On the Digital release, DVD and Blu-ray you find bonus clip about Eddie's
Aardman visit with Maisie. Here are a few screenshots and gifs from the videos.
Eddie was amazed by the sets and the amount of work required for the movie.
"...the script was endlessly being fanoodled- I think I just invented a word. As you say,
that world of animation- we would record once every two months and record for a day
and then two months later you come back and they would have animated some of the stuff
you recorded last time. You would go and re-record other bits where they’ve refined
the script. It was a massively organic process. What was weird was that you never read
the script from start to finish. So it was really, more than any film I’ve ever done, when
you saw it, the final cut of it, it was super surprising. It was wonderful to watch because
you didn’t really know what you were making as you went along." - (source: collider)
Maisie and Eddie dressing up as cavemen
In the exclusive clip posted by FANDOM, watch as Eddie Redmayne, Nick
Park (of Wallace & Gromit fame) and Maisie Williams (from Game of Thrones)
visit the set. Eddie was literally flabbergasted by the scale intricacy of the work.
“That insane,” he said when shown the Bronze City. The set — one of many for
Early Man — represented a years-worth of labor. - video here(Lawrence Yee)
"I just love the heart of these films. They have such a joy, and warmth, and humor
to them that, yeah, I felt like it would be a lovely thing to get to swim in...
You sort of pursue the joke relentlessly and it’s quite brilliant." (source collider)
“Before the Beginning of Time: Creating Early Man” Featurette
“Nick Park: Massaging the Funny” Featurette
“The Valley Meets the Bronze” Featurette
“Hanging at Aardman Studios: A Workshop Exploration” Featurette
Get prehistoric this weekend & enter to win a family ticket to an #EarlyMan screening at Stonehenge Visitor Centre on 26 May by @EH_Stonehenge. To enter, comment below and tell us which ‘Age’ Early Man is set in. We’ll give you a clue: ____henge. pic.twitter.com/ypelXoyQOq
Behind the scenes look at Aardman's new movie Early Man, in which voice actors Eddie Redmayne
and Maisie Williams come face to face with their characters for the first time. They are taken on a
behind the scenes tour of Aardman's Bristol studio. (Cineworld). I think the tour was on
17th January 2017. Maisie Williams and Aardman Animations tweeted about it. Early Man is out in the UK now, you can book tickets here.
“So Maisie and I got dressed up as cave people, with huge spears, and started fighting it out.
And that was how I got into character…” Eddie said in an Early Man World premiere interview,
that he found liberating to do a role away from the camera. - My gifset from the video is here.
"I grew up with all of the stuff, that Aardman did, and I was always completely seduced by it.
He (Nick Park) showed me the model, and it did have that massive grin, and those teeth,
that you so relate to Wallace and Gromit."
“I’m one of those actors that likes to do eight million takes, there’s never enough time to do as
much as you want. What’s lovely here is each time you do a session, you do maybe four or
five scenes and you can just give as many varieties as you want. You can improvise around it,”
Redmayne noted. “It would be quite embarrassing if there’s video footage of me doing it
because I got really physically into it and completely over-the-top to the point where they’d
go, ‘We can hear the jingle of your keys, can you calm down a little bit?’.” (digitalspy)
He told the Press Association: “I was sent the script and I was offered the part and I’ve
loved Aardman since I was little but I wasn’t convinced that (I could do it). “What if I went
and did the voice thing and they said ‘Oh , you’re going to do it like that?’ “In order to
pre-emptively not get fired I said ‘could we have a session where we play around with who
Dug is’? “And we did and sweetly Nick didn’t want to fire me so that is how it all started.”
“I’ve been fired from many a voiceover job. “People were like ‘oh yeah we want
this person to do a film’ and then you stand in a booth and open your mouth and
they go ‘oh, oh he doesn’t actually have a very good voice, does he?'”
"...I’m really embarrassed to say that I don’t think about the audience when I
choose a job. I tend to react to a script and go on an instinct, and whether I find it
entertaining. Is it a film I’d be interested in seeing? I’m an old fan of Aardman’s
from everything, so it was a bit a of a no-brainer. But their capacity to be so
inclusive, audience-wise, is a wonderful thing. It’s a rare, special thing a family
film where every generation can take something from it. It’s one of the things
I enjoy seeing......Genuinely, with Aardman, I’d be there! But I just laughed
when I read the script. A lot. And also, the past few films I’ve done, generally
the scripts don’t make me laugh massively. This was just so refreshing. I suppose
Dug is the straight guy, but one of the wonderful things about making the film for
me, the first session I could go there and Nick [Park] and I were working on what
his voice might be. Then Nick records an “eh?”, “uh?”, and then I’d come back a
week or two later, and they’d have animated it and Dug would be really funny!...
...The thing with Nick is that you work on a specific line, and you do it 20 times,
30 times, and he always has this face of optimism! Yeah, yeah, yeah! And you
know that he’s constantly optimistic and generous, and spirited, but you know
when you’ve got it. Normally it’s at a point where you go "Nick, will you do it?"
And he does it, and it always sounds so much better!...
...what’s interesting is that every film you do, you put everything into. So, weirdly those
films that very few people have seen – the fact that he’s even seen Black Death means
a great deal! The other thing is that it also makes total sense to me. What he’s looking
for is so unique. I must go and ask him what it was, though! My memory of that film
was being in swamps in Germany being beaten up by Sean Bean." Click here to read the full interview
Eddie Redmayne has praised women in the film industry and the number of female-centric films leading the awards race this year. He believes a "sea of change" is happening in the movie industry following the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Eddie, told The Big Issue magazine: "I think all of the conversations that are happening in our industry and across all industries at the moment are beyond important. I hope there is a sea change. "But I think the success of female-directed, female-led films - the top three films of the year have had women in the lead roles - that is testament to the fact it is no longer an excuse." (x)
The Big Issue is OUT NOW: Politics and plasticine. Maisie Williams and Eddie Redmayne
on what we can learn from Early Man (x)
Early Man Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes
Early Man has received mostly positive reviews from film critics.
Daily Mail: "Early Man is a joy." 5/5 Guardian: "Its straightforward storytelling and gentle humour still work a treat." 4/5 Independent: "There's no single shot, movement, joke, or line of dialogue that seems wasted." 3/5 Variety: "Early Man is as charming as they come." Radio Times: "Early Man finds a place somewhere at the top of Aardman's evolutionary tree with Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep." 4/5
The Telegraph: The miracle of great stop-motion has always been that the films look loved. As you watch Early Man, you can feel it. 4/5
Maisie Williams told ITV's Lorraine about Eddie: “He was so free and so energetic that it gave
me confidence. “It’s quite nerve-wracking. It’s a little bit embarrassing – you’re on your own in
a booth doing these crazy voices. “He definitely brought me out of my shell a little bit.”... (via)
Eddie in character - he gives his all for every role.
