Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne
Edward John David "Eddie" Redmayne, OBEis an English actor, model and singer. Born and raised in the City of Westminster, Redmayne studied history of art at the Trinity College, Cambridge, after which he briefly dabbled with a modelling career. Redmayne began his professional acting career as a youth in London theatre before making his screen debut in 1998 with guest appearances on television. His first film roles came in 2006 with Like Minds and The Good Shepherd, and he went...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth6 January 1982
CityLondon, England
It can be a miserable profession, acting, because you always want what you can't have.
If I do a film and have to get naked, that tends to dictate how often I go to the gym. Acting in 'Richard II' on stage was a huge physical workout, so I ended up more toned than I normally am.
I do get stopped a bit now and then, but I can go to the supermarket and on the Tube without being noticed. It's usually me that gets starstruck, especially by TV stars.
On so many levels, acting in film and TV is so much the sum of its parts, and somewhere in there, there's an alchemical thing that makes something happen or not - that makes something connect or not. Now, of course you want to make work that people see, but the enjoyment I get out of acting is playing characters.
They're such hierarchical things, film sets, they're sort of mini societies. Often they're incredibly political places.
I draw and play the piano badly. But when I’m doing those things, I’m concentrating so hard there’s no room for worry. I find that onstage, too.
Tequila is my salmon.
I love the variety of films. In theater, you go into a room and the director runs the room, so you all work to his or her method. On film, if an actor or an actress is in for a day or two, the director has to get out of that actor what they need, so they have to change and adapt to that actor's technique.
I'm trying to buy a house and set some sense of roots because otherwise you're constantly chasing one job after another, and you look back and you've had all these very extraordinary experiences with extraordinary people, but there's not a line of continuity to it.
Listen, acting is not surgery, it's entertainment. You're doing something to hopefully move people, to make them laugh, to transport them. But actors are vulnerable, and the reason we're vulnerable is that we're always trying to recreate human behaviour.
I walk around talking to myself in accents. Usually people look at me like I'm a complete fruit loop.
I have this horrific thing where I'm really bad with names and faces. I have an appalling memory. Someone will come up to me in the street and go, 'Eddie!', and I'll try and give myself time by going into overdrive, 'Hey, hi! Nice to see you!' and start a whole conversation because I can't distinguish between who I know and who I don't.
I had never been to a fashion show before going to the Burberry show last month. It was an extraordinary spectacle. I was incredibly green and had no idea what an undertaking it is. I also have a new respect for models because they are so close to the front row and must be so self-conscious.
Up there on the screen, we can all fly. But down here on earth, we need to be each others wings.