In order to play the many sides of famed British scientist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” actor Eddie Redmayne kept a trio of images tacked up on the wall of his trailer for inspiration.
One, for genius, was a photo of Albert Einstein. Next was James Dean, because, he says, Hawking is “such a ladies man.” And third, a joker from a deck of cards. Why? So he never forgot Hawking’s wry sense of humor. “If you’re in a room with him, he’s definitely running the room,” Redmayne told the Associated Press.
The inspiration worked. Calling it “the closest I will come to time travel,” Hawking recently praised the actor’s performance in “Theory of Everything".
I. The Research
"Theory" focuses on Hawking’s three-decade relationship with Wilde, from their awkward courtship at Cambridge University through marriage, children, and the difficulties they faced in his lifelong battle with neurological disorder ALS, which left him increasingly incapacitated.
Anthony McCarten’s screenplay is based on Wilde’s 2007 autobiography, “Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen.” While technically from Jane’s point of view, the story looks at both sides of their relationship.
Redmayne says he went to extraordinary lengths to capture Hawking’s physical presence, from his voice and mannerisms. Director James Marsh allowed him to take as long as he needed.
"Normally, you have maximum a day or three of rehearsals," says Redmayne.
Instead, he spent four months researching Hawking, reading everything he could find, looking at old photos and TV footage, and discussing physics with experts and former students of Hawking. He watched Errol Morris’s film “A Brief History of Time” over and over again. He visited with more than two dozen ALS sufferers.
"I knew I needed the scaffolding and the framework of all the intricacies of what that horrific disease was," Redmayne told DesertSun.com. “So I … was lucky enough to meet people who were suffering from this disease and be introduced into some of their homes with their families to see the emotional ramifications, but also the great passion with which people are continuing to live despite those obstacles.”
II. The Transformation
The physical challenges on the role were enormous. Before making “Theory,” Redmayne had gained 22 pounds of muscle for the Wachowskis’ sci-fi action film “Jupiter Ascending.” To play the rail-thin Hawking, he had to lose that weight. Luckily, part of the transition was handled using filmmaking magic: Redmayneworked with propmakers to “make the chairs bigger, so proportionally I’d look smaller in them.”
Since “Theory,” like most films, was shot out of chronological order, Redmayne had to keep a careful track of the stages of Hawking’s deterioration, showing how far the disease had progressed. A scene they shot in the morning might take place before Hawking was sick, while in the afternoon, they worked on scenes from years later, when Hawking was in a wheelchair.
“Eddie created this massive chart, which he had to internalize, that itemized Stephen’s stages of illness,” director James Marsh told Vogue. “So we were putting enormous burdens on him — we stuck him in a wheelchair, got that to work, and next thing he was up and running about. That’s a pretty hard task for an actor. It was physically difficult to be doing what he was doing. He was quite stoical.”
Redmayne worked with an ALS specialist to gauge the illness’s progression. On the chart were old photos of Hawking, or of what muscles or joints would look like at a certain stage of the disease.
Redmayne uploaded many of these images onto an iPad, then compared the facial expression to himself in the mirror. To assist with movements, he worked with a choreographer.
"I wanted all the physical elements of the ALS to be second nature in me," Redmayne told DesertSun.com.
The physical strain took a toll: Director Marsh got Redmayne an osteopath to give him facial treatments to relieve the stress on his facial muscles. “There’d be occasional days when a muscle would tweak and then I actually got acupuncture.”
III. The Man Himself
But when it came to the more emotional and spiritual sides of his performance, Redmayne says the most useful research he did was spending five days in person with Hawking.
"What emanates from him when you meet him is this kind of wit and humor," Redmayne told AP. "Even though he can move so few muscles, he has one of the most charismatic, expressive faces you’ve ever seen, which is a weird irony."
More than that, Redmayne tried to infuse the Hawking’s buoyant spirit into his performance.
"One of the overall things I took away was finding [Hawking] does not live a disease," Redmayne said. "He lives forward and has done so since he was 21 years old. There’s an unerring optimism to him. That meant every single scene, even when obstacles are being through, find the funny, find the glint."
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