Happy Sad Confused - Eddie Redmayne

Episode Date: November 24, 2014

It's award season and Eddie Redmayne might be the actor who ends up with an Oscar in his hands for his tour de force performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. The delightfully charming and talented British actor joins Josh to talk about what he learned from being a part of Les Miserables, his role in the upcoming Wachowskis space opera film Jupiter Ascending, how he prepared to play Stephen Hawking, and his not so good Star Wars & The Hobbit auditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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or go to explorevolvo.com. I'm Chris Hadfield, astronaut and citizen of planet Earth. Join me on a journey into the systems that power the world. No politics, just real conversations with real people shaping the future of energy. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Happy Said Confused. I am Josh Horowitz, but you probably knew that because you are a wise podcast consumer. and you saw my name on whatever you just clicked.

Thanks for tuning in, guys, as always. This is the latest edition of my weekly podcast, wherein I talk to some pretty cool folks. And that definitely fits the bill for my guest this week. Can you feel it, guys? I know you do. It's Oscar season. It's award season. And this guy, my guest today, is, he might be the front runner.

He might be the guy that ends up with an Oscar in his hands. come next, I guess, February, he certainly is well-deserving of all the accolades that have come and that are to come for his performance in the theory of everything. My guest is Eddie Redmayne, who is a delightfully charming and talented British actor, who you might know from probably most notably Le Miserables, in which he was part of that amazing ensemble. But now is taking center stage with his, yeah, I'll say it. It's a cliche. Tour de force. performance as Stephen Hawking. This is a biopic with him and Felicity Jones, who frankly will probably also be very much in the awards hunt. But forget all the awards attention. This is

just a very good movie and an amazing performance, a heartfelt, super strong performance from Eddie, and it's exciting to see him getting all these new opportunities. He's been working for a while. He's done a lot of theater, but now he's kind of going to the next level, it seems. For context, guys, a couple things. So at the beginning of this interview, the first thing I think you're going to hear is Eddie playing with an action figure on my desk. Yeah, I'm an adult man with action figures. But this is the birdman action figure. So you're going to hear him amused and delighted by that.

Also, we talk a little bit about a movie beyond theory of everything. We talk a lot about that movie and his career, but we also talk about this really cool, crazy movie. you've probably seen the trailer for from the Wachowski's called Jupiter Ascending. It doesn't open for a few months. I got a chance to see it really early on. We talk about it a little bit at the outset and then get into a lot of other cool things about theory of everything about Eddie's. He's super frank about his audition stories, amazing stories about auditioning for Star Wars. That didn't go so well, apparently.

For The Hobbit also didn't go so well, apparently. He is, I don't know what the Brits have, but Eddie. is one of the most charming guys in the business today and a great actor to boot. So it is my delight to present this conversation. One other small technical note, the interview gets kind of cut off at the end. There's no delightful goodbye and have a great day, Eddie. It just kind of trails off after an interesting exchange. That was a technical issue, but there's more than enough fun conversation here for you to sink your teeth into.

As always, guys, go over to wolfpop.com. Check out all the cool podcasts over there. there, including past episodes of Happy Sagan Fused. Hit me up on Twitter, Joshua Horowitz. Let me know what you're loving, who you want to hear on the show, et cetera, et cetera. And I guess that's it. Without any further ado, here is the awesome actor, cool guy that is Eddie Redmayne. That's amazing.

That is abs. This place is horrible. Smells like balls. fucking brilliant. Wait, oh shit! No! Fuck,

wait, have they made these? Are these, like, proper things you can buy it, or is this a one-off? No, this is the best swag I've ever gotten. I don't know if you can actually buy that. You should be able to buy that. You should be at it. Well, you will be able to soon.

Credits of the Fox Search White people. Oh, that's their, that's fucking brilliant. Yeah, I usually don't keep that crap, except this one is too good. They love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit. I mean, I think it's a

the greatest thing to have ever. I probably, I probably, between that and the inception totem. Oh, wow. We don't even need to talk any. We can just do this. You've got some seriously, wait, that's kind of satisfying.

