been on a horse? (REDMAYNE resumes his voice) Yes (REDMAYNE takes a beat then hurriedly under his voice adds, after which he breaks into laughter) when I was five! And I didn’t tell him that. (REDMAYNE takes a sip of whiskey) Cut to me in Lithuania [where they were shooting Elizabeth] and I’m having spurs attached to my feet with like 50 Lithuanian horsemen behind me, Helen Mirren is some 200 meters down the road in a big dress, dressed as Elizabeth, Jeremy Irons is up on a rampart, staring out. There’re rain machines and carriages, and I’m too … embarrassed … to admit that I’ve never really in my life … it’s ridiculously stupid really …
I’m too embarrassed to admit I don’t know how to ride a horse. [Hooper] calls action. And I give my horse a nudge, and off at a hundred miles an hour it goes and just keeps going, about 30 meters ahead of the other riders. When I get the horse to stop finally Tom just comes up to me with a massive Tannoy [loudspeaker] screaming, “YOU’RE A FUCKING LIAR REDMAYNE.” Literally that’s what he said.
-(TOM HOOPER, addressing the audience) I remember we were shooting the final climactic battle of Elizabeth I. Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons stood on the ramparts as Eddie revealed in front of the entire crew and the cast the extent of his casting misinformation. I remember pointing out my surprise … at the top of my voice.
He will never live that day down! But on Les Misérables he was like a new man. An actor who claims he can ride in an audition, who can actually ride. (HOOPER pauses, before continuing) By the way. As to the claim he made that he can sing? Well, the boy can really sing.
Flaunt Mag shoot by Ruven Afanador
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-(REDMAYNE) One of the things I had to get over quite quickly while on sets is the fact you’re being judged. Of course you’re being judged. But you’ve got to put across the veneer of being calm and collected. And this is like under extraordinary circumstances (REDMAYNE pauses)
I remember a first audition, for The Good Shepherd. I was meeting the casting director. She’d come over to London and read about an Edward Albee play I’d done called The Goat. We had a general meeting and after the general meeting she told me I’d love you to come back tomorrow to meet Bob. And I was like Bob? And she was like Bob Deniro. (REDMAYNE makes a gasping sound) So cut to the next day, me, I’m arriving in London in like an office building. Like any normal audition for the slightly dodgy TV things I was going up for. But right behind that door there was Bob Deniro (REDMAYNE takes a beat, as the sound of door opening is heard off-stage) I go in and there he is. We shook hands and had a chat and before I did any reading—or maybe I had already read? Anyway, he was like, (REDMAYNE begins an accurate impersonation of Robert Deniro) I want you to comb your hair (REDMAYNE makes that classic Deniro face then stops impersonating him and pretends to be his younger self)
You mean you want me to comb my hair? (Impersonating Deniro again) I want you come back this afternoon, with this … like side parted.
-(INTERVIEWER, somewhat dumbfounded) He wanted you to leave to comb your hair?
-(REDMAYNE) Yeah! and I sort of spun out into Oxford street. I went to like Boots and bought a comb. And then I went back upstairs. And I remember coming out of the lift and it was like a casting call and on this couch were all the best actors in Britain, everyone that you ever dreamt of. And I was the last person to go in and I remember seeing the portal open. Someone walked past. It wasn’t the casting director. I don’t know who, but I asked them, who is in the room, and they tell me. Bob and Amanda and Leo (REDMAYNE holds for a beat) Fucking Leonardo, and about three minutes later, talk about having to then play it totally cool. It was this scene where I am quite sobbing into Bob’s arms. And then. And then it’s over. Straight out, back into the streets of London. (Redmayne pauses) I think maybe. The skill of
pretending to keep calm. It feels like a massive part of what I do....
Video link - Eddie Redmayne's worst audition
First audition
When Redmayne was 11, his parents allowed him to audition for a London stage production of Oliver! “I had one line,” he said, still sounding proud. “Here it is: ‘Books you ordered from the bookseller, sir.’ I was elated and terrified. That musical was like a rite of passage. Half the cast of Les Mis were in some production of Oliver! That experience sticks with you: I can still do my audition dance.” (
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Photo on the right by Aladair McLellan for W Magazine
Savage Grace
..."As a young actor, it’s incredibly rare to be cast in a part as meaty as that. When I read the script I was astounded by it and then I read the book, which was a wonderfully fleshed out version of the script. He was an extraordinary man so I had absolutely no reservations whatsoever. I was desperate to try
and get that part."
..."Actually, the real embarrassing moment was doing that scene in the audition. You don’t actually physicalise it, but you’re sat opposite each other and at that point you’ve never met the person and you’re entire knowledge of them comes from having seen them on the big screen. Sitting there opposite Julianne in the office in New York while she’s saying some of that stuff is just beyond extreme."
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Personal note: Yesterday I've had a lot of urgent work to do and when I finished in the afternoon I couldn't see the screen anymore. After that we celebrated my son's 27th birthday and we clinked glasses of champagne for his health. As a result I felt I have to rest a little. I lay down, I fell asleep and I couldn't wake up before midnight. I'm very determined to write a post every day and I'm dissapointed, because yesterday I couldn't do one. This happened for the first time since I started my blog six month ago. One day is too short. I would like to spend more time with blogging about Eddie,
I love it. He's so adorable and talented, it's a pleasure to write about him.
