Clemency Burton-Hill - a friend from the University

Clemency Burton-Hill is a brilliant friend of Eddie Redmayne, who hosts a classical music broadcast on BBC radio3. She's a novelist, journalist, musician (violinist) and actress too. They are the oldest and dearest of friends. She's a remarkable woman. And she's beautiful! Acting is how they met at Cambridge.

Burton-Hill attended St Paul's Girls' School and Westminster School, and went on to read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge, gaining a double first. She was awarded a Kennedy Scholarship in politics and government at Harvard University in 2006. Since university, Burton-Hill has combined a career spanning acting, writing, music and political consultancy. - Wikipedia - IMDB

Eddie and Clem attended several events and theater premieres together.

Calvin Klein Dinner Party 12 June 2006 ( x )

"We are together" UK premiere hosted by EMI and RED,

at the Soho Hotel in London, 4th March 2008 ( x )

Dimetros Press Night afterparty - Donmar Warehouse on the 25th march 2009 ( x )

Clemency Burton-Hill, Jamie Dornan, Andrew Garfield, Pamela Nomvete and Eddie Redmayne

CLEMENCY BURTON-HILL blog - Friday, 2 April 2010 ( x )
On a balmy Manhattan evening, the blossom bursting into life along these sunlit streets, I went to the opening night of RED on Broadway last night.Despite having seen the play already, at the Donmar Warehouse, I was blown away all over again. Not only has the production - which was incredible in London - somehow stepped up a gear, but the performances, from Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as his assistant Ken, were astonishing. And it was amazing to watch that play, so New York-centric, among a New York audience; to hear the moments of self-recognition that they evidently found most amusing, or poignant, or close to the bone...

What a thing! A play that engages - and occasionally assaults - you aesthetically, emotionally, intellectually. And what a testament to the power of live theatre... of which more later.
...The audience were worth watching too - Martin Scorsese, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Justin Long, Frank Stella (who is mentioned in the play) to name but a few of the luminaries hanging out at Gotham Hall afterwards ... and the Brits on Broadway were out in force: Eddie, Ruth Wilson and Rupert Goold (all recent Olivier winners), Adam James; and the very fabulous Lucy Prebble and Polly Stenham, both gorgeous twenty-something female Brits who have plays opening on Broadway (Enron and That Face). A pretty rocking bunch. Needless to say, long after the Yanks had retreated home to bed, we were still making the best of the free bar and sneaking fags on the sidewalk. Ah well. You can take the Brits out of London....

Photo: Kate Kingsley book presentation 5 April 2010 NYC 

- James Rosco (her husband), Clem and Eddie ( x )

Excerpts from The Independent article about Eddie:
Eddie, Steady, Go: The talented Mr Redmayne on Baftas, bankers and Birdsong

by Clemency Burton Hill, 27 January 2012

Clemency Burton-Hill has known British acting's hottest newcomer since college days. He opens up to her about how, despite his extraordinary success on film, stage, and TV, he still hasn't got it right.

...Every Christmas Eve, the actor Eddie Redmayne cooks a ham. He tends to this ham with the utmost care and devotion, adding a little brown sugar here; a few more cloves there. It takes him hours, if not a whole day. For those of us who partake regularly of the Redmayne ham – he and I go back a long way – and it seems to get better every Christmas, as if he's been quietly, stealthily striving to improve the recipe all year round. Yet no matter how magnificent it tastes, how tenderly it melts in the mouth, he will brook no compliments of the ham. Invariably, he will instead point out what he could, should have done better.

...Redmayne has personified the old adage that luck is merely what happens when hard work meets opportunity. As his CV has swelled, so too has his dedication; the more professional triumphs that have come his way, the more he has put his head down and worked harder. He certainly takes nothing for granted.
...I remember being struck, as we rehearsed a university production of David Hare's two-hander The Blue Room in 2001, that this was not your average college thesp. He pushed me – pushed us both – to go places with our characters that were dark, risky and dangerous.

A delight to interview the wonderful Eddie Redmayne for a @wsj exclusive on playing Marius in new #LesMiserables movie: http://t.co/Ep3yWeKw
— Clemency Burton-Hill (@clemencybh) December 16, 2012

From Bach to Blur (and Bach again): Radio 3's Clemency Burton-Hill says the great composers 

should be required listening for us all
Daily Mail article By CLEMENCY BURTON-HILL 23 November 2013

She's on Twitter @clemencybh. Does a lot of tweeting while she's live on the radio.

