Published on 3 Dec 2014 - Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Ethan Hawke (Boyhood),
Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher)
and Michael Keaton (Birdman) sit down with The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Galloway to discuss
their craft, their acclaimed performances in 2014 and more.
Eddie is one of the actors chosen for this year’s Hollywood Reporter actor roundtable … here are excerpts from the THR article with Eddie, Channing Tatum, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ethan Hawke, Michael Keaton & Timothy Spall.
Eddie, how far were you into the process of preparing for Theory of Everything when you met Stephen Hawking?
EDDIE REDMAYNE It was actually quite far in. From the second Felicity Jones and I were cast, we’d been wanting to meet Jane [Hawking] and Stephen. But Stephen’s incredibly busy solving some quite hard-core problems out there. (Laughter.) It made it complicated, and then there was the fear: What if when I meet him I realize I got it all wrong?
And of course you want approval. And so I went in to meet him, and he now just uses this [single] muscle beneath his cheek, and when he moves this muscle, [his computerized voice program] stops on one letter. So when you spend time with him, there are these long, long pauses. I was horrifically nervous, and I hate silence. And so basically I spent 45 minutes spewing out information about him, to him. It was really chronically disastrous.
HAWKE It’s like one of those Saturday Night Live skits.
REDMAYNE It was.
HAWKE You know, like [Chris Farley] meeting Paul McCartney.
REDMAYNE Yeah. (Laughs.)
KEATON Didn’t you ask him what sign he was?
REDMAYNE Thanks for bringing that up! He was born on January 8, which was [the day Galileo died], and the reason
HAWKE It’s like one of those Saturday Night Live skits.
REDMAYNE It was.
HAWKE You know, like [Chris Farley] meeting Paul McCartney.
REDMAYNE Yeah. (Laughs.)
KEATON Didn’t you ask him what sign he was?
REDMAYNE Thanks for bringing that up! He was born on January 8, which was [the day Galileo died], and the reason
I brought it up is because he makes a big point of the fact that he was born to the day 300 years after Galileo [died].
And so I was telling him this about himself and I said, “I actually was born on January 6. So we’re both Capricorns.”
CHANNING TATUM We say such weird stuff when we’re nervous, man.
CHANNING TATUM We say such weird stuff when we’re nervous, man.
Benedict played him in 2004’s Hawking. Did you see that before you played him?
REDMAYNE I had to make a quite hard-core decision about whether to watch it. Ben is an old friend and I’d heard
it was extraordinary. And I thought long and hard about it and decided not to — purely because I thought I’d try and
steal his best bits.
HAWKE It’s interesting that you both played this part.
CUMBERBATCH It’s amazing. There’s a lot for us to talk about. I remember being fascinated by the idea of having
to face up to something which, in most cases, is a two- to three-year life sentence [Hawking suffers from ALS].
You know you’re locked into a body that’s quickly degenerating.
If you had two or three years to live, what would you do differently?
TATUM Oh, man.
KEATON Hang out with Jonah Hill less. (Laughs.)
TATUM Or a lot more. I probably wouldn’t be trying to solve the mysteries of the universe. I don’t know
— just try to live with the people that I love as much as I can.
Would you work less?
TATUM Probably not at all. I love what I get to do. But I think I throw myself into [movies] so far that
I don’t get to experience the rest of the world.
KEATON I wouldn’t even think about doing a movie.
You certainly at one point turned your back on Hollywood to a degree and moved to Montana.
KEATON Not really. I never turned my back on it, really. I just went through a phase of getting tired of hearing myself do the same old thing. I’d hear the same rhythms and tricks. And frankly, it’s not like someone was knocking on my door with a tremendous amount of quality work — [though] if they had, I’m not sure I would have been particularly interested.
Who taught you the most?
CUMBERBATCH My first-ever teacher taught me extraordinary truth by literally line-reading Shakespeare at me, so
I can read it like prose. My modern drama teacher opened the doors of American theater to me and the wonders of Mamet and Miller and Tennessee Williams; the whole raft of it. And then, beyond that, you get incredible nuggets of wisdom — about being present, about grounding a truth from within. I grew up doing a lot of stuff at school. I went
from playing Titania, queen of the fairies, [in A Midsummer Night’s Dream] and Rosalind in As You Like It to playing
Willy Loman [in Death of a Salesman] at age 17. So I had this huge kind of showing-off period.
