New-old photos of Eddie

 18 years old Eddie Redmayne in Belforte all'Isauro, Italy (school for foreigners)

From vikytorian on Instagram (my translation): While the whole country worries about DiCaprio, I decided 

to support my own. How not to support a friend in such a crutial moment. Eddie Redmayne - you are a hero! 

I remembered a funny student photo, where we were all happy and carefree. Good luck! Well done! 

Eddie Redmayne portraits from edmilesphotographer.com  (via)

Eddie Redmayne photo by Alison Jakson from  hope72

 From Kathryn Bishop Twitter @likegolddust: 

“When your older sister’s final major uni project - a fashion mag 

- featured a 23-year-old Eddie Redmayne #archives” (via)

From Will @willbarratt83 on twitter: Found some cheeky pics of the wonderful Eddie Redmayne & I

during our college days performing Jesus Christ Superstar - about Old Etonian actor Will Barratt

Eddie played the role of Herod - Video: Herod's song from the film

londonmaramom: Good luck at the #eebaftas2016 tonight
#eddieredmayne freckly friend. You deserve it so much.
#oscars take note

Updated on Feb.14, 2016, 21:12

Recently uncovered photos from the early years

NYMT production of The Ballad of Salaman Pavey at the Globe Theatre in about 1999

Here is a picture of Eddie Redmayne with, Mark Chalk Iles, a former student at Abingdon School, 

whose mum still lives in Abingdon. Eddie and Mark appeared together in the National Youth Music 

Theatre production of The Ballad of Salaman Pavey at the Globe Theatre in about 1999. Mark is 

currently appearing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. (x) via

Eddie as the MC in Cabaret at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001

I AM YOUR HOST: Eddie Redmayne as the MC in Cabaret at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the age of 19. His grandmother’s recollection:

Mrs Burke said of his 2001 Fringe performance at the Underbelly in the Cowgate: 

“I saw him, but I didn’t recognise him. He was wearing so much make-up.”

Speaking from her home in the Gracemount area of Edinburgh, Mrs Burke said the show cemented the expectation that Redmayne would become a successful actor. “It wasn’t so much that we could see he was a promising actor, 

just that he was an actor, it was as simple as that,” she said. “He was always performing, even as a young boy.”

Redmayne has previously credited his acting success to the Fringe performance in the early years of the Underbelly, saying the “grotty, grimy venue” was where he “really got the bug” for acting.
Mrs Burke told The Scotsman that her “close knit family” was “thrilled” that Redmayne – one of six grandchildren – 

had won the accolade. “I’m delighted, absolutely delighted,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work for him preparing for 

[the role]. I have been watching the coverage of the Oscars on and off all day, I’m very proud. His grandfather would have been very proud too.”
Mrs Burke is the mother of Patricia Redmayne, Eddie’s mother who studied at the University of Edinburgh before moving to London and marrying Richard Redmayne. Mrs Redmayne runs a relocation business while her husband 

is a London city banker.

Ed Bartlam, director of the Underbelly, said Redmayne’s Fringe performance in Cabaret still “stuck in his head”, 14 years on. “It was our second year at Underbelly so we were very much finding our feet and it was all very atmospheric,” he said. “Eddie was a slightly creepy Master of Ceremonies in the show and would come up behind people’s backs in the audience and get a fantastic reaction.”
The show was performed by Doubled Edged Drama, a production company with links to Eton, Redmayne’s former school. “He had left Eton by then and this was one of his first performances, and I’m sure his first Fringe performance,” said Mr Bartlam. “I still remember it as one of the best shows we ever did. Eddie also had a lot of love for performing 

at the Fringe and still keeps in touch occasionally to see how we’re getting on.” 

Source: edinburghnews.scotsman.com via bespokeredmayne

Daily Mail article - photos from Eton College

‘We were on the same Colts B team in 1997,’ Redmayne has recalled. ‘I always felt slightly sorry for Will because everyone wanted to tackle the future King of England. He took all the hits. ‘I’m pretty sure Will was more intimidating than I was. I don’t think I intimidated anyone in my life. I haven’t seen him since school, but he was a lovely man.’

Eddie Redmayne (back row, fourth from left) in the Rugby Colts at Eton alongside Prince William (x)

Daily Mail: A young Eddie Redmayne keeps a straight face as fellow choristers cavort behind him.

(x) (x)

At 15 years old in the JRC “house” play Pravda (x) (x)

Evening Standard: Why Eton produces so many top actors like Eddie Redmayne

Never before heard insights on his formative years from a schoolmate. (via)

Interesting posts, articles about Eddie's ancestors:
Meet Eddie Redmayne’s beknighted, accomplished great grandfather, Sir Richard Redmayne. 

