Edward John David "Eddie" Redmayne, OBE (born 6 January 1982 in Westminster, London) is an English actor and former model.
He started his career playing a small part in the musical Oliver!. He made his film debut in 2006 with Like Minds and The Good Shepherd, and subsequently appeared in minor film roles. His role as Colin Clark in My Week with Marilyn and his turn as Marius in Les Misérables (2012) gave him some renown, and he followed these up by starring as Stephen Hawking in the biopic The Theory of Everything, which gained him much acclaim (including the Oscar for Best Actor).
Since then he's gained fandom cred by joining the Harry Potter franchise as Newt Scamander, the protagonist of the Fantastic Beasts film series.
Filmography:
- Animal Ark (1998) as John Hardy (one episode)
- Doctors (2003) as Rob Huntley (one episode)
- Like Minds (2006) as Alex Forbes
- The Good Shepherd (2006) as Edward Wilson Jr.
- Savage Grace (2007) as Antony Baekeland
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) as Thomas Babington
- The Yellow Handkerchief (2008) as Gordy
- The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) as William Stafford
- Powder Blue (2008) as Qwerty Doolittle
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008) as Angel Clare (BBC miniseries)
- Glorious 39 (2009) as Ralph Keyes
- Black Death (2010) as Osmund
- The Pillars of the Earth (2010) as Jack
- Hick (2011) as Eddie
- My Week with Marilyn (2011) as Colin Clark (breakout role)
- Birdsong (2012) as Stephen Wraysford
- Les Misérables (2012) as Marius Pontmercy
- The Theory of Everything (2014) as Stephen Hawking (Oscar-winning role)
- Jupiter Ascending (2015) as Balem Abrasax (Razzie-winning role)
- The Danish Girl (2015) as Einar Wegener / Lili Elbe (Oscar-nominated role)
- Fantastic Beasts as Newton "Newt" Scamander
- Early Man (2017) as Dug (voice)
- The Aeronauts (2019) as James Glaisher
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) as Tom Hayden
- The Good Nurse (2022) as Charles Cullen
Tropes associated with this actor:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He really wanted to star in a fantasy film, and he lobbied hard to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, even working on imitating Ian Holm's voice for it. He finally got his wish with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
- Creator Backlash: Admitted in 2021 that he felt it was a mistake to play a transgender woman in The Danish Girl and felt a real-life trans woman should have played the part instead.
- Fake American: Redmayne, a British man, played an American (of the Southern variety) in The Yellow Handkerchief, Hick and The Good Shepherd.
- The Fashionista: He used to be a Burberry model, and is a very snappy dresser.
- Older Than He Looks: He's in his forties but looks at least ten years younger.
- Old Shame: He frequently pokes fun at his past as a model. He also enjoys telling stories about his amusingly terrible auditions for Tom Riddle and Kylo Ren. And he's definitely One of Us in pointing out how his turn as Balem Abrasax is not a career highlight.
- Period Piece: Most of his roles are, but they’re diverse in era.
- Playing Against Type: As an Evil Is Hammy space emperor in Jupiter Ascending.
- Socially Awkward Hero: His characters are generally on the side of good but lack in social skills.
- Star-Making Role: My Week with Marilyn and Les Misérables put him on the map, but his Oscar-winning role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything established him as a leading man and launched him to stardom.
- Typecasting:
- Usually pigeonholed into some form of period piece, though his characters do have a bit of range.
- Usually plays socially awkward characters.
- Often plays disabled or mentally ill characters- Newt Scamander is autistic, as is Gordy. He's also played Stephen Hawking. His character in "Jupiter Ascending" is violently unhinged but never explicitly diagnosed, and in "Savage Grace" his character is schizophrenic.
- Vocal Dissonance: He has a surprisingly deep, smooth voice that contrasts with his boyish appearance.
- What Could Have Been:
- He and Glenn Howerton were the runner-ups for the part of Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy before the casting of Chris Pratt.
- He screen-tested for the roles of Erik Lehnsherr, Victor Von Doom and Harry Osborn in X-Men: First Class, Fantastic Four, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 respectively.
- He auditioned for Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens before Adam Driver was cast. However, he believed he blew his audition by doing a bunch of weird voices akin to his role in Jupiter Ascending when he learned the role was a villain.
- He auditioned for the role of young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before being cast as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
