BIOGRAPHY:
Eddie Redmayne is a native Briton who has established himself in the acting profession and modeling business. The artist’s creative biography is filled with awards and prizes. The performer gained wide fame thanks to his participation in successful blockbusters. At the same time, Edward is well known to theater lovers in his homeland.
Childhood and youth:
Edward John David Redmayne was born into a wealthy London family on January 6, 1982. My father is a financier, and my mother ran a freight transportation business. Eddie is the middle son of Patricia and Mark Redmayne’s three children. In addition, his half-brother and sister grew up with the actor.
The artist’s relatives are noble and respected people. Thus, his great-grandfather Richard Redmayne became famous during his lifetime as a talented engineer and professor at the University of Birmingham. In addition, Edward’s uncle was listed as the personal librarian of the Queen of England.
The love for the stage began in Redmayne’s heart as a child. At the age of eight, his parents took their son to a production of William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which greatly inspired Eddie. The inspiration was realized at the Jackie Palmer Theater School, where the future actor expressed a desire to attend. Later, Edward had the opportunity to learn his skills from TV presenter James Corden.
Until the age of 14, Redmayne studied at a private boarding school for boys, Colet Court. Then the head of the family sent his sons to Eton to receive a decent education. Eddie was lucky enough to study with Prince William. In an interview, the artist recalled that, as a headman, he felt sympathy for the royal person, since many were eager to compete with the heir to the throne. By the way, Edward’s younger brother was Prince Harry’s classmate.
Eddie’s brothers later became interested in finance. At the same time, the eldest, James, gained fame in his homeland as an excellent cricketer. His abilities showed up at Eton. Edward, in turn, excelled in music, sang in the choir, for which he even received a scholarship. At the same time, performing arts teachers noticed the androgynous appearance of the ward. During his years of study, Redmayne had his first experience of dressing up as a woman.
After Eton, the future actor continued his studies at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he chose to specialize in art history. The subject provided for an in-depth study of the culture of France and England from the 19th to the 20th centuries. Redmayne graduated with honors and joined the ranks of the best graduates of the course.
Theater:
The theatrical debut took place in 2002. A casting director from Eton College asked his Cambridge colleague to find a talented student to play the role of Viola in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night . The teacher advised me to try Redmayne for this image.
Edward passed the audition, after which he incarnated a lady dressed as a eunuch. The management of Cambridge College released Redmayne from attending lectures for six months, but obliged him to keep up and catch up on knowledge in his free time, which, as mentioned earlier, Eddie did an excellent job with.
Eddie Redmayne’s theatrical career outside of college was not immediately successful. As the performer later said in an interview, his father introduced his son to the rationality of a financier with the statistics of actors who have realized themselves in practice. The lucky ones were in the minority.
Redmayne, too, could not find a use for his talent in the first months and even managed to work as a waiter and bartender. But soon luck smiled on the young man. In 2004, Eddie was invited to play the role of teenage homosexual Billy Gray in the production of “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” For this work, the actor received an award at the Critics’ Circle Theater Awards.
In 2009, Redmayne brilliantly played a supporting role in the play “Red,” for which he received the Laurence Olivier Award . The performance was later repeated on the Broadway stage. American critics praised Eddie’s abilities and awarded the artist a Tony, the theatrical equivalent of an Oscar.
Model business:
In his youth, Redmayne worked part-time as a model, which brought in good pocket money. Since 2008, the artist has represented Burberry. Together with Alex Pettyfer he participated in an advertising campaign for the brand. The next striking photo shoot for the luxury brand took place in 2012, when Eddie was filmed hugging Cara Delevingne .
In 2016, Prada chose Redmayne as its new face. In the fall-winter season 2016–2017, the fashion house decided to turn to the history of men’s suits. Eddie, who has repeatedly embodied characters from bygone eras, successfully coped with the task. The company decided to demonstrate the evolution of not only the outfit, but also advertising. Therefore, the latest photos of the actor immediately appeared on Prada’s Instagram account.
