Podcrushed - Eddie Redmayne

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Fantastic Beasts) takes a break from gracing the stage (and the soundstage) to bring his characteristic charm and kindness to the pod. He recalls early memories from growing up as the artsy one in a family full of athletes, and talks about his early days as a young theater actor in London, in awe of the bright lights and buzzy energy.    Follow Podcrushed on socials:Tiktok Instagram XSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lemonada But you would walk through the back alleys of the theatre and down past these reels of costumes and these gigantic sets that, and that, without the... Well, it is a cliche, but the smell of the makeup and the camaraderie and the eccentricity and uniqueness of theatre people was just so seductive. I couldn't believe that I got to do that.

and I got paid 20 quid of performance, you know, and which my parents were then sort of, you know, invited all their friends to come see it, and the tickets cost sort of 60 quits. So there was a massive loss-making experience for everyone. But it was, no, that was the intoxication. Welcome to Podcrushed. We're hosts, I'm Penn.

I'm Nava, and I'm Sophie. And I think we would have been your middle school besties. Writing letters of love upon her. scratch parchment paper scratching with an ink quilt no is this not this isn't resonating scratching that's perfect welcome welcome to pod crushed i have a question just to kick us off why not are you resting or making me money wait who someone else is that are you resting or are you making me money or sophy how about you i've never heard this question but i've also never rested. Suspicious.

Although I can confirm. Never rested. Navas never rested. It's been my birthday recently. It's the best time of year. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Which also means that it's Sophie and David's little babies' birthday, the day after, November 2nd. It also commemorates the morning I woke up to this text from Nava. Are you resting or are you making me money, Penn?

this is uh this is probably what was the rest of it what was the rest of the message well then you quipped back and that was the momager of this family to which i said this isn't a family yeah always always offensive when you feel the need to point out or not blad technically and then and then i said p.s it's my b-day now but did you know that it was my birthday no i honestly did not know that information is publicly available on google but i did not know so you don't have a google alert you're saying no i should not actually is the most famous scorpio Am I? No, sure.

Probably. Yeah. Yeah, sure, sure, guy, sure. So then Navas says, never mind, or Nivima, you know, just in Texas speak. You're doing great, sweetie, which I love. Sophie then said,

P.S. I'm in labor. So that, that was... The most casual P.S. I'm just like such a chill girl in labor. So, Sophie. Yeah. I would have quipped about it in the days leading up that, like,

maybe you would be like resting on your belly you know like your yeah the phone was on her belly and the belly's like yeah the phone's like bouncing it well actually it was like the more chill side of labor but I knew just for the way the group chat was popping off and pinging yeah that I wanted to you know announce my departure and then how did you respond Ben oh I just did that nice I did that thing in comedy where I brought it back to the beginning I said you're doing great sweetie put the phone down though put the phone down though with a question mark see never this was a great moment in the group chat. I would venture to say perhaps my favorite moment in the group chat, primarily

because Penn was participating, which is a rare honor in and in of itself. Yeah, we finally have proof that Penn does read the group chat and actually not only does he read it, he goes back to read it. I take a scroll every now and then. I do. Yeah. Just like this for 37 minutes, just scrolling, trying to find it. No, this is a great moment from our group chat. And it turns out that U.S. Cellular is actually doing a really cool campaign right now where they are turning your group chat moments into wrapping paper for the holiday season. So with your permission, I will be submitting this as our moment. I don't know that I want this moment memorialized because I don't look so great.

But I do think the idea of getting a gift wrapped in a memory is so meta. I love that. So between now and November 24th, you can DM US Cellular on Instagram with a screenshot of your favorite group chat moment of the year, of the whole year. and they might, if you're lucky, they might send you a free group chat wrap. So you can literally give the gift of connection to your loved ones,

wrapped in a memory. Speaking of loved ones. Yes, today we are joined by the lovely Eddie Redmayne. If you don't know, he's the award-winning actor. I mean, he's got Tony's, Olivier's, I think BAFTA's, Oscars, He's been everywhere, and he's only 42. Really an incredible talent.