Yeah, where is the theory of everything, swag? Seriously, guys. I'm wearing the glasses. It's all good. It's all good. Your presence is enough. They're pretty satisfying as well.

Not the name drop, but Jessica Chastain challenged me to that to see who could do. And I just killed her. It was just, it was painful. So we can do that at the end if you want to see how you do. I'll take on Chastain. We're off and running.

That's cool. Wonderful. Is that good? It's been too long. Congratulations on this one, man. Thank you, mate. This is a good one. I should say, first of all, actually, and I probably can't say too much because Warner Brothers

would kill me. I saw Jupiter as well. Oh, did you really? I saw Jupiter ascending. And the last week I've seen both that and theory of everything. So I've seen the two sides of any red man. Wow, they're two contrasting sides. And by the way, I mean, we won't talk a lot about that.

there's there's a lot to come on that but I love what that interpretation of that character in Jupiter it's um thank you I mean how to describe the voice what was that on the page in terms of like what you were you're kind of like throwing away every line yeah like the well there's no what was on the page I mean on the page Andy and Lana had written so much sort of ambiguity as to this sort of family they're basically these two people that know they're tycoons out in space this family, this sort of legacy of slightly wealthy, very vain people out in space and

they, and so there were bits sort of about their backstory was kind of referred to, like, that at some point Channing's character sort of ripped someone's throat out. So that sort of given me some ideas but I said I don't know if I was doing a ripped throat out acting. He seems like almost a vampiric. He's like

Well there was something, I don't know, there was something, what's amazing about working with the Wachowski's is, you know, for example, on the Hawking film, you do all research you can and you know you see all the photographs and you're quite meticulous with it and take that to things like costume

fittings and try to find all the exact references and on this you turn up and to the first costume fitting I just remember sort of sequins being attached to me and I was like I don't you know to begin with you have no idea how to even

enter that conversation because it's so in Lana and Andy's head and then gradually are like I'm not sure that The cut of my sequence is quite, but it was, it was, what ended up happening is it just became so liberating in some ways. So it was, if you're going to go into that realm, you want, like, you know, to use the little cliche, a visionary filmmaker and those two, I mean, I know Cloud Atlas divided people, but I'm enthralled by that film and they obviously, they just go for it. And that's what you want in a filmmaker, someone that's not going to play it safe, someone that's just going to push boundaries. And also this sense that I think that in so much nowadays, there is a huge sort of ensemble or committee of people who are directing the film.

I've just seen your poster for Willow. And Willow I saw when I was about eight years old. And I went with a friend of my mom and dads. And I had to go to the Lou 15 times because I was so scared. Literally. And I had to, whenever they started stealing the food. The Queen Babmorta is quite. Yeah.

And I kept going to. And my parents' friend who I was with was like, are you all right? I'm just going to the loo again. No, I really need the loo. I basically just sat in the loo. We need to take Eddie to the doctor after this. Seriously, but I've never been able to watch it again.

Oh man, I think you can handle it now. Do you reckon? Yeah. No, babies being stolen by like scary queens. It's just. But a dashing Val Kilmer. It's got it all. I recommend it.

Where was I? We were talking about those crazy. Yes, yes, the spectacle. I know. They also basically, nowadays, there does. seem to be this, because films are so expensive and you, so many people have a voice in the final thing. And what was amazing to do was a film on a sort of, you know, this giant canvas like Jupiter, but really because it's so in the minds of Andy and Lana that

you just have to go with them. And that was kind of liberate. So I think, I think probably the last time I was talking to a bunch was obviously on the Les Mis kind of publicity circuit. And I feel like I remember actually that film kind of emerged around that. I was sort of testing for it or something, and you were desperately trying to get information on it. I was trying to be good memory. Exactly. Exactly. It tends to be the way. Exactly. It's the dynamic. So was that, I mean, did Laymiss feel like offer you a whole new kind of level of opportunity? Did it feel like

because of that company of actors, because of obviously how it claimed it was, you kind of move up a wrong in terms of material, or was it? It's so weird to try and sort of analyze what you're on. I mean, all you, no, is the true answer. I mean, you're aware that I think if films do well and make a bit of, you know, have a bit of a splash at the box office, then, then you tend to get a little bit more choice. But for me, always, if you, I've always tried to sort of, to sort of not get box too much.

