Eddie Redmayne: “Acting is like trying to catch a butterfly”

Text by FABIA DI DRUSCO
Photography CHARLIE GRAY
Styling DAVID BRADSHAW

A Cambridge graduate in art history, Eddie Redmayne, who won an Academy Award for his role as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, has played many diverse roles in a career spanning nearly twenty years. From Marilyn Monroe's bodyguard in “My Week with Marilyn” and Marius in “Les Miserables” to transgender artist Lili Elbe alongside the stunning Alicia Vikander in “The Girl from Denmark” and Newt Salamander in the “Fantastic Beasts” saga, as well as a killer nurse in “The Good Nurse” with Jessica Chastain. We recently saw him in the TV series “The Day of the Jackal,” for which he received a nomination for the upcoming Golden Globes.

LOHI: After the Oscar for “The Theory of Everything,” you were nominated for an Oscar for your next film, “The Girl from Denmark,” where you played artist Lili Elbe, the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery. I read in an interview that you wouldn't accept the role today.

ER: I wouldn't accept the role today because while in an ideal world actors should be able to play anything, in reality there are whole communities and people who have never had the opportunity to sit down at a gaming table and play their part. So until there's a fairer playing field, I think it's important to be careful about the roles you take on.

LOHI: Which directors you've worked with do you have a special relationship with?

ER: Tom Hooper directed me three times: in the Elizabeth I TV series starring Helen Mirren, which was one of my first jobs, then in Les Miserables and The Girl from Denmark. Working with the same person, with mutual trust, makes everything go faster. But one of the directors who has inspired me the most is the Danish Tobias Lindholm, who directed me in The Good Nurse. He's a writer and director with such a specific vision of the world, which I really enjoyed.

LOHI: What directors have you never worked with but would like to?

ER: Many. Charlie Kaufman (“Eternal Sunshine of the Pure Mind”), Paul Thomas Anderson, Luca Guadagnino, Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine,” “The Place Under the Pines”). The list goes on...

LOHI: Let's go back in time. When did you start dreaming of becoming an actor?

ER: I have loved music since I was a very young child. I didn't come from a family of artists, but I loved music and songs. My parents often took me to the theater, and I remember one day after seeing a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I went on a sort of backstage tour of the National Theatre in London and was completely captivated. Then, when I was about 10 years old, I was cast in a production of the musical Oliver and found myself skipping math class at school to take the subway to the London Palladium, one of our most famous theaters, where I was paid to do something I was passionate about. It never occurred to me at that age that this could be a real career opportunity, and even today I continue to be amazed that it actually happened.

Because it's a live performance, everything is in motion, and inconsistent, and you're always reacting to the specifics of that moment, and the connection that is created with the audience is always different. But that search for something, I would say, the search for perfection with the knowledge that you're not going to achieve it, is the reason for my addiction to theater. And also in theater you have control over your performance, whereas in film and television you play your own version, but essentially the result is the fruit of a dance with the editor and the director and many other people.

LOHI: Is there a role you'd like to play that you've been thinking about for a long time?

ER: You know, I don't have an answer to that question, I like to be challenged and I find it more interesting when others see something in me that they think I might be capable of. When I read a script, I choose instinctively, I have to feel that feeling in my stomach that makes me say, “I have to do this.”

LOHI: Have you ever turned down a role and regretted it afterward?

ER: No, not really, no. I've been very lucky in that sense. There have been things that I couldn't do because of time issues, but when they've had great success, I always think that I wouldn't necessarily have had the same success. Especially in film and television, an alchemy of words, performance, directing, editing and a certain moment in time has to form. And if you change any of those components, the result won't always be the same.

LOHI: Are there any actors you admire and who have been in some ways a model for you?

ER: Over the years, having no acting training, I always realized that I was doing something that I wasn't fully qualified for. So I've always been like a sponge absorbing how other actors work. One of the most fascinating experiences from that perspective was Aaron Sorkin's movie “The Trial of the Chicago Seven,” with a cast of all kinds, methods and styles: Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Frank Langella, Michael Keaton. And since most of the movie took place in a courtroom, it was almost like watching them in a theater. I love watching not only people's method of working, but how they act like people, how they try to manage the strange work-life balance typical of the acting profession. And I'm lucky that many English actors I started out working with and consider friends are still working. We find that we talk less about work and more about life, about living as normal and happy a life as possible, despite the weirdness and eccentricity of our profession.

LOHI: What is your relationship with fashion? I saw you at Burberry shows during the Christopher Bailey era, in a campaign with Cara Delenvigne..... And now you're being followed by Harry Lambert, Harry Styles' stylist.

ER: I love clothes. One of the things that attracted me to The Day of the Jackal is that the character is very meticulous about his style, he's a bit of a peacock. In talking to Natalie Humphries, the costume designer, it became clear how important it is that he changes every time you see him. And I suppose some of his tastes are the same as mine. I think of Saville Row tailors like Drakes, I think of beautiful sunglasses from Jacques Marie Mage (aJapanese brand). In real life, I love experimenting on red carpets. The older I get, the more I realize it's a moment of pure theater. And it's a lot of fun to play with it and to be able to meet extraordinary designers. Whether it's Sarah Burton, who I've known for years and who is a good friend of mine, or Alessandro Michele from Valentino.

LOHI: Let's talk about music.

ER: I'm bad at piano and guitar. I sang at Cambridge, in the choir, I had a scholarship. My voice was never strong enough to sing professionally, but I loved and still love it, and it's a challenge for me in Cabaret in London and New York, even though I had to prepare so much physically and vocally. I've been going to the ENT doctor regularly, taking steroids and all that, but I've managed to complete the tour without canceling too many shows.

LOHI: What is your favorite band or singer at the moment?

ER: A couple of days ago we were at a gig at Wembley for a band called Ezra Collective, who I adore. I also love Celeste, who has one of the most unique and beautiful voices I've ever heard. She wrote the song “Hear My Voice” for the movie “The Chicago Seven Trial” (where Redmayne played activist and future senator and Jane Fonda's second husband Tom Hayden) and “This Is Who I Am” for “Day of the Jackal,” which I find delightful. Her voice is bursting with life, strength and fragility, and she is truly fantastic.