Movies:
At the same time, with the participation of Eddie, a fantastic adventure film produced by Ridley Scott, “The Pillars of the Earth,” was released. The film also included a number of historical events in the narrative, which did not justify itself. As in previous cases, fiction outweighed the truth.
An interesting job for Redmayne was the main role in the film “ 7 Days and Nights with Marilyn ,” where the actor played an aspiring assistant director who manages to find an approach to a Hollywood star and help him cope with depression. The project received prestigious nominations and awards, including the Golden Globe.
In 2012, the premiere of the film adaptation of the musical “Les Miserables” based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo took place . In the classic story of an escaped convict, Redmayne played the role of Baron Marius. The main images were presented by celebrities Hugh Jackman , Russell Crowe , Anne Hathaway , Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen . The artists performed vocal parts independently. This is how the directors preserved the integrity of the atmosphere and the acting. This move received critical acclaim.
In 2008, Eddie was lucky enough to get into the cast of the costume film “The Other Boleyn Girl,” where the key characters on the screen were embodied by Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson . By the way, this circumstance upset British critics, outraged by the fact that American women were filmed in the foreground.
In 2014, Eddie’s fateful film “The Universe of Stephen Hawking” was released, where the Briton played the famous physicist. The film brought fame to director James Marsh and the cast as a whole. Redmayne’s work gave him the coveted Oscar, which followed the Golden Globe Award. In addition, the star was awarded a BAFTA award.
Following his Oscar-winning role, the artist received an offer to star in the film “The Danish Girl.” This is the story of a man who was the first to decide to undergo a sex change through surgery. The main character is the husband of an artist ( Alicia Vikander ), who asked her husband to pose as a woman. Over time, the chosen one realized that when he dressed up as a lady, he became happier and freer.
The stately (height 181 cm) actor reliably played a feminine man. In order to get into character, Eddie not only lost 7 kg, but also spent two months in the transgender community. For Redmayne, it was a revelation that gender and sexual orientation are not related to each other. The artist saw with his own eyes the lives of people suffering from gender dysphoria. Edward later regretted the role, believing that a performer who had experienced gender reassignment would have done a better job.
Redmayne next appeared in the 2010 dark German thriller The Black Death , set in the European Middle Ages. At the center of the story is the triumph of the plague and the Inquisition. The project received muted reviews. The reason was also film mistakes, including rubber soles on the heroes’ shoes.
In 2015, the artist appeared in the Wachowski sisters’ fantasy blockbuster Jupiter Ascending . The film was shot a year before the premiere, but due to work with special effects and the desire to conduct a memorable advertising campaign, the first showing of the film was postponed. However, the efforts were not justified. The film collected five Golden Raspberry nominations and one victory, which went to Eddie personally as worst supporting actor.
In 2019, the adventure thriller “ The Aeronauts ” was released, based on events in the history of aeronautics in the mid-19th century. Redmayne, along with Felicity Jones, played a pair of explorers who managed to visit the upper atmosphere for the first time in a hot air balloon. According to the producer, the celebrities performed their own stunts.
In The Trial of the Chicago 7, Eddie portrayed Students for a Democratic Society leader Tom Hayden. The premiere was expected in cinemas, but the COVID-19 pandemic made adjustments, and the producers sold the film to the Netflix platform for $56 million.
“Fantastic Beasts”
In 2016, the film “ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ” was released, in which Eddie appeared in one of the main roles. It is a mistake to believe that the project is based on the novel of the same name by JK Rowling , author of the Harry Potter series of books . Essentially, the work is a guide to the fictional world. And the film is a prequel-spin-off of the epic film about the “boy who lived.”
At the center of the film series is a young magician, a specialist in magical animals, Newt Scamander (in other translations – Salamander), played by Redmayne. Separately, the film raises the topic of social inequality through the plot of the persecution of wizards.