And if you want to break out of those, those boundaries or what people see you as, you're always having to fight for work. So it's not like you do one film and then you suddenly, stop getting offered. Often you'll start getting offered maybe a musical or two or something in order to try and move in another direction. You have to keep persuading people. Is it an exciting or daunting prospect, though, that there probably is some choice now for maybe the last couple of years for the first time in your career where, you know, I've talked to many actors where it's like, take what you can get, and now you have the luxury

of choice. Well, I don't have the luxury of choice. I mean, I really, I did, you know, I fought pretty hard for the theory of everything. I think it was not, it was not an easy, it was such a beautiful script and a beautiful part, but it was, you know, quite competitive, I think. But, no, you do often those things that you get, often are the things you don't want. And so I think, I don't know, it's like anything in life. You sort of just have to keep, keep sort of trying to move forward and push the boundaries of what you've done. So for this one, is there, is there like an actual audition process or is it just meeting with James

and kind of... Well, what it was was, it was, I'd read the script and I thought it was going to be a film about Stephen Hawking, a sort of biopic about him, and it, when I read it, it was this sort of kind of riveting, complicated love story, and with Stephen and Jane at the centre of that, and it felt like it had a sort of, you know, it felt like an analysis of love in like in young love and passionate love but also love of subject matter those sorts and also the failings of love so i found that kind of all riveting but then um but when i heard james was doing it i'd seen man on wire right man and man and wire totally by my mind and

and again in that film i thought he subverted what the film was cosmetically about right um and so no, I chased it. It involved calling him in Copenhagen, doing that thing that we all do in job interviews, pretending we're really confident, and we know what we're talking about. And I said, yeah, yeah, I could do this, you know. And then he came to London, and we went to a pub.

And it was about, I think it was about two, three in the afternoon. And he was like, what do you own to drink? And I was like, do I go for coffee or do I get a beer? It's a big choice, right? I feel like, I'm going to be judged on this as well. So I'll have a beer. And he's like, okay, Eddie will have a beer. I'll have a coffee.

Oh, I was like, God. So he basically just. he tanked a few beer a few um coffees right he was just like crazy with high on caffeine and i was just i tanked a few beers and was just basic drunk and somewhere in there like we both admitted our fears and i think james and i you know he's amazing at grabbing our hands and then making you feel confident so so what were those fears because there got there are a lot of pitfalls to fall into something like this and somehow you guys successfully avoided them what were the ones that you got discussed or the ones that were on your mind even during shooting

we're like above all else don't fall into that trap well i mean the the biggest fear was that james jane and stephen and jonathan and stephen jane's family will go to see the film i mean ultimately if you're playing someone's putting their life on screen they're going to be the ultimate critic so that was there from day one um but what was interesting is it really did feel like there were so many aspects of their lives, whether it was really trying to ask really to understand the science, which I found a little tricky. That's starting for any human being, my God.

So trying to re-educate myself there, but then really immersed myself in understanding what LS is and what the physical ramifications, but also the kind of emotional consequences of it are on the people around you. And then, and then meeting Stephen and Jane and the family and trying to glean from them, their take on it all. But above them, also, then the sense of making a film, like, you know, making something that is... And then there's that whole thing about being the actual movie.