Thanks to @bespokeredmayne for the help

Related post: Cambridge University years 2000-2003

Related Tumblr posts

Update: New Intelligent Life Magazine article by Clemency about Eddie

in my Oct.19, 2014 post:

My ToE promo video playlist, articles, and pictures...

Update: photo to the right:
Eddie with Hannah and Clem at the

Omega Dinner on 4th June 2015 (x) via

Update: May 8, 2017 GOOGLE Zeitgeist Minds - in support of refugees

Get well soon Clemmie!

I read in a recent article that Eddie's good friend Clemency Burton-Hill

had a major brain haemorrhage in January. Fortunately, her recovery is

progressing well. She's a wonderful woman, I wish her all the best. 

Omega Dinner Celebrating New International Ambassador 

4th June 2015 (photo via hope72)

"We are together" UK premiere at the Soho Hotel in London,

4th March 2008 (photo via iloveeddieredmayne)

Calvin Klein Dinner Party

Jul 12, 2006 (photo via hope72)

Links:

The sun will shine again: how music is helping Clemency heal

BBC News: BBC presenter says music helped her 'to live' after...

Clemency Burton-Hill - a friend from the University

Cambridge University years 2000-2003

Eddie, Steady, Go: The talented Mr. Redmayne on Baftas, bankers, and Birdsong

Intelligent Life Magazine article by Clemency (Oct. 2014)

GOOGLE Zeitgeist Minds - in support of refugees

Omega Dinner June 4th, 2015 photos, articles

Related Tumblr posts

My ToE promo video playlist, articles and pictures from this week

This was a very busy week. Eddie continued his ToE promo tour in Chicago, then in New York. He did a few Q&A, 

gave interviews, attended some events. Everything happened so quickly. I could't cope with so much stuff in such a short time, I'm a little behind. There are a lot of new articles, photos, videos and pictures about him, that I like and 

want to post in my blog. Here are a few.

Let's start with the video interviews. My Youtube playlist starts with this weeks new videos 

but at the end there are a few I already posted about

The first video is BAFTA's 60 seconds with Eddie Redmayne published on Wednesday.

Eddie Redmayne breezes through the 60 second challenge, revealing his unusual method for learning lines, why
he likes "having no idea what's coming next" and why you'll probably find him in the bath after a long shoot!

This cute video about Eddie followed by this weeks videos of Eddie promoting 'The Theory of Everything'. 

Then the interviews and Q&A videos I already posted. The upcoming updates will be in the end of the list.

Eddie Redmayne 'The Theory of Everything' interview｜CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) (x)

Eddie Redmayne dishes on Stephen Hawking, Jupiter Ascending & his upcoming “small” wedding (x), (x)

The most interesting article I think is the long interview by Eddie's longtime

friend Clemency Burton-Hill published in the Intelligent Life Magazine.

Spent 18 months observing #EddieRedmayne on his extraordinary #StephenHawking journey. @intlifemag out now #longreads pic.twitter.com/kYBXcBYqfx
— Clemency Burton-Hill (@clemencybh) October 15, 2014

REDMAYNE’S FORENSIC METHOD - full article - on 1 page
How did Eddie Redmayne turn himself into Stephen Hawking?
From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, November/December 2014

… I had happened to see Redmayne a few hours after he received a phone call offering him the lead in “The Theory of Everything”, a feature film adapted from a memoir by Stephen Hawking’s ex-wife, Jane Wilde. We had been friends at university and our professional lives had collided over the years—I had interviewed him about his Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse and his Marius in the blockbuster film of “Les Misérables”. That evening, I watched as his euphoria subsided into a creeping sort of horror and his skin, always rather freckled and pale, took on a greenish tinge. At this point I asked, on a whim, if he would be open to the idea of my following him as he tackled the role. I knew he disliked talking about himself, but perhaps the fear distracted him. He said yes…

My note: Eddie is a formidable actor, but still few people know who he is. I think this quote in the article from Tom Hooper reveals the cause of this: “His ability to disappear into the personalities he’s creating is very rare. There’s a
type of film acting in which the audience want to see the actor they know and love, but Eddie seems to be drawn to these roles that require a lot of work to disappear into something that’s not him.”
- He's not Eddie Redmayne, he's Tony, Gordy, Angel, Osmund, Jack etc. in the films.