Will Eddie become the second “Sir Redmayne”? (x)

Daily Mail: Eddie Redmayne's amazing family tree: Extraordinary story of BAFTA winner's ancestors - including one who was praised by Wordsworth and another who worked in same mine as Kate Middleton's great-great-great grandfather

Family vacations in the south of France

bespokeredmayne: Eddie Redmayne’s very attractive family photographed for a feature on their vacation 

home in the south of France. It can be rented for £9,000 a week — family not included. Source: Daily Mail

For Shakespeare's 450th Birthday - Henry VI. and more

William Shakespeare widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. (Wikipedia) So today is the 450th anniversary of his birth and the 398th of his death.

On this occasion here are some pictures of Eddie Redmayne from his major Shakespeare roles.

Henry (Edward Redmayne) and Gloucester (Hugo Macdonald) in
Henry VI 1998 at the Farrer Theatre at Eton College Part 3/ Act 5/ Scene 6
(source: eddieredmayne.ru)

Eddie in Twelfth Night in 2002 - gif source:  buzzfeed.com via crushable.com

My post: Theatre 2002 - Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple Hall

Eddie Redmayne as Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Donmar, 2011. 

Source: Shakespeare Forever

My post: Richard II. - Donmar Warehouse (December 6, 2011—February 4, 2012)

Simon Dormandy, a former actor, the head of drama at Eton instilled a professional discipline in matters such as verse-speaking in his theatrically inclined charges. Among other roles, Redmayne played Shakespeare's Henry VI and his first drag turn as Adela Quested in a stage version of A Passage to India. Siobhan Bracke, the casting director, knew Dormandy from RSC days, and approached him when the decision was made to field a very young man as Viola in Twelfth Night. By this stage at Cambridge, Redmayne got his second call from Rylance and director Tim Carroll, "when I was well into a bottle of wine with a friend in Notting Hill. I had to go straight to the Globe and do a scene with Mark who I think was in a rehearsal dress and the wine..." (x) via (x)

Another Shakespeare related post of mine:

Dressed in the style of 60's - 2012 Simply Shakespeare 

- A Midsummer Night's Dream

Links:

Shakespeare Resource Center

Shakespeare's plays
And the winner of Mr England is... William Shakespeare!

The Bard easily beat hot contenders to the People's Choice award chosen by a public vote, taking 50% more than any other claimant in a list that contained the likes of Harry Potter, Harry Styles, the mini skirt, the tuxedo, The Beatles and Earl Grey tea.

source 

Trinity Choir picture from 2000

redbatchedcumbermayned found an archive picture about the Trinity College Choir from 2000. Eddie is in it in the middle of the back row. I made an edited picture in which I placed the zoomed part where Eddie can be seen.
It's a pity the picture's quality is not so good. Original photo's here

If you have any doubt, I matched the names to people

Quote from a Les Misérables review:

...The big surprise is Eddie Redmayne, whose operatic performance as a champagne socialist (Marius) torn between revolution and his pursuit of Amanda Seyfried’s Cosette was an unexpected delight. It is, perhaps, less surprising to anyone familiar with his background which includes a choral scholarship to Cambridge and membership of the National Youth Music Theatre, but either way the posh Brit cuts an ironic dash as one of the instigators of the June Rebellion. (source)

Quote from a Daily Mail article by Baz Bamigboye, 20 December 2012:

...Few knew Redmayne could more than carry a tune. He’s a revelation, in what is a career-changing role. The actor was an alto at Eton, and a tenor when he was a Cambridge choral scholar. But he quit singing when he realised he preferred speaking lines to singing them. (source)

Audio:
From "A Trinity Christmas" album

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge 2001
Soloist: Edward Redmayne

I Saw Three Ships - iloveeddieredmayne.com

Album review and samples
Trinity College Choir, Cambridge 

A Trinity Christmas

Palestrina: Offertoria

Here are Eddie's Eton performances:
Eton Ft Eddie Redmayne - God Is With Us mp3
Eton College Chapel Choir Soloist Eddie Redmayne - Ave Maria mp3

Choir Alumni: Where are they now?