One of the things I find is, like, films cost money. And it's much easier to try and forget that, because otherwise, I remember when I did The Good Shepherd, like, one of the first films I did. and it was filming in New York and I was over here and it's a huge blacked out cars take you to Brooklyn to a gigantic studio and they were like the most amazing cast

and all these extraordinarily famous actors and Robert De Niro was directing it and then suddenly there's a camera and huge sets and you just see sort of money everywhere and then suddenly there's like a camera two inches from your face

and it's quite difficult to not to feel the weight of like financial responsibility and so I even feel that was just probably a bit ridiculous or well no I mean is that but yeah so I feel all of those things so there were quite a few yeah things to keep me up at night you'll be pleased here I didn't sleep much for seven eight months do you after the process is over and you see the film I mean do you go when you go into that screening up to see the film for the first time are you natural optimist or

pessimist do you walk in and be like steal yourself for disappointment at this point or are you ready to embrace what you guys have created always um you're never happy and particularly on this film when You know, there's so much documentary footage of Stephen, and I've worked with this amazing group of people to really try and get as close to Stephen as I could physically and vocally, and that involved James, the director, allowing me to watch the dailies every night. And so this weird thing happens when you start having the dailies on one screen and the reality, and you're hoping that these two things are going to merge, but basically, you know they're never going to go to. But what was interesting is that James was so collaborative, and he allowed me to come and see. a cut and and what I've learned from past experience is when I watch a film the first time I can't take any I mean I just end up wanting to you know because that pub again exactly right of the same so I asked him if I could watch it by myself in the morning then take

lunch and then watch it second time in the afternoon because then you get you stop being so selfish and you need to get through that first one yeah yeah yeah and actually you can see the thing as a whole rather than um and and so that was interesting after that I sort of talked, and then James and I went back to the pub, and we talked through it, and he was, and, but I was no, I felt what was amazing is you've been so much in just Stephen's story that I'd lost track of the, the big picture. Yeah. Yeah. And I was pretty, pretty moved. One of the things that I think the film, and I'm sure you're hearing this from people, that it accomplishes is that it humanizes this, like, it humanizes this, like, been almost deified in our minds.

It's like, he's not flesh and blood. He's something bigger than all of us. but like and it's such a smart move like literally the first shot of the film what is him riding a bicycle and it's just like the most exuberant like human action you can see and it's like yes he was was and is still just like all of us he has all those kind of um passions and and frailties and all of it um and i and i feel like it does a really great job of like putting you in his shoes like there's that moment of like the diagnosis of like sort of knowing the path or potential path you must have to put your yourself in those shoes in those when you're reading the script or when you're preparing for a scene where you're like how would I like how does a human being even react to a moment like that being told you have potentially two years to live or at best that you're going to live a fragment of the kind of life that you imagine I mean is that is that something that do you kind of like get the work done before you get to set in processing all that or are you still sort of like sorting all that out in your mind when you're shooting the scene if that makes sense that does me I in that four months as going to the before prep it was really meeting lots of people who were suffering from ALS and trying to hear their stories really and but also seeing their um extraordinary optimism and and for example there was this one gentleman who I saw him in a clinic and it was the morning after knowing the night before he had almost choked to death and had gone to ER and

um and he came down the following morning to breakfast and the first thing he said to his wife is I wonder what death-defying act I can do today. And, you know, this idea of finding really trying, there's so many, when you were given that ultimatum of that two to five years, which most people with ALS are given, it's a gigantic, fucking obstacles that are put in front of you and how you choose to, how you just react to that, or try and defy those things and live your life is,

is kind of what defines you, really. And certainly with what was amazing in Stephen's case is he was, he did go into melancholia. He sort of listened to a load of Wagner and it was Jane, it was them getting engaged. And literally the reality of him going, God, I need to, we need to live in a house now, so I need to earn some money. So I need to probably get on with this whole work malarkey. But the fact that, you know, together they managed to find this positive energy, age 21, 22, after being diagnosed with this. and just keep running with it. And, like, when you meet him now,

he just has this amazing, extraordinary humor, but, like, amazing sense of mischief. He, like, has this kind of, sort of, it's a sort of a glint and a, I describe it as like a lord of misrule quality. He has this sort of thing, like, he's totally in control of a situation. Yeah, I feel he's got one up on all of us. Totally. He's absolutely, and so you're constantly, I mean,

I made it continuously made a fool of myself when I met him. and you can see him kind of enjoying that I mean in the last couple years I mean between the daunting task of Le Miz of this insane project of singing on the Oscars I mean you've kind of like