You probably know him from his portrayal as Stephen Hawking. A fun little piece of trivia is that he was the first man in his 80s to win an Oscar. So he holds that record. The first man from the 80s. Wait, to play? The first man from the 80s now, but that's a huge point of clarification. Yes. And he won that Oscar.

man born did you were you in the interview he he won that Oscar of course for playing Stephen Hawking in the theory of everything he's also been in the Fantastic Beast's films

the trial of Chicago 7 he's been on Broadway on the West End most recently he's got a mini series called The Day of the Jackal out now on Peacock it's about a ruthless

ruthless a ruthless a ruthless whatever session He's a woofless British assassin. He's a British assassin. A classic character of the Jackal now made fresh and modern in 2024, 2025. We were honored to have Eddie here today.

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Learn more at trynom.com slash podcrushed spelled try-n-o-m-com slash podcrushed. Hey, it's Lena Waith. Legacy Talk is my love letter to black storytellers, artists who've changed the game and paved the way for so many of us. This season, I'm sitting down with icons like Felicia Rashad, Loretta Vine, Ava Du René, and more.

We're talking about their journeys, their creative process, and the legacies they're building every single day. Come be a part of the conversation. Season two drops July 29th. Listen to Legacy Talk wherever you get your podcast, or watch us on YouTube. Eddie, thank you for coming. Thank you for having you. Where are you guys?

Navas in L.A., and I happen to be in Florence. In Florence. Yeah, I'm visiting my parents. I'm visiting my parents. I know, I know. Whereabouts in Florence are you? Right on the Arno, my parents live here. Yeah, it's nice.

It's not a bad place to visit. That's beautiful. I'm very jealous. I got engaged in Florence. Really? Oh, sweet. So we do usually start at like just about 12. Yeah.

So we want to go there. But as far, if our research serves us, did you do it? Yeah, right. Did you start, did you go to Jackie Palmer's stage school at age 10? We're going back. We're going straight in. Yeah, we are. We are. Welcome. Oh, welcome.

Well, good morning. Yeah, I did. So, my, I grew up in a family who were very sporty. And that was kind of, I suppose, the language in our, in my elder brother, my younger brother, my half-brother and half-sister, my dad, everyone, there was brilliant sporting capability. And I kind of lacked a certain amount of that. Was it very clear, very early on?

It was pretty clear, pretty early on, anything that my brother, particularly my elder brother, because we were quite close in age, anything he was brilliantly accomplished at, I was not. And so I don't know whether it was an active thing, but I was always doing the opposite. So sort of from an early age, music and through music really

theatre became something that I was sort of passionate about and I always it was amazing looking back on it particularly as a parent now is that despite my parents not really having any knowledge of that world they were sensationally supportive that's what it sounds like I mean honestly just what we learned

you know Wikipedia gives you something it does give you something it really does seem like I mean I'm glad what you're saying supports what we're like it really feels like you came out of nowhere a little bit in your family I mean I don't want to suggest a black sheep or something like that

but it's cool you know I mean the rest of the family being so oriented in these other ways you know like I think also very business oriented just in terms of the careers that were pursued right but I think there was something weirdly the first

sort of manifestation of something different was I sat at a piano when I was little and I was at a friend's house and my mum came around afterwards and the friend's parents were like, you know, you should get Eddie a piano because he really enjoys it

and she's like, I didn't even know you did it. And I had this weird thing which I can kind of remember from when I was about six or seven years old that I could sit at a piano and my fingers would sort of do, I could sort of improvise something. Wow. And it felt incredibly freeing. And so

my mom rented a piano and I started having lessons and as I started to learn the piano properly like technically kind of all of that freedom or sort of facility disappeared and I'm not I sort of learned the piano in the very kind of formal way and I wasn't particularly good but I can remember did it become less inspiring I guess I think so but I remember early on like age of nine or ten being in a in a concert at this school they sort of everyone was playing their pieces and I was just sort of put in front of the piano to play and I remember having no fear and I remember being out of sort of do you mean just to improvise to kind of improvise now looking back on it I mean I fucking hate improvising I'm a control freak

I don't know there are all these elements but I look back on that time as this kind of I do have a glint of the memory of it as a bit of what that freedom was and I always think now with with work and the older and many things in life actually that that mixture between kind of the control and the discipline of things you do versus the kind of that instinctive freedom that we all have in us. It's like how those two things marry is kind of intriguing. I'm with you. I'm totally with you.