Burton-Hill gets under the skin of a
formidable piece of work. (x) via (x)

EDDIE REDMAYNE'S SCIENCE JOB - full article 

The editor's note ~ Posted by Tim de Lisle, October 15th 2014 (x)
...The day after our last issue closed, an e-mail came in from Clemency Burton-Hill, who wrote our cover story on Gustavo Dudamel in 2013. She had embarked on a piece about Eddie Redmayne. “I realise most actors are far from your Platonic ideal, being PR’d to within an inch of their lives,” she wrote, “but Eddie is a different kettle of fish—clever & thoughtful, and he has had this extraordinary year playing Stephen Hawking for ‘The Theory of Everything’, for which I’ve been quietly observing him at close quarters...” Quietly observing: that sounded like us.
Clemency’s piece is not a profile of Redmayne, although you get to know him reasonably well by the end of it: it’s the story of a project....

ACCESS HOLLYWOOD VIDEO INTERVIEWS:
Eddie Redmayne On Channeling Stephen Hawking In 'The Theory Of Everything'

How did he prepare for the role? Plus, what was it like meeting Stephen? What were the biggest challenges?

Eddie Redmayne On Learning To Communicate Like Stephen Hawking

How challenging was it to learn and utilize the different methods of communications available to Stephen?

THE LIFE OF THE MIND: MAKING THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

The Credit | October 16, 2014 | By Bryan Abrams - full article

...Casting is always crucial, but in this case the film not only falls apart if the wrong person is cast as Hawking, but is potentially insulting. Hawking the human being is much more than his famous brain, his illness, his computerized voice and even his well documented sense of humor. The Stephen Hawking portrayed in Jane’s book is a conflicted, complicated, and for a time desperate and depressed individual. This is to say nothing of having to portray someone who gradually lost the use of their body, from a vibrant and healthy 21-year old to a middle aged man with the use of only a few muscles, someone who had to refashion an entirely new way of communicating with the outside world.
Enter Eddie Redmayne, best known in America as Marius in Les Misérables. He pored over every detail of description of Hawking in the book and in his research... 

read more about Eddie's preparations and the filming here

Examiner: Interview: Eddie Redmayne “The Theory of Everything” Family, Freckles, Hawking
Eddie Redmayne Interview in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel San Francisco by Tina Case for 'The Theory of Everything'. "Yeah, he's as genuine, witty and handsome in person as you see on the big screen! I was trying to interview him while taking candid photos." (x)

Eddie Redmayne quote: "I would love one day to direct. I feel like writing is a big part of an actor’s, not job, but really working with writers is quite an important thing just having that dialogue as you begin to know a character backwards, working out what’s sound, what’s true."

The questions of the interview:

- Looking back on your career so far, what were the pivotal moments for you as an actor?
- Are you interested in getting into directing or writing?
- How do you get into character? You completely submerse yourself into each character.
- Every nuance of your face, which was how isolated Redmayne’s performance of Hawking became, was amazing.

- How has your family reacted to your journey as an actor?
- What are you reading right now?
- What television shows do you watch?
- What’s your favorite movie?
- Do you like watching yourself in movies?
- Are you social media? Are you tech savvy?
- Dog or Cat?
- You’ve portrayed a lot of real life people. Years from now, if someone were to portray you, who would you want that to be? (Based on actors of today)

You find Eddie's answers in the full interview here.

Clémence Poésy quote from the interview:
“Eddie is wonderful. He is one of the few actors who could play a character like Stephen in Birdsong, from a young man falling in love at 20 to a haunted man of 35 who has been through a war. When we filmed the scene where my character Isabelle and Stephen meet up years later, it was extraordinary. Eddie walked into the room and it was as if the war had come in with him, his eyes had the haunted
look of someone who had been through something dreadful. It is an amazing performance because
he does so much without word.”

Eddie did a few more advance screening with Q&A in Chicago

bespokeredmayne: Eddie Redmayne continues promoting The Theory of Everything in Chicago on Oct. 14, 2014.. Top credit: Instagram capnsam, bottom Instagram erikaolson:
“Thanks to completely crappy Chicago weather, 3 other critics and I got to hang (and drink!) by ourselves with #Eddie Redmayne for an hour tonight in advance of a #Theory of Everything screening. He is hilarious, down to earth, humble and awesome.” (X) (X) (X) (X)

Sarah Knight Adamson ‏ 9:22 PM - 16 Oct 2014: Interview withEddie Redmayne Chicago "The Theory of Everything." He plays Stephen Hawking. Stay tuned @FocusFeatures 

ahomegirlslife: #MCM goes to Eddie Redmayne because I got to meet him tonight.