That was the way That was by far in the way The most daunting Was it? Yeah there was a Oh my God Because we shot Le Miz and we sang live

But The thing about filming Singing live is if you screw up a take You get another shot in it And what was weird is that song that we sang at the Oscars one day more had all been shot in with each of the actors

doing their own different parts so even though we were singing a huge ensemble piece we'd never actually all sang it together and suddenly we were doing it and this time we didn't have another take and the people like the guys stage managers behind the scenes

at the Oscars was so kind and generously reminding me just before going on a billion people there's a lot of strain on like a vocal chord that's not used to

not used to having such a high-stakes workout I mean why don't I didn't have an option Everyone else is doing it. I'm going to be like, guys, I'm going to... I'm going to bow out of this one. I'm going to take over. It's a great guy on board, though, who can come. Does, I mean, do these kind of events in the last couple of years

give you a confidence where you're like, I can kind of tackle pretty much anything? No, I wish I did. We just come from doing today's show, and I always get such a... I just get... I do suffer from nerves. I remember, though, once doing a... I did a charity event in London, which Danny Boyle directed,

and Tom Hiddleston was doing it, and Benedict came back for doing it. And I was doing, everyone was doing monologues, and I was doing a duologue with Rose Byrne. And I remember we only had a day to prepare for it, and it was a sort of charity. And it was a weird thing, because we never normally see each other all doing the same thing,

the same kind of exercise for a day. And Charlie Cox, my pal, who was in theory of everything was doing it. And I remember at the end of the day, Charlie or Rose came up to Charney and was like, I'm kind of, I feel really quite nervous about doing this and the public and she was like,

I don't quite know why. Charlie just turned to go, because you're doing it with Eddie. He's a nutcase. He's like a barrel of nerves. Like he can't put it together. Stop bringing this all down, Eddie, come on. But it was amazing.

It was like, but no, so I do still get noticed. I hope that I think that. And yet you've done so much live theater. I mean, that seems incongruous. I mean, is there something that clicks in your, brain in a different way when you're doing theater yeah but it's also just preparation when you're doing live theater you've you've had the words down for months

you've been working with a group in a safe place for the group of people for four five weeks and um and uh um and uh you're my inception to tell them is telling us like the reality is about to cromble oh shit god stop picking the birdman sculptor sorry for those that are not in the room Eddie is destroying my birdman action figurine and his goal I know, and it's because I'm slightly worried that you might have to check that still here when you leave. Let's check him one more time. Michael Keaton, are you still with us?

Let's get the hell out of here. He knows. He wants out of this horribleness. What were we talking about? Oh, live theater and embarrassing moments like that. Exactly. I mean, have you ever, have you ever, like, just totally crashed and burned on stage? Yeah, and I've had that thing that, you know, I think even people that aren't actors who've ever done, like, a play at school have that, you know, that nightmare thing of forgetting lines.

And I once did it, I was doing a play. Actually, with Donald Gleeson, we were doing a play in London at the Royal Court Theatre, and just halfway through, I just completely blanked. And it was like that nightmare you've had, and it was just like this white noise, no, really, you know what I could just see all these people in the audience. I was like, oh, wow, this is what it feels like. Everything goes into slow motion. I was like, wow, I really don't know what's coming up next.

So what happened? Well, I just heard, like, people like Donor and these other actors were desperately trying to help me out. and we're trying to, like, give me, feed me lines, but all I could hear was literally like, and I just sort of basically, I was like, shut out, I was playing America. I was like, shut up, shut up, I have to. And I went back to the place where this monologue started

and started the monologue all over again. And I came out and found out that the head of Warner Brothers was watching, which was horrific. And back to the pub again. Exactly, genuinely. So you have some very nice friends because I've noticed that, Since you've been in town, you've had some nice screenings here,

hosted by some amazing folks. Very generous friends who sweetly have got behind the movies. Yeah, Scarlett did one, Hugh Jackman, did one. I'm missing one. Someone else? Andrew Garfield, of course. It meant the world. Particularly, I mean, busy people. Scarlett's just had a, maybe he's doing a play around the corner,

I think, down here and so, no, it's meant the world that they've got behind it. Was Andrew a friend as you kind of, like, moved through the ranks in terms of someone you encountered along the way? Garf and I met, had an audition for. for a film called Brothers of the Head. Did we ever meet that? No. Which was a film about these two... Did that turn into Spider-Man?