2003 - Master Harold and the Boys - Liverpool Everyman Playhouse

The Independent article: Eddie, Steady, Go (full article) 27 Jan 2012
"After university, I gave myself a year. I was working in a pub and doing excruciating auditions and wondering if my new agent who'd taken this huge punt on me would sack me, and I remember getting a part in an episode of Doctors and it was probably the most exciting thing that had ever happened in my life. Then I went to Liverpool to do a play called Master Harold... and the Boys and I was living in a hostel on my own for three months and it was the most wonderful experience. I started to think, secretly, 'well, maybe I can do this'. But I came back to London and nobody took any notice and I went back to work at the pub. I always felt a bit fraudulent, like I was waiting to be exposed."

How Les Mis star Eddie Redmayne made a stunning first impression 10 years ago at Liverpool’s Everyman (full article) 

21 Feb 2013 via ‏@bespokeredmayne

...The old Etonian was fresh out of Cambridge Uni when he was cast in Master Harold and the Boys at the Everyman in 2003.

Initially banned in South Africa, the play by Athol Fugard takes place during the apartheid era, and depicts how institutionalised racism, bigotry or hatred can contaminate those living under it.

Eddie, then a 21-year-old, landed the role of teenager Hal who forms a bond with the family's two black servants, one of whom was played by former Brookie star Louis Emerick.

He described the part at the time as being a “draining, emotional rollercoaster.”

Of course a decade is a long time in showbiz, but those involved in the production at the time have no problem remembering Burberry model Eddie.

Staff at the theatre recall the My Week With Marilyn star to be a lovely young chap, very friendly and relaxed and with a mass of unruly wavy hair and freckles.

They also remember the actor to be quite exceptionally good at his craft even though he was still a beginner.

ECHO Arts Editor at the time, Joe Riley, tells Insider he showed a “staggering sense of maturity” on the Hope Street stage. “It was obvious that Eddie had a great future,” he adds. “Not only did he have confidence in spadefuls, he also had range which is the true mark of an actor.”

encyclopedia.com/article-master-harold-and-boys 

In 1983, Fugard earned the Drama Desk Award and the Critic’s Circle Award for best play and, in 1984, the Evening Standard of London award for “Master Harold”. . . and the Boys. Widely considered Fugard’s best and most autobiographical play, “Master Harold” centers on the relationship of two black waiters, Sam and Willy, to Hally (“Master Harold”), a white teenager embittered by the neglect of his alcoholic, racist father.

Photos source: eddieredmayne.ru gallery

Daily Post (Liverpool, England) article 19 Sept 2003: Eddie's Career Has Already Turned Full Circle

BELIEVERS in the power of coincidence will like this one. While studying at Cambridge University,Eddie Redmayne helped set up a theatrical workshop.
One day,one of the group brought along a script to read, a play set in South Africa which he thought had a good role for Redmayne.
``At the time,my capacity to do a South African accent spontaneously was quite limited, so it didn't really work. But I remember thinking, what a fantastic play.''
After leaving university and seeking work as a professional actor,his agent sent him a script for an audition. It was the same play.

The audition was successful and next week Redmayne steps on stage at the Liverpool Everyman playing that role in his first job since leaving university.

The drama Harold and the Boys dates from 1982 and is the work of South Africa's leading playwright Athol Fugard. Redmayne gets the title role of Harold in a three-hander with ex-Brooksideactor Louis Emerick and Trevor Laird as the two black men who work in his parents' tea shop.

Louis Emerick as Sam and Trevor Laird as Willy

BBC - Liverpool Stage article 1 Okt 2003: 

Master Harold...and the boys

Newcomer Eddie Redmayne, who graduated only this year, is excellent as anxious school-boy Hally, and Trevor Laird brings a touch of humour through the portrayal of Willy.The play runs for just under two hours with no interval, but at no point could you interrupt this powerful production, which received a standing ovation from the Liverpool audience. An excellent production of the moving story of a young man coming of age.

Update 15 Jan, 2015 New photo from liveveryplay (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse)

Daily Post (Liverpool, England) article 2 Jan 2004: Arts: And the Winners Are ...; Credit Where It's Due. Arts Editor Philip Key Highlights the Best People,places,and Performances of 2003

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: In his first major professional acting role, Eddie Redmayne impressed in Master Harold ...and the Boys. His performance as the young white liberal Hally was both moving and assured.

Liverpool's Everyman theatre via ‏@bespokeredmayne

After a £28m rebuild, Liverpool's Everyman is once again open to audiences. Artistic director Gemma Bodinetz says the theatre reflects the city's renegade spirit.

Here's Eddie Redmayne when I directed him at @LivEveryPlay when I used to do a show a year there. Thanks to Jocelyn Meal for posting today pic.twitter.com/PULllWOiVc

— Phil Willmott (@PhilWillmott) February 23, 2017

...

