"I am so thrilled to share my most recent photoshoot for @voguemagazine featuring the
spectacular Eddie Redmayne. Collaborating with him was an actual dream come true..."
Sarah Crompton who interviewed him for the magazine
posted this:
"Such a pleasure to talk to Eddie Redmayne about Cabaret and other
Quotes from the interview:
A tentative smile spreads across Eddie Redmayne’s face. “Anxiety is something
that drives me,” he says quietly. “It has for a long time. Ultimately, I think, you
only live once. If it’s a catastrophe, I got to play a part that always felt
unfinished in me. If I don’t do it, then perhaps I will just live with regret.”...
When Cabaret opens in London in November, it will be the second time Redmayne
has played this part. He first gave it a go at 19, in a student production at the
Edinburgh Fringe festival just after he left Eton. It was staged in a grotty, run-down
venue called Underbelly. “I didn’t really see daylight, and became quite skeletal,
and I remember finding it thrilling.” Fast-forward 20 years and that excitement is
still there. So is Underbelly, which, under the guidance of its founders, Ed Bartlam
and Charlie Wood, has morphed into an influential producing company that hosts
festivals in London and Edinburgh and has produced hit shows. It was Bartlam who
approached Redmayne to play the part again; Redmayne then asked Jessie Buckley,
star of Wild Rose and Judy, whether she’d like to take on Sally Bowles, the singer
whose story gives Cabaret its heart.
“Jessie has this extraordinary spirit and an anarchic quality,” he says...
Buckley is an enthusiast, full of energy and commitment. “For Eddie it’s a passion
project, and I was delighted he thought of me,” she says, smiling broadly...
“I’d seen Cabaret done formidably. I’d seen the film, and Sam Mendes’s production,”
Redmayne says. “The only point in us doing it would be if we could do something
different from those other productions, something new.”...
For [Rebecca] Frecknall, the challenge is to make sure its revolutionary quality comes through.
“I am always interested in how you can tell this fresh,” she says. “There are a lot of things
bubbling up: politics, gender, hierarchies, stereotyping, the human fear of otherness and
difference and how that can be weaponized. Eddie brings an angle to it that’s unexpected.”
“I hope when people see the performance, the interpretation will justify the casting,”
Redmayne says. “The way I see the character is as shape-shifting and a survivor.”...
In Redmayne’s case, COVID closed the set of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts just as
he was about to film the third installment. He spent lockdown in Staffordshire with
his wife, Hannah, and his children, Iris, who is five, and Luke, three.
“My wife is gently converting me to someone who knows his way around a veg patch,”
he says, with obvious affection for the woman he married in 2014. “I loved it. Iris was
just learning to read, and Luke was just learning to talk. I felt very lucky to be around.”
Redmayne is clearly nervous about his return to the stage, yet his excitement keeps
breaking through: “In theater, I had such luck with new plays, such fun, and I have
not always had that on film. I have done some catastrophically bad films and
had some great experiences. In theater, I’ve always found a wonderful alchemy.”
Finding those moments of truth, when a chink of utter honesty is revealed, is
Redmayne’s goal. “It’s the reason I love what I do, that rare moment when
something becomes real. That’s the drug.” He smiles again, perhaps imagining
the moment his Emcee steps out onstage, peels back the layers of artifice, and
reveals something true...
Note: Actually, it will be the third time Eddie plays this part,