I missed that one. It was about two twins that, in theory, kind of created the punk movement in England. But we were auditioning for it, and they had many actors auditioning for it. And I remember, I think, who else was there? Tommy Storidge was there, and even Dom Cooper. It was about 10 and 11 years ago. and we were all being paired together. We didn't quite know why we were being paired together

and photos were being taken to see if we looked like each other and then we were told it was twins but later transpired it was about Siamese twins and anyway so Garf and I auditioned together and we became pals and the weird thing for you know if you start in theatre in London it's all very sort of suddenly if you're invited to go or you go to L.A. to trying at work

it's a totally different world and it can be quite overwhelming So that's why I think we, Andrew and I and a few of us would rent places together or stay on friends' floors. And the absurdity of those early times when you're like, you know, you're renting a banged-up motor and then turning up and parking it, you know, try not to get a parking ticket, parking it outside Paramount and then walking in trying to pretend, you have a, you know, that you're as a bona fide actor. Right. It was such fun memories. But, yeah, so old friendships. When you see someone like Andrew go through, you know, his opportunities in the last few years and different friends, I'm sure, you know, you get your moment at different stages.

I mean, was there ever a sense of like, what if my moment doesn't come? What if the opportunity and timing doesn't work out where I get the career that I necessarily desire? Good, you know what, to be honest, everything I've been incredibly lucky. and I everything that I could have possibly dreamed of has basically happened already it happened when I did a play down the road here

you know it was and I've been able to keep working and for an actor that's basically all you dream of what was what's been really wonderful about our group of friends or this group of us who started out is you know of course we all that went up

for a lot of the same jobs but you'd win some and you'd lose some and then if it was your buddy who got it and of course you wanted the job but if your buddy got it, at least you're like, at least it's someone I love and respect.

And so, no, it's never felt, I mean, it really hasn't felt competitive. Everyone's been sort of supportive of each other. And I know that sounds silly, but it really was, we've also all had our own little breaks along the way. Sure. How is the, also in the last few years,

you know, you got your crazy, giant enormous space opera out of the way. But like a comic movie, I know, has come close to happening a few different times. Oh, which one, sorry? a comic book kind of thing like Guardians obviously they talked about

and I guess Guardians actually I never I never I met with the director but then I didn't end up thinking that it's interesting because you read all this stuff on the internet

about things and you're like ah that's not actually true but no but I had amazing and really great I auditioned or tested for the day in DeHarn's part in Spider-Man too and that was what was amazing

about that was getting to you know these tests are pretty intense for the big studio films you're fully in costume gigantic oh so you're in goblin makeup and everything well you're i don't think i ended up being goblin makeup but i was in like a fully harry osborne style and what was amazing about that was getting to again andrew i've never actually worked together since that audition and that's fun because you get to sort of you just get to have moments playing with each other what's what's complicated about it is that you you know before you do

those tests you sort of you sign your life away in some ways before that and so what's interesting is you try to stop your mind from thinking oh god this I might be doing this for a few years or you know and um but there is a part of you that emotionally sort of gets a little bit close to committing to it and then so it's always you know it's a bit yeah it's a bit sort of um but but but that was the most wonderful experience and again dain is such a extraordinary actor you go okay that's off don't you nail that what's uh do you have in your mind like the the audition that you

never want to come close to replicating again like the is there the first audition. Oh, hundreds. I've recently, um, recently my Star Wars audition was pretty catastrophically bad. What happened? Well, oh God, I was just this wonderful casting director called Nina Gold, who I absolutely love. And I just went in and did the scene and after like seven times of trying to play, um, you know,

I think it was for a baddie. We weren't, you know, the scene wasn't from the film. We weren't allowed to sort of really know much about it. And I don't remember, Nina was like, anything else said? said, have you got any other any other thing? I was like, no, I'm all out. She's like, okay, I think we're going to have to agree to fart on it as well.