Then Eddie starred in the continuation of the film. The second Fantastic Beasts takes place a year after the events of the first film. Newt and other good characters begin to confront the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald ( Johnny Depp ), whose identity was revealed at the end of the first film in the franchise. The team of main characters will be joined by young Albus Dumbledore , played by Jude Law .
JK Rowling, the author of the franchise scripts, stated on her Twitter page that there would be five films in total. True, in 2020, Redmayne, like Emma Watson, was among those who demanded that the writer be removed from work after Rowling made questionable comments about transgender people. However, things did not go further than outrage.
Personal life:
Eddie is happy in his personal life. The star has a beloved wife, Hannah Bagshawe, a public relations manager. The actor met his future wife in 2012. The engagement of Redmayne and Bagshaw became known in June 2014. On December 15, the wedding ceremony took place in Somerset County, and the couple celebrated the ceremony surrounded by loved ones at the Babington House Hotel, where the bride arrived by boat.
Redmayne and Bagshaw walked towards the guests along a path lined with candles. As the artist later admitted, Hannah placed the process of preparing for the wedding on her fragile shoulders and the groom did not have to experience nervous tension, because his beloved did a great job.
Now the actor and his wife are raising two children. In June 2016, daughter Iris Mary was born. And two years later, there was a new addition to the family: Hannah gave birth to a son, Luke Richard.
Redmayne’s close friend for many years is Jamie Dornan , the leading actor in the film Fifty Shades of Grey . Together, the artists rented housing while working in Los Angeles. In addition, Eddie is close friends with another British colleague, Benedict Cumberbatch .
Eddie Redmayne now:
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Despite his success in cinema, Redmayne continues to appear on stage. In November 2021, the actor took part in the revival of the musical Cabaret. The premiere took place at the Playhouse Theater in London.
The premiere of the film “ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ” was announced for the spring of 2022 , where Eddie appeared in the usual image of a pet magician. The producers promised fans that the plot of the third part of the franchise would be connected with the period of World War II.
The film attracted a lot of attention due to the scandal surrounding Johnny Depp’s departure from the project. The celebrity left the cast due to a scandalous divorce from Amber Heard . The role of Grindelwald went to Mads Mikkelsen. Although the Dane looked good as the villain in the teaser, Depp’s fans promised in advance to boycott the film.
Filmography:
- 1998 — “Animal Ark”
- 2005 — “Reading Minds”
- 2005 — “Elizabeth I”
- 2006 — “False Temptation”
- 2007 — “Wild Grace”
- 2007 — “Golden Age”
- 2008 — “Another Boleyn Girl”
- 2008 — “Yellow handkerchief of happiness”
- 2008 — “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”
- 2009 – “1939”
- 2010 — “Black Death”
- 2010 — “Pillars of the Earth”
- 2011 — “Provincial”
- 2011 — “7 days and nights with Marilyn”
- 2012 — “Bird Song”
- 2012 — “Les Miserables”
- 2014 — “Stephen Hawking’s Universe”
- 2015 — “Jupiter Ascending”
- 2015 — “The Girl from Denmark”
- 2016 — “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
- 2018 — “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”
- 2019 — “Aeronauts”
- 2020 — “The Trial of the Chicago Seven”
- 2020 – “James and the Giant Peach with Taika and Friends”
- 2022 — “ Fantastic Beasts: The Dumbledore Mysteries ”
Interesting Facts:
- In the summer of 2021, the Redmaynes experienced an unpleasant event: the family mansion on the Cote d’Azur, worth £2 million, burned down. The house has been in the family for almost 35 years.
- Redmayne is colorblind. The actor’s wife helps him with his wardrobe for social events. Moreover, Eddie regularly finds himself on lists of the most stylish men. In addition, the illness did not prevent the student from successfully preparing his thesis on Yves Klein and his blue color.
- Since 2015, Edward has been a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Redmayne was awarded the officer rank for his contribution to the development of theatrical art.
- At karaoke, the actor’s favorite song is Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.