So I've managed to avoid the Jackie Palmer children's... By talking about some... Well, you know what I was thinking that it was a... that you just went to performing art school. Is that not what that is? It's not. So no. So I was at a normal school

and I loved music, singing particularly, and I loved theatre, and one day I was on holiday and I met this lady and I was talking to her and she said, oh, my little brother is at this school in High Wycombe, which is just outside London. So it's like a class. Yeah, it's a class. And it is actually a school, but I just went

at weekends sporadically, and they had an agency there. And so I sort of signed up with a headshot. Oh, that's right, and you did end up modeling later. Is that way that one? We don't need to go out of that. Very unsuccessfully. It was amazing. At this class, you would go once a year

and do this kind of showcase at this theatre. And James Corden was there. He was, I mean, even at that age, he was a couple of years old. He was so charismatic. And he was an amazing dancer and a sort of huge, sort of passionate theatre kid. And yes, why I started auditioning for,

like real sort of musicals and things and just about a 10? 10 11 yeah that's cool you know I moved to LA when I was 12 yeah

and I started working so for me and by the way they are former middle school administrators slash teachers so the joke is

is that they're teachers and I dropped out of middle school it's not a joke it's not a joke it's not funny it's mostly true stay in school

yeah but I know that for me I can remember standing in the arrivals like pickup taxi line at LAX at 12 years old at like 9 p.m. listening to Drew Hill on my Walkman and just, you know, my life before and after was different and and you know in as much as I've been able to pursue a career as an artist. I guess I'm curious

when did acting specifically become like, wow, this is feeding me in a way I don't think, not for a while, honestly, I think it was music, and weirdly it was sort of movement, and I am a really shoddy dancer, but I remember at that period feeling very free physically. And the elder I got, the more self-conscious and restricted and sort of restrained, I felt physically. but I'm just quickly curious about that moment in L.A. Because you hear of American actors arriving in L.A. often young. So what does that mean? Does that mean that you had a career where you grew up and there was a moment where you said to your parents,

like, I'm moving to L.A. Or what does it mean to get off of play? It sounds so insane. I was with my mom. It was with your mom. And that was for pilot season. You know, you've heard of that probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, all the bright actors. We all come out for pilot season. Escape the rain. So it really meant that I had an agent manager in Seattle, Washington had been doing plays since I was about nine musicals. For me, actually, music was the intro into it.

I loved music, knew nothing of acting through that got at the musical theater, then got into theater, and then got into the suggestion of movies, TV commercials. I, you know, I tested on like... I remember, do you recall the film with Miko Hughes, a young child actor, and Bruce Willis called Mercury Rising.

I have not seen that movie. Okay, it's fine. It was a role that I tested for and got very close to as like a nine-year-old. Yeah. Oh my God, do you remember that feeling, though, when you were that little? My reference was, of all things,

Dustin Hoffman and Rain Man. So like at nine years old, I recall that, like watching that and wanting to emulate that and feeling really good about trying to embody that, all those ticks and stuff, which... So that's something that we also have. in common. You have done, I'm thinking of

the incredible embodiments of physicality and tics that you've done in certain roles. I guess like what was your, what was your perspective on art and the theater then? Did it seem illustrious and majestic and like far off? It felt romantic is what it was. By that point I was going to the theatre in London

sporadically my parents would take me and at about the age 12 through this agent, through the Jackie Palmer Children's Agency, I got a part in a production of Oliver but I mean hearing about your test I remember that feeling when I first had an agent

you know a week later I got an audition for Annie Get Your Gun and it was in the West End and I was like this is it this is this is where it all starts I remember learning the song and going and queuing there being this queue outside the theatre

this line that went round the block and lots of kids from theatre schools all wearing they're matching sort of sweaters and he went on stage and it was like an episode of American Idol you sort of all had your number and I prepared the whole song a whole kind of number

and after singing one line of that song it was kind of and I remember it was such an extreme memory and now I sort of can't of rejection

and I sort of can't believe that my strength in some ways of my parents allowing me to I was like no but I want to keep trying I want to keep trying but Oliver was something I got and I was just one of

60 kids in the cast but I remember that feeling of being at high school and in the middle of class age 12 getting up and walking across the bridge over the Thames and getting on the subway the tube from Hammersmith Broadway to Oxford Circus right into the kind of

epicentre of London and going to the London Palladium which is this incredible old theatre and Jonathan Price was playing Fagin and I was one of many kids but you would walk through the back alleys of the theatre and down past these reels of costumes and these gigantic sets

and that without the, well it is a cliche but the smell of the makeup and the and the camaraderie and the eccentricity and uniqueness of theatre people was just so seductive. I couldn't believe that I got to do that and I got paid 20 quid of performance which my parents were then

invited all their friends to come see it and the tickets cost sort of 60 quits so there was a massive loss-making experience for everyone that it was no that was the intoxication that was the moment you mentioned your brother

him being into sport and because he was close in age made you kind of veer in the other direction but I'm curious about your relationship in general? Yeah, well, I'm really close to my family. And I, so my elder brother is two and a half years old than me. And then my brother Charlie is a sort of decade or so older than that.