REDMAYNE But that’s the thing that drama schools and even schools did in England: You’re playing old people, women, from an early age and you’re pushing the boundaries, particularly in [repertory theater], when you were
REDMAYNE But that’s the thing that drama schools and even schools did in England: You’re playing old people, women, from an early age and you’re pushing the boundaries, particularly in [repertory theater], when you were
playing characters that sometimes weren’t your casting type.
What’s the most difficult character you’ve played?
REDMAYNE My first professional play, playing Viola in Twelfth Night opposite Mark Rylance. Having had that experience, being able to play people so far from who you are, gives you a sense of where you can go. That’s the
What’s the most difficult character you’ve played?
REDMAYNE My first professional play, playing Viola in Twelfth Night opposite Mark Rylance. Having had that experience, being able to play people so far from who you are, gives you a sense of where you can go. That’s the
other thing: The [British] films that make it over here are often to do with heritage and legacy and history.
SPALL That’s very true, but Hollywood is a broad church. Never, never underestimate how much the British yearn
SPALL That’s very true, but Hollywood is a broad church. Never, never underestimate how much the British yearn
to work in Hollywood. It’s not like, “Oh, darling, we just do it ’cause we’re slumming.” That’s a load of balls because
most people, if they were given a play or a part in a Hollywood movie, would jump at it and they’d say,
“You can stick Polonius straight up your arse.”
HAWKE Our system isn’t built to teach young people the craft. You know, Julia Roberts came to New York to do a play and of course the critics are gunning for her — and of course she has no experience. It’s a difficult thing to excel [at], and yet we know there’s a lot to be learned from it because our whole culture is worshipping actors who come from this theater background.
HAWKE Our system isn’t built to teach young people the craft. You know, Julia Roberts came to New York to do a play and of course the critics are gunning for her — and of course she has no experience. It’s a difficult thing to excel [at], and yet we know there’s a lot to be learned from it because our whole culture is worshipping actors who come from this theater background.
Do you have a role model whose career you emulate?
CUMBERBATCH We talked before the tape was running about Stephen Dillane’s Hamlet when I was 17. That had
a massive impact on me — the sort of essential, quiet, still truth of what he did. Nobody else was Hamlet but him.
HAWKE And then you saw mine!
REDMAYNE I’ve never said this to you, Tim, but when I was a kid, one of the first things I saw was A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The National Theatre. Tim was playing Bottom, and it was all set in mud and there was a
HAWKE And then you saw mine!
REDMAYNE I’ve never said this to you, Tim, but when I was a kid, one of the first things I saw was A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The National Theatre. Tim was playing Bottom, and it was all set in mud and there was a
contortionist playing Puck, this woman.
SPALL I had a French-Canadian contortionist on my back when I was trying to do Shakespearean comedy. And it felt like hell. You’d go backstage and there were people wearing verruca socks, which are worn [to prevent] plantar warts, you know? It was in a massive pile of water, and one day somebody came in and said, “You’ve not heard the latest. Someone’s done a poo in the mud.” I said, “What are you talking about? I’m lying in that before the audience comes in!” I went to the stage doorkeeper, who had been there for years, wonderful woman. I said, “You’ll never guess what I’ve just heard. You know the fairies who are all diving around in the mud? Someone’s done a poo in it.” She said, “Oh, we’ve had a phantom shitter at the Royal National Theatre for years.” (Laughs.) Here’s a pantheon of the most brilliant classical actors in the world, and someone was dropping a log in the [mud].
CUMBERBATCH I’ve worked in the National Theatre, but I haven’t pooed there. I have peed there.
SPALL I had a French-Canadian contortionist on my back when I was trying to do Shakespearean comedy. And it felt like hell. You’d go backstage and there were people wearing verruca socks, which are worn [to prevent] plantar warts, you know? It was in a massive pile of water, and one day somebody came in and said, “You’ve not heard the latest. Someone’s done a poo in the mud.” I said, “What are you talking about? I’m lying in that before the audience comes in!” I went to the stage doorkeeper, who had been there for years, wonderful woman. I said, “You’ll never guess what I’ve just heard. You know the fairies who are all diving around in the mud? Someone’s done a poo in it.” She said, “Oh, we’ve had a phantom shitter at the Royal National Theatre for years.” (Laughs.) Here’s a pantheon of the most brilliant classical actors in the world, and someone was dropping a log in the [mud].
CUMBERBATCH I’ve worked in the National Theatre, but I haven’t pooed there. I have peed there.
Full article is here
Magazine scans
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Magazine photoshoot BTS video screencaptures
I'm not an artist, but I enjoy to make nice things. I made these pictures
with photo editor from video screencaptures. I hope you like it.
Eddie has a face for paintings.
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