Ready Eddie Go

When Eddie Redmayne first came to global prominence, it was clear from the off that Hollywood had very much fallen for his typical boyish charm. The Westminsterborn actor and model has enjoyed a career that straddles noteworthy dramas The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl, big-budget epic Les Misérables, and the magical box-office smash franchise Fantastic Beasts. His latest project hopes to tap into an already proven combination, as Redmayne reunites with his compatriot and The Theory of Everything co-star Felicity Jones in Tom Harper’s ballooning epic The Aeronauts.

“Having become good friends and remained good friends with Felicity over the years, it made everything so much easier and more comfortable,” smiles the 37-year-old. “Especially due to the nature of this story, which involved two people sitting together in a basket for a significant portion of the filming.”

The film is based on the 1862 world-recordbreaking altitude flight by British aeronauts James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell, which saw the pair reach a height of around 11,887m by gas balloon. Jones’s Amelia Wren replaces the character of Coxwell. Shooting at high altitude offered plenty of opportunity for mid-air mishaps.

“I never had any lofty ambitions other than to be able to earn my living on the stage”

“It was wonderful and terrifying in equal measure,” Redmayne explains. “Gas ballooning is very different from hot air ballooning. Hot air ballooning allows for more control because you can keep raising yourself up and down. With a gas balloon, it’s literally a hydrogen-helium-filled balloon with a basket attached to it – and we had a certain amount of trepidation attached to the prospect of going up in one.”

And with good reason, as Redmayne recalls. “On the first day of shooting, we wound up crashing into these trees around 20m high and came careering down to the ground. The basket smacked over and Felicity’s head – I’ll never forget the sound – cracked against this champagne chest, and then there was total silence.”

Jones was thankfully OK. “We had this slightly hilarious moment at the end of filming where I was like, ‘Wasn’t that fun?’” Redmayne laughs. “And she said, ‘Actually it was really hardcore and slightly horrendous.’ I think I had more fun than she did.”

Following a positive premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the biopic could well be on course to secure yet more silverware for Redmayne’s trophy cabinet – not that the star himself is wrapped up in visions of a second Oscar win in the near future. “I never had very lofty ambitions other than to be able to earn my living on the stage. I loved doing theatre at school and I enjoyed being part of that world. I wasn’t thinking much beyond that and so I didn’t have any specific ambitions when it came to working in film. Once I began acting in movies, I took a very practical approach – one job at a time – where I simply wanted to do the best possible work with every character I played.”

He says he is usually inclined to let himself be pushed out of his comfort zone. “I’m always surprised by how other people see me and the kinds of roles I get offered, as opposed to those I’m more anxious to play. I tend to be drawn to characters that scare me or challenge me in some way, but you never know until you read the script what is really going to excite you about a character. It’s very easy for me to immerse myself in a world that does not exist. I am good at letting my imagination run wild if, for example, I’m in front of the green screen, pretending to scream at creatures in Fantastic Beasts. Sometimes while I’m acting, I feel like a child who’s been given permission to have as much fun as possible, and come very close to believing myself to be whoever I’m playing at the time.”

Some of his best parts, including roles as Stephen Hawking and Lili Elbe, he says that he never expected to get. “My only goal in this business has been to keep working regularly. That would have been more than enough for me. I never for one moment take things for granted. There’s this pressure to keep working and working because you never know when the roles might stop coming in.”

This can prove more stressful than glamorous, he adds. “For many years I did nothing but go from one job to another, but in doing so you give yourself no time to properly live. While I was shooting The Danish Girl, I was promoting The Theory of Everything, and while I was shooting Fantastic Beasts, I was flying to promote The Danish Girl. I remember one time I happened to finish shooting at five in the morning on a Saturday in London, catch a plane to Los Angeles, land at seven in the morning, do a day of interviews, screening and red carpet, and then have to fly back immediately to London for night shooting on Beasts.”

Redmayne is still getting used to living in the spotlight. “I’ve tried to learn how to be entertaining while doing talk shows but I’m not very good at that,” he sighs. “Since I don’t have the security of a character to protect me, I try to be funny at all costs, but I never manage to pull it off.”

One of five children, Redmayne was the first in his family to break into acting. He made his stage debut aged 11, appearing in a London production of Oliver! directed by Sam Mendes. As he explained to the The Telegraph, “I was workhouse boy number 40. It was such a minor part that I didn’t even meet Sam Mendes.”

Redmayne attended the prestigious Eton College and was in the same class as Prince William. It was there that he fully fell in love with acting. “It was thanks to the greatest drama teacher I could ever have wished for, Simon Dormandy. He inspired me to continue acting and I owe him so much,” Redmayne recalls. “He treated us like professionals and that kind of respect and guidance makes you want to take things very seriously. When you have someone like that giving you advice and encouraging you every step of the way, you feel that you can accomplish anything. We still stay in touch and over the years I’ve continued to seek out his advice and work with him if I think I could use some feedback when I’m preparing for a role.”

“For many years I did nothing but go from one job to another, but in doing so you give yourself no time to properly live”

At Cambridge University, Redmayne studied art history, and landed his first substantial stage role in the 2002 production of Twelfth Night while still a student. Soon after, he was cast in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, a performance that earned him accolades including Outstanding Newcomer at the 50 th Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2004.

During university, he also had a fleeting career as a model and while it wasn’t his natural calling — “It was the most hilariously unsuccessful event ever” he told The Telegraph — it did set him up for a number of fashion gigs he has since secured as a Hollywood star, most notably Burberry in 2012, for which he starred in a campaign alongside Cara Delevingne and, as of 2015, OMEGA – a brand he was introduced to by his father, and for which he is ambassador for the Seamaster Aqua Terra series.

Away from the spotlight, he lives in London with his wife, PR executive Hannah Bagshaw, whom he married in 2014 at Babington House in Somerset, following a two-year romance. The couple had a daughter, Iris May, in 2016, and a son, Luke, in 2018.

Redmayne took a break from acting for the first time in his career after his daughter was born and says becoming a parent was an “extraordinary” feeling. “The amazing thing is, everything that everyone tells you beforehand – which is all cliché – is true. You’ve heard it all before, and yet when you’re experiencing it, it feels like the first time and you find yourself telling everyone these things as if they’re completely new and original thoughts. There’s this amazing thing with children: whenever you’re having a bit of a tired moment or something, it’s like she’s always just one stop ahead of you, smiling you along. It’s great.”