And who is my, so he's my half-brother and my half-sister Eugenie who's a bit older than that. And then my little brother, Tom, is six years younger. So I really grew up in those sort of formative years. and James, my brother, who's two and a half years older, was very present. And he was, and is very talented, brilliantly driven, but he's a force of nature. And we have very sort of differing personalities. And I never, it's interesting because I love sport and I still do, but it was just,

he was so good at it, that anything that he did, I don't know whether it was subconsciously. to do the opposite. So even within sport, in England, in the summer, you basically play cricket or a few people play tennis. And so he would play cricket, I would play tennis, he would play football, I would play rugby. And I think it was just not wanting comparison, really. But even then, as even in the world of sport,

I remember being aware of my, I was quite self-aware, in what I was good at and what I was bad at. And I suppose at being able to manipulate the things that I was not so good at and be, use those things that I was better at to aid that. So in sport, I could act the part. Like, I could, you know, I could say the right things and sort of put on the right tone of voice to make it look like I knew what I was talking about.

But it never felt sort of instinctive to me. Eddie, I've heard you talk about how competitive your family is and I think in particular you've said your mom and I'm curious if you have a memory of like a moment where you realize it might be more than usual like it might be over the top the degree of competitiveness in the family that's a really good question. It was really a work ethic.

My mom has an extraordinary work ethic and drive and she instilled that in all of us from an early age and I went to boarding school when I was 13 but sort of by that time I had a sort of level of discipline and I think I'd probably retain

that level of discipline and I don't think it's always necessarily a good thing that but it but it and these things are things you now question now that I'm a parent but but

I'm trying to think of well there was one I'm trying to think of a specific moment when she was competitive she was also incredibly caring and I remember there was this one time when I was playing a rugby match and I was pretty skinny

but I was playing for... You were as opposed to now. Sadly I never had my bulk-up phase despite my best efforts. I was playing a game of rugby and my mum would come to watch and we were playing this school and within about the first minute

that this sort of crash move came when this guy ran towards me And when you're a teenager, you know, I definitely looked like I was sort of 14 years old, and this guy looked like he was 25, and he was six foot, he was called Dougie. And he sort of lifted me over his shoulder, threw me on the ground, and then sort of fell on me with his elbow on my ribs and sort of broke my ribs. I'll just never forget the image of my mom on the sidelines, having to be sort of restrained from sort of coming on

and having her level of protection. But, yeah, that was the, after that, that was the sort of last game of rugby, I think that she could sort of bear. Wow. Yeah. No, that's great. So it's called Pod Crushed, this podcast.

We do like to ask about, you know, first crushes, first heartbreaks that are so characteristic of this time, you know, that can be so massive at the time. You look back and cringe and just think, like, you know, what was I thinking or what was I doing? But you were in boarding school, which also challenges that,

you know, so I'm curious, what was, do you have a memorable story? I mean, what to start with boarding school, right? So I sort of went to, so I went to boarding school at 13, but the school that I went to is this school, Eaton, that is, you know, one of, never heard of it. One of the most, it's an extraordinary place. It's, and of course, when you're that little, you don't understand that, and you don't,

and you normalise so much so for example at Eton you wear a black tail coat you wear a starched collar every day and you wear this sort of strange little starched piece of fabric that goes in and as you say every day and you're in the middle and it's a town really very very beautiful town

it sort of perhaps feels more like a university and there are tourist busts that go past every day and they're kind of looking at you dressed as penguins, and yet you've completely normalized the fact that you're dressed as a penguin because everyone else is dressed as a penguin. And it doesn't feel weird, because when you're young, you don't... Well, I didn't question any of that. But it is a school that is embedded in history.