Ise White @IseWhite · Oct 16: Fitting today with Eddie Redmayne for our new cover story, shot by #robertmaxwell http://instagram.com/p/uM6jviP2C6/

Landmark Theatres: The Theory of Everything by director James Marsh

...The most significant choice I made in the film, like in every other, was in the casting of actors, though the stakes felt much higher this time around. Stephen is an iconic presence in our culture, and most of us have a pretty good idea of what he looks like—and the obvious fact that he doesn't really look like most of us. If the performance struck one bum note anywhere in the film, the film itself wouldn't survive it. So I met Eddie Redmayne, whom I knew had an abundance of talent but had never carried a film of this weight before. During the meeting, he drank a lot more beer than I was expecting—and I saw not only a burning passion to play Stephen but also the right amount of trepidation, which would account for the beer.
It took months and months of preparation, but Eddie became Stephen Hawking across 25 years of inexorable physical decline. On any given day as we filmed, he might be an able-bodied young student, a newly married man struggling with two walking sticks, or a middle-aged man slumped mutely in a wheel chair, barely able to move a finger. The best compliment I can pay him is via Stephen Hawking himself who declared that at some points in the film he thought he was watching himself. He was so taken with Eddie's performance that he offered us the use of his signature electronic voice—so the voice you hear in the movie is his... via (x)

Not new pics, but who cares! Lots of eye candy:

45 Eddie Redmaynes You Need To See Right Now via (x)

gifs and photos selected by juliegerstein

GOOGLE Zeitgeist Minds - in support of refugees

 clemencybh (x): So special to introduce these two amazing humans at #Zeitgeist - thank you 

@hassanakkad and #EddieRedmayne for reading so so beautifully @letterslive @helprefugeesuk… 

hassanakkad (x): Such a pleasure to be on stage with @clemencybh and #eddieredmayne at Google
zeitgeistminds today representing @helprefugeesuk .. many thanks to @letterslive for their support to.

Hassan Akkad is a syrian refugee, a filmmaker, who's known for his work on the
BAFTA TV Award winner documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe

helprefugeesuk (x): Help Refugees at @google Zeitgeist Minds. Together with our ambassador 

@hassanakkad, Eddie Redmayne and @clemencybh we were so proud to be at the annual Google 

Zeitgeist conference shining a light on the refugee crisis, telling stories with @letterslive

Choose Love For Help Refugees
You can help! Click here to order a T-shirt, like Hassan Akkad Syrian refugee, Eddie's
longtime University friend Clemency Burton-Hill and Eddie wears on the photo below

clemencybh (x): These two! #chooselove #helprefugees #hassanakkad #eddieredmayne #zeitgeist

Eddie read a poignant letter to Anne Frank...(source: @MsIbegbuna)

Links:

ES: Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad on his new life in Brixton after Exodus to Europe

Clemency Burton-Hill - a friend from the University

Another Year of Wonder - a voice project on Clemmie’s behalf

Clemency Burton-Hill’s audiobook of Another Year of Wonder (Headline Home)

will be narrated by Eddie Redmayne, with an introduction from Elizabeth Day.

The book suggests an “extraordinary” piece of music for every day of the year.

“I feel honoured to have narrated Another Year of Wonder on Clemmie’s behalf,”

said Redmayne. “She writes about each piece of music with such energy and

passion that you can’t help but immediately want to stop what you’re doing

and seek it out. It’s a fascinating book which I hope many will enjoy.”

@clemencybh: Look! Somehow this exists! In the actual world!

📕🎶✨🙏♥️ (x)

“I am so delighted that Eddie has narrated Another Year of Wonder on my behalf,”

said Burton-Hill. “He has been a dear friend for many years and has been a huge

support to me over the past two years, since I suffered a catastrophic brain injury.

I can’t think of anyone better to bring my words to life in the audiobook, and I am

also hugely grateful to the wonderful Elizabeth Day for narrating her beautiful

foreword and my introduction to the book.”

Source: The Bookseller article by Isobel Warner (via)

Eddie Redmayne voices Burton-Hill’s Another Year of Wonder

The audiobook will be released on Audible on 30th December 2021.

We can enjoy listening to the book with Eddie's narration

for more than 9 hours. (x)

You can check my Clemency Burton-Hill-related posts here.

I found some more old photos of Eddie and Clemmie here

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Update 30th December: The audiobook is available now to purchase

on Audible (one-month free trial if you're not a member yet)

Apple Books - Hachette

You can listen to a sample on Soundcloud here

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)

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