I was like, okay, there we go. Childhood dream, crushed. But no, I did a very embarrassing audition for The Hobbit as well. That was really awful, trying to do my Bilbo Baggins impression. It's not very good. Yeah, I've had my fair share. Amazing. But what's fun is you then get to

go and see those films. You're like, oh yeah, I was so far off. so is um what's your like appetite right now in terms of you obviously have done so much theater is theater still a priority or would you want to come back to broadway here or west end or yeah no i'd love to but for theater okay so with plays i always look at it like in the worst case scenario i go okay if if it ends up being a complete um catastrophe and the reviewers hate it and um you know no one comes and sees the play is there still enough in the part or in the play to sustain me for a few months

because that's what, you know, it really is a sort of quite a long commitment with theatre. And that's quite an easy choice to make. It has to be something that really sparkles. Whereas what I found, it's much more complicated with film because there's a sort of alchemy side of film

that I've done scripts that I thought on the page were wonderful that end up being pretty shoddy films and then the other way around, like ones that you think, I'm not so sure, and they end up being sort of interesting work. So with theatre, it's about, It's literally about what the words are, I suppose,

when the plays. But where one does it, you know, this city is amazing, New York, because there's such a sense of community, all the theatres back onto each other. So everyone kind of, I'll never forget when I did right around the corner, I just arrived in New York, and they do these things called Gypsy Runs, which is the last dress rehearsal you do,

and basically all the Broadway community come to watch it because they won't be, they'll be doing plays at the same time as you, they won't be able to come see it. And I did it with Alfred Millie. And I remember him saying, Ed, by the way, this will be the best audience you've ever experienced.

And he was absolutely right. They were like the most generous. But after that, I got this sweet note from Zoe Kazan and Paul Dayno, who had been to sit and Zoe was doing a play next door. And at this time,

I was feeling kind of a bit nervous because it was the first time Broadway. And they wrote this sort of sweet note saying, look, we're doing it a play next door. And they've become such good friends. There's like a real sense of people in this community really taking care of each other. Do you feel at home

here in New York versus, I mean, a lot of people I know I grew up here in the city, it's like, in one of the few other cities I feel is frankly London. There's something parallel about those two cities, I feel like. I love this city. And I've had a weird sort of obsession with it since I was a kid

before even coming. And when I was here doing the play and when I did The Good Shepherd here, I just love it. So I hope it will be part of my great thing about my job is you get to travel wherever the work is. Well, let's talk about Good Shepherd. You mentioned it a little bit before.

I'm fascinated by that because De Niro is such like an enigmatic, unusual figure, and the fact that he can summon up enough words, the direct, a company of actors and crew, is almost boggles my mind because it feels like he's either acting or he's silent in a room somewhere. So, I mean, was he a motive as a director, or was he? Well, it's amazing. De Niro has an amazing warmth as well.

like he really and the audition process for that was months and months and months of flying myself over here and so by the time that i got the part i felt pretty um he he was very very kind to me and and so there's a lot i mean what was so interesting i remember one of the techniques he i think he directs how he likes to to work and one of the scenes it was quite an emotional scene with matt damon and what what he would have us do would you do the scene um and then you'd reach a sort of emotional place by the end. And then he would, rather than call cut, you would go straight back to the beginning of the scene and start again channeling that emotion that you kind of fueled towards the end, that's back into the front. And it was an amazing thing that,

and it's one that I've, I'm on, in Lemme Zaraab, and empty chairs and tables, that big song that Marius has, I asked Tom Hooper if I could use that technique. Start all over, yeah. And it only works in a certain circumstance there because you have to be starting the scene at an emotional pitch that that works for.

But it's quite an interesting way to get somewhere in them repress it. So I learned a lot from De Niroi, amazing man. I mean, you've been in films of different times, some that have succeeded on a massive scale, and some that just kind of like go by, like that. And if you don't, if you blink, you miss it sadly.