It was founded by Henry VI who also founded King's College, Cambridge. and it has the most staggering facilities kind of imaginable and it's you pay a lot of money to go there they now have brilliant scholarships and you can get grants to go and now their outreach is substantially more than it was in my day but my God is it a privileged place to go but again you don't you're perhaps not conscious of it

but there's another thing that happens with school when you're that age is I think and it was an all-boys school as well that you the self-consciousness begins to kick in around that age and the notion of caring too much or being passionate about something kind of is deemed uncool of course and that was I felt I was and remain a deeply uncool human being and so I was pretty passionate about many things then

and so could exploit the facility which done founding art department incredible theatre so you remained passionate I did

I mean I did and I think I was mocked for it in the in the in the crushedness of the pod crushed you know that was definitely a level of like this guy is

you know God he's so eager he's so and but again perhaps I and because I'd done by this point theater and

professionally and I'd earn money I was kind of like I don't give a fight This is what my But one of the sadnesses I've witnessed of that school which is if you do go there

and your parents have paid all this money and yet you are busy playing the kind of I don't want to engage it's just such an extraordinary waste because it has dumb founding things back to the crush rather than the crushedness there was this thing called the slab

which was this area in each of the boarding houses so the school was divided up into boarding houses and had 10 boys in each year in the house and the slab was this communal area as you entered a house and it was where there were pockets for notes that might get sent around the school and it was where people were to linger

and there was the phone booth and so my sort of first relationships were letters I remember I'd kiss a girl at this party and she was at a boarding school as well and so how did you even have

I'm just kidding you don't have to paint so much some parties in London in which sort of everyone would gather they were sort of events that were sort of

organized for the schools yeah yeah I actually don't know whether it was it wasn't specifically but I remember that you'd start writing letters

and I remember age 13 because you're in a boarding house a friend came in and he saw me sort of writing my first letter. And as I was writing, I love you to this person. My mate was like, dude, you kissed at once.

Sure, you love it. I was like, isn't that what you say? Anyway, so this, anyway, fortunately he guided me to probably not commit undying love to someone on the first, after having kissed him once. And I sent many letters to this person over a term. We saw each other, and we'd speak on, we would have these phone calls on, you know,

on the slab that you'd do phone calls on a Saturday night and you would wait and there'd be this line of people all the older boys would do the calls first and you'd go into this little to the phone booth and it would stink of kind of like adolescent male be-o and and and then you would do your call to this person who would then have it to their school and they would go you'd wait 10 minutes while they were summoned from watching their watching Baywatch or something and come back and have your sort of three-minute conversation before you'd get pulled out by someone else. Anyway, so that was my functional relationship.

It was letters and sort of three-minute conversations for... That's so romantic. Yeah, and then she dumped me. It is so romantic. Because she said, sent me a letter being like, Eddie, you know, I suppose we haven't seen each other.

I'm not sure that's a relationship. I'm like, yeah, good point. Well made. So it wasn't that crushing. You're right, okay. That's not quite what you're honest. No, no, I mean, I love that, I mean, I love the just the image. That could have happened 100 years ago,

I felt like the way that it was out. happening, especially in your penguin suit. In my penguin suit? And, yeah, and the, but I miss letters. Stick around. We'll be right back. All right. So, let's just, let's just real talk, as they say, for a second. That's a little bit of an aged thing to say now. That dates me, doesn't it? But no, real talk. How important is your health to you?

You know, on like a one to ten? And I don't mean the, in the sense of vanity. I mean in the sense of like you want your day to go well right you want to be less stressed you don't want it as sick when you have responsibilities um I know myself I'm a householder I have I have two children and two more on the way a spouse a pet you know a job that sometimes has its demands so I really want to feel like when I'm not getting to sleep and I'm not getting nutrition when my eating's down I want to know that I'm that I'm being held down some other way physically you know my family holds me down emotionally, spiritually, but I need something to hold me down physically, right? And so honestly, I turned to symbiotica, these these vitamins and these beautiful little packets that they taste delicious. And I'm telling you, even before I started doing ads for these guys, it was a product that I really, really liked and enjoyed and could see the differences with. The three that I use, I use the, what is it called, liposomal vitamin C? And it tastes delicious, like, really. really, really good.

Comes out in the packet. You put it right in your mouth. Some people don't do that. I do it. I think it tastes great. I use the liposomal glutathione as well in the morning. Really good for gut health. And although I don't need it, you know, anti-aging.

And then I also use the magnesium L3 and 8, which is really good for, I think, mood and stress. I sometimes use it in the morning, sometimes use it at night. All three of these things taste incredible. Honestly, you don't even need to mix it with water. And yeah, I just couldn't recommend them highly enough. If you want to try them out, go to symbiotica.com slash podcrushed for 20% off plus free shipping. That's symbiotica.com slash podcrushed for 20% off plus free shipping. As the seasons change, it's the perfect time to learn something new.

