5 Things to know about Eddie Redmayne

Currently in theaters The Danish Girl tells the untold story of the Danish artist, Lili Elbe, who was the first transsexual to undergo reassignment surgery in 1930. Playing the role of the woman who gradually gets the body of a man, is the delicate and brilliant actor Eddie Redmayne. Nominated for the Oscar for best actor, the 34 year-old Englishman has emerged as the new darling of the silver screen. But who are you, pretty boy?

On stage at 12 years

Eddie Redmayne’s first appearance on stage was at 12 years old in the famous musical Oliver! And even if the role was so small it was worth it to meet the director Sam Mendes (of 007 Spectre).

A former Eton

As a banker’s son born in London in 1982, the pretty Eddie frequented posh schools – Eton, as Prince William and Cambridge – before making his major Shakespearean debut, at age 20, in Twelfth Night with the role of Viola. Between theater and historical fiction, he quickly made a solid reputation as an actor.

Passionate for art and colourblind

A graduate in art history – his thesis was on Yves Klein – in 2010 he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for the play Red, in which he played the assistant of the painter Rothko. On stage, he and his partner, Alfred Molina, had to prepare pigments and create colours. However Eddie Redmayne is, in real life, suffering from colour blindness and is unable to distinguish red from green.

My Week with Marilyn

His international career took off with the film My Week with Marilyn, in 2012, where he co-starred with Michelle Williams. Then we saw him in the film adaptation of the musical Les Misérables and in The Theory of Everything, a biopic of severely disabled physicist, Stephen Hawking – the film that earned him an Oscar for Best Actor in 2015. Will he get another one this year?

Harry Potter … almost

Eddie Redmayne was almost casted for Harry Potter, as the (more or less) redhead would have loved to act as one of the Weasley twins! Never mind, the JK Rowling’s universe has her arms wide open and soon he will be Newt Scalander, the hero of the spin-off of the saga Fantastic Beasts. Magic.

Marie Sauvion