Is he an awful dancer? Really? - The Miraculous Year

Maybe he's not a Fred Astaire, but not so bad (source sirredmayne)

5 Actors In Talks For John Logan/ Kathryn Bigelow HBO Pilot ‘Miraculous Year’

Deadline Hollywood article By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday June 14, 2010

...Logan and Remayne’s collaboration appears headed to the small screen next: the young British actor is in talks
to play a lead in Logan’s drama pilot for HBO Miraculous Year, which is being directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. ...Miraculous Year is described as an examination of a New York family as seen through the lens of Terry Segal (Norbert Leo Butz) a charismatic, self-destructive Broadway composer and lyricist.

...Redmayne would play a captivating and sexy singer/dancer in Terry’s new show who will come to play 

a major part in Terry’s life. (He plays Terry's boyfriend - another gay role.)

HUGO BOSS Fashion Show Fall 2013 (source: sirredmayne)

Eddie Redmayne: Ready To Tap Dance For Kathryn Bigelow? 

Access Hollywood article, first published: August 27, 2010

...Eddie plays “a chorus boy,” as he puts it, for HBO’s “The Miraculous Year,” a series on the way from playwright

John Logan and Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow.

“It’s about this extraordinary, incredibly talented family, but what’s hilarious is [they] offered me this part — and

I think it’s got a wonderful arc — and when I accepted I was like, ‘Damn! Hell yeah! I’d love to be a part of that.’

photo source: eddieredmayne.ru gallery

And when I came to New York to start rehearsing, and even though I knew I’d been cast as a chorus boy dancer, like a part of my brain hadn’t connected the fact that I would have to actually dance,” Eddie explained. “I mean, I’ve never danced in my life, let alone tap danced.”

Trying new things though is something the talented actor seems to enjoy. Earlier this year, he took on Broadway’s tough audiences in “Red,” a play written by “Miraculous Year” writer John Logan. Thrilling the tough Broadway crowds led to the actor walking away with a Best Featured Actor Tony Award in June.
“It’s in my flat in London… I’ve got an apartment in London that I share with a couple of mates, and I have quite an amazing window with a view over the city of London in my bedroom and it’s sat there perching, overlooking the city of London,” Eddie said of where he keeps his award, later adding, “If it were a person, it has got the greatest view in the world.”

HBO decided in October 2010 not to go forward with the project 
before the pilot even aired. Why?

HBO Rejects Broadway-Inspired Pilot The Miraculous Year, Starring Norbert Leo Butz
...The Miraculous Year was widely assumed to be based on the life of Stephen Sondheim, with whom Logan collaborated on the screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd. (After Sondheim made his displeasure known, certain biographical details were reportedly changed.)
In a recent Q&A with Broadway.com, cast member Patti LuPone described the show as being “about a very prominent arts family in New York. The father, Frank Langella is a famous painter. His son, Norbert Leo Butz, is a genius musical theater composer. His daughter, Hope Davis, is a corporate lawyer, married with two kids. That’s one story. The other story is Norbert’s theatrical life, and I’m his leading lady.”
In addition to Langella, Butz, LuPone and Davis, the cast of The Miraculous Year also included Tony winner Eddie Redmayne (Red), Linus Roache (now appearing off-Broadway in Middletown), American Idiot star Stark Sands and TV and Braodway vet Daniel Davis (The Nanny, La Cage aux Folles). Composer Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza), was reportedly on board to pen the music to The Miraculous Yea's show-within-a-show musical. Guest stars in the pilot included Susan Sarandon and Lee Pace.
Sources told Deadline.com that the appeal of the show was considered “too narrow.”

Update: Read more about the plot in the article here (via)

In this video list there are excerpts from interviews, videos and films of Eddie. In the first video
Eddie talks about dancing from 22:05 to 23:25. He's not in the last two. There's a video in which
the original Fijero, the two times Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (who plays Terry in the pilot)
performs Dancing through life from  Wicked. The last is about the audition of Carlton Tanis for
the role of Tamil Lee, the only project related video I found on Youtube.

My post: Eddie's dancing - gifs

Cambridge University years 2000-2003

This old photo showed up on Instagram a few days ago( x ). I felt an urge to do a post about it.