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It does take us fast forwards a little bit. But as I understand it, you had been friends and known your wife Hannah now for 12 years before you ever started dating. Is that right? That is true. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I think that's remarkable. And I was wondering, maybe more people should be looking within their friend group for their life partner. And I wondered how you made that leap from friends for so long to partners. So I met Hannah probably when I was about 15. at a party

and without being you know it really was one of those moments when I saw I saw clocked eyes with someone across the room and I was

and we chatted and she's incredibly funny and her and deeply charismatic and I was like this is amazing this is it and she sat on my litany

and asked me to introduce her to this guy across the room and I was like fuck you So that's where the friendship started. And then for years, that's when the 12, 15 years was, we were kind of part of the same friend group,

but we were never close friends. We always had this kind of chemistry, for one of a better word, that whenever we saw each other, there was something alive, and we would be at parties, but we were always in relationships. So it wasn't a close friendship.

It was one that it was a... It was waiting to unfold. It was weird, yeah, but then many years later, it was known within our group of friends that this chemistry existed and was it ever going to be acted on. And literally, when I was 30, I think, or 29, I was at a friend's wedding,

and Hannah's always late. And she was meant to be one of the kind of bridesmaids. I was at this wedding in this church, and some 10 minutes into the wedding, there's the door slammed open. Oh, my gosh. me and Hannah came running in late to the wedding and so even and that night we got together and I thought it was um you know and I texted her a couple days later and all our friends

were like at last why did it take 15 years and I text her the next day no I left it two days I'd learned from my years in my early don't say I love you in the first two days and then you said I love you and it's always been you and then she didn't respond and I was like See, I knew it. It's like this, this fickle quality. Anyway, year went by. Wow. A whole year.

Yeah, yeah, because I wasn't going to go back. I wasn't going to go back. Glutton for punishment, you know. And a year later, this friend of us, Laura, was like, Eddie, why did you never get in touch with Hannah? I was like, I did. And I texted her. She said, what number?

I said, this number. And she said, that's not her numbers. And I know. So we... You had the wrong number for 15 years. This is like the number. It goes. But then it was while...

I remember it clearly because I just rehearsed Lemme Zaraab, the movie. And I had four days off before we started filming. And I was single. I'd booked to go to Florence. And I... You know, to sort of drink double espresso and chain smoke and write poetry.

Is it really? Oh, yeah. All the above. And anyway, I texted Hannah on this right number, and I said, you know, you don't want to go to theatre, do you? And she sort of said, yeah, let's do that. We went to the theatre, and that night went out for supper, and it was extraordinary because it was the first time.

It was someone that I'd known for 15 years, knew me for exactly who I was, rather than, you know, that sort of, I'm speaking of myself, but that version of a person you can put on when you're trying to start dating and trying to be the sort of best version of you. So there was no bullshit. She kind of could see straight through all of that.

So, and it was just, anyway, that evening went pretty wonderfully, and I said, drunk later, I was like, you don't want to go to Florence next week, do you? And she said, you don't mean that. And I said, well, kind of do. And so the next day, I sent my EasyJet booking form which is, do you know what EasyJet is? It's like, it's like sort of jet blue.

It's really right. And it's a sort of, yeah, no frills. I think I used it once. You weren't exactly. I never went back. It's a no frills, very convenient, Ellen. Anyway, she let me stew for a few hours, and then she sent her booking form. And even then, I knew if this relationship was to have any legs that we had.

had to meet on the plane rather than at an airport. And I was right because I got on the plane the next day and I was sitting next to these three nuns and a monk from Ireland. The plane was absolutely rammed. And there was just one seat next to me, three. And the captain was like, ladies of gentlemen, we're waiting for one person. And Hannah arrived.

Late. And has remained late for the rest of us. our relationship. But that's, and so, yeah, our first proper date was, you are, you are, I think, a numb, awesome. So sweet.

Eddie, that's so incredible. That's a long wind. You didn't know, no, no. No, no. That's great. Yeah. Eddie, I wish we had you for three hours. You're such an amazing storyteller.

We do want to transition to your career and just to be mindful of time. Why bother? Career smear? This is a much way to say it. It's amazing. Just to be mindful of time. I think let's start with Day of the Jackal. screeners