And it doesn't have to do with the quality. It's just a thousand different things. Sometimes it does. There's a correlation, but sometimes not necessarily. does that get easier or is it sort of still like is it a bruise that's hard to um does it get well the weird thing with films is that you i do put like everything into each part and even if it's the yeah and there's such a variety of it but you really do give you you never go into a film wanting it to be bad you really really sort of pour everything into it and you've done it for a

set of reasons and um and yeah it does i'll be honest when something ends up not working then then it's disappointing because you've also left home and you've lived away in a hotel room by yourself for five months and and you've sort of and then if it's something that's either doesn't quite work doesn't find an audience or just gets or is embarrassing then then you go oh cricky that's but there's a waste of I suppose like any job it's like those deals that don't work out or those you know um bad bad days of the office right but I no it is yeah it's always sad well growing up what were you like what was what was the What were the films that you were obsessed with?

What was your kind of... Do you know, okay, so what were the films I was obsessed with? I, my first film I was obsessed with was the cartoon of Robin Hood. Okay. Totally obsessed with it. Watched it on repeat. Gave it to my godson recently. And, of course, it doesn't look nearly high-tech enough for him.

And I sort of made him sit. Like, I can only keep him there for like 40 minutes. Like, where's frozen? I don't need this box. Where's frozen? So, but, so that was my... what other, I was kind of late to getting a film education. I was actually, it was when I was doing the other bologna with Scarlett Johansson.

She was talking to me, I think it was about the Big Lebowski or something. I had to embarrassingly admit that I'd never seen it. And then she started asking about, yeah, but in The Godfather, and I was like, no, I haven't seen that either. And she was so appalled that she made all the sort of crew write down five films, and I was sort of given a list that I'm still working through. But I mean, but I suppose recently films that, I was, the Dardin brothers, films i love their work um i god there's been so much that's i thought blue valentine was an extraordinary film derrick seafranc was someone i yeah killed to work with i'm about to work with

elizio vicanda and something and she's um uh doing a film his next film with rachel vice and michael fastbender oh that's to me sounds like quite a quite a quartet um so looking forward to that um and but this is i mean this i just saw bird man which i just thought was so yeah sensationly acted and um I'm trying to think what else have I... Oh, I actually saw Andrew's film with Michael Shannon. Oh, 99 homes, right? Yeah. I thought it was pretty formidable.

But one of the things about Birdman was Ed Norton. And I remember that I... I remember what... I worked... There was a film critic called Barry Norman, you know? It's a bit of an institution in England. Okay. He was...

ran a film show at Sky Television. And when I was like 18 or 19, I did work experience on his film show. And I remember I used to have to sort of... Basically, my job was to watch raw footage of film premieres and then write down anything the actors said in case they wanted to cut it into these promos and stuff. But I remember sitting down to starting at about 6 o'clock in the evening at the end of the day, worked to watch American History X and being totally burned away by it. And it was so amazing to see both in Grand Budapest Hotel and in Birdman. Yeah. I'm just listening to somebody talk about him.

And, like, that trajectory is so odd because, like, his first film, I think, was primal fear. And he just, like, burst out. It's like he came fully formed at it's like where where have you been interesting so interesting that isn't it but it's also like I feel that nowadays because maybe social media and stuff I'm much more aware of people at earlier stages in their career but like but also I remember with Michael fastbender if it was someone that we've been seeing on extraordinary things on British television right film no budget film and I remember being London about five six years ago and an American agent being like oh there's this Yeah, I was like, he's extraordinary. It has been for a long time. Your discovery today, I've known about it for a little bit.

But, yeah, no, so it's, it is interesting, though, but, no, I feel like I've definitely made a load of mistakes publicly. Here's a quick message for HappySat Confused listeners. Please help Happy Sad Confused stay free to download by completing a short anonymous survey. I promise you guys, this is going to take no more than five minutes of your valuable time, and your answers will help match our show with advertisers that best fit the sensibilities of my podcast and listeners like you. Also, as a bonus, listeners who complete this survey will be entered in an ongoing monthly raffle to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

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