There is a small but significant fact that the admissions tutors at Cambridge University did not know about Eddie Redmayne when they accepted him to study History of Art at Trinity College: he is colour blind. Not surprisingly, it caused a few problems during the course of his studies. “In your exams you would have these envelopes with images in them,” he says, “I remember there was one about chalk drawings, the difference between black chalk and red chalk; I had no idea!” ( x )

He went on to study history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he graduated with 2:1 Honours in 2003 (x)

Eddie Redmayne about his University years: What I do remember is this idea of sparring with friends, arguments about issues and current affairs. I'm a pretty poor arguer, but there are those moments when you suddenly realize that you've taken a standpoint, and you've so been pushed into a corner, and you're actually beginning to believe what you're saying more than you ever actually meant. ( x )

KATE KINGSLEY Young Loaded and Fabulous Book Party - 

April 05, 2010 - My post about the event

Kate Kingsley (on the right in this photo) was a classmate 

of Eddie Redmayne in Cambridge. (x)

Clemency Burton-Hill (on the left in the photo) is a friend of Eddie from Cambridge too. She studied English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. She attended several events together with Eddie for example the Dimetros press night afterparty (x) on 25th March 2009 in London (Donmar Warehouse).

"I sang when I was a kid. And I really enjoy it. And I had, like, a choral scholarship at Cambridge….But I haven’t sung for, like, 12 years. And I sort of lived a minor life of decadence for a few years, as in I hadn’t particularly given a s*** about the state of my vocal cords." ( x )

In Cambridge, where he studied art history (specialization : the end of the 19th beginning of 20th century art in Britain and France ) , he continued to play in the National Youth Music Theatre at the same time worked as a model 

to earn pocket money. ( x )

West Side Story Production Stills, Cambridge, 2003 (source: chrissallans) Cast & Crew

Modelling: Rowan pattern book published in 2004 By Joey Toller

these are cropped images, the original scans are here

After his first year got a call from, the casting director for London's Globe Theatre."She had got my name through

the head of drama at my old school. The Globe had been commissioned by Middle Temple Hall to stage a 

400th anniversary production of Twelfth Night as it had first been staged there."
....Some days later while drinking in a London pub, he got a call asking if he was in London. Could he go over to the Globe right then for a second audition? "I was quite tipsy and that may have helped as it was the most terrifying recall 

of my life." But he got the job playing Viola.
...He could have stayed and done a Globe season but he was still at university and enjoying his degree course. 

He was given lots of conflicting advice but in the event stayed to complete the course and was glad that he did. (x)

He wrote his dissertation on the artist Yves Klein and his signature color: a pure electric blue IKB.... 

“I wrote 30,000 words on this color, and I never grew tired of it. The pigment is staggering. It’s amazing that 

a color can be so emotional. One can only hope to achieve that intensity in acting.” (x)

Playing with colors

Influence Film - collider.com Les Mis interview with audio link

...You’re landing on your feet I think. You went to school in Cambridge.
Redmayne: That’s right, yeah.
I have friends that went to school in Cambridge, I’ve been to Cambridge, and that’s a hell of a town 

to go to school in.
Redmayne: It’s quite beautiful isn’t it?
It’s amazing.
Redmayne: It’s one of those things that even when you wake up in the morning and you’ve got a massive essay to write on some great masters piece of work, and you’re hung-over and feeling miserable, you look outside and its very beautiful, and you go, “It could be so much worse.” So, I was very spoiled to go there, but I loved it.
Do you ever go back?
Redmayne: No, I haven’t been back in a while, but what was amazing actually is they have a great heritage or history of actors there and when I was there Rebecca Hall, you know, Vicky Christina Barcelona amongst other things, and Tom Hiddleston, and Dan Stevens, Khalid Abdalla from The Kite Runner; so there was a group of us that were all there. And it was so interesting because we would all do plays together and mess about. So it’s wonderful having started having a group of friends from back in the day.
I’m going to ask you a question that almost nobody is going to get, did you attend any of May Balls?
Redmayne: I did, yeah. They’re really not going to get that. These were these hilarious- in fact, they were balls where I was dressed pretty much as I am dressed in Les Mis, not much has changed in like a hundred years. I did go. They’re very debauched, incredibly indulgent parties. Yeah, I did go to a couple.

A trace of Eddie in an old edition of Cambridge magazine via @linkie16

"...The audience is always aware that the actors are indeed inmates and that we are in a constructed theatre. This Brechtian emphasis comes through both in the precariously suspended curtains that still expose action behind them and in the absent-mindedness of one of the inmates who continuously gets their words wrong and requires increasingly agitated prompting by The Herald (convincingly performed by Edward Redmayne and Emily Howes)..." 

(1967 film version)

.................................