Eddie Redmayne’s kids aren’t that impressed with his acting career. So he was caught off guard when his six-year-old daughter asked him if he was a wizard. Although she had never seen any of the “Fantastic Beasts” movies, in which Redmayne plays Ministry of Magic employee Newt Scamander, she had just picked up a trailer.
Redmayne tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast he wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “It’s one of those times in life where, in part, you want to be the cool dad and be like, ‘Yeah, I’m a wizard!’ and the other part of you doesn’t want to lie to your kids and put them in the wrong direction,” Redmayne recalled.
The Oscar-winning actor then attempted to show off his wizarding skills. “I pulled out a coin and did a bit of a sloppy magic trick to make the coin disappear and she was like, ‘Okay, that’s good. But in that trailer that I saw , you managed to make a building disappear. So I think she saw through my lack of magical prowess.
In this edition of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit podcast, Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) talks about his new role in “The Good Nurse,” which landed him in the conversation Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He also talks about his time in “Fantastic Beasts” and what’s to come. Listen below!
Redmayne is best known for playing lovable and endearing characters – in addition to Scamander, which includes his Oscar-winning turn as Stephen Hawking in ‘The Theory of Everything’, bright-eyed Marius in ‘Les Miserables’ and transgender painter Lile Elbe. in “The Danish Girl”.
But Redmayne is emerging from a series of roles in which he was cast against type. Earlier this year, he played the mysterious emcee in a revival of “Cabaret” opposite Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles (winning both star Olivier Awards). It was a passion project for Redmayne, who first played the role as a teenager and calls it a “dream role”.
And this week sees the release of “The Good Nurse” (now in theaters and streaming on Netflix from October 26) in which he portrays Charles Cullen, a serial killer who confessed to murdering 40 patients in his care (although which experts predict could be as high as 400). Directed by Tobias Lindholm with a screenplay by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, “The Good Nurse” also stars Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren, a close friend of Cullen’s who ultimately helped bring him to justice.
Dan Doperalski for Variety
Redmayne is smart casting, as Cullen spends much of the film being a loyal friend and confidant to Amy. But the actor also shows us eerie glimpses of the monster below.
He says he wasn’t necessarily drawn to the role because it was against type. “The most interesting work for me is when the directors see something in you, and Tobias Lindholm saw something in me,” says Redmayne, adding that many of his characters have one thing in common. “I played empathy like a lot of them did and talking to the real Amy Loughren, the Charlie Cullen she met in those rooms was an empathetic man: sweet, kind, funny, self-deprecating. So one of the intriguing qualities that I found in the role of Charlie was actually playing this empathetic man who then harnessed his empathy to do some absolutely horrible things.
Redmayne discusses exploring Cullen’s role, how he fears he traumatized his children when they realized he wasn’t the right nurse in the movie, and early auditions — including one for “The Hobbit” where he put a character voice he now regrets. He adds, “I did a similar thing while auditioning for ‘Star Wars’ once in which I tried to do my kind of sci-fi villain voice, which in the past got me a Razzie. . So I think the vocals and I don’t work so well.
Also in this episode of the Awards Circuit Podcast, director Rian Johnson discusses his new film “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” in addition to discussing the status of his planned “Star Wars” trilogy and the number of “Knives Out” films he will continue to do.
Finally, the Awards Circuit Panel is back to talk about the week’s latest releases, including “The Banshees of Inisherin,” the festival’s next stop at the Savannah Film Festival, and campaign news for the “She Said” films. ” from Universal Pictures and ” Women Talking ” from MGM/UAR.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, who also co-hosts with Clayton Davis, is your one-stop-shop for lively conversations about the best in film and TV. Each week, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; And much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you download podcasts. New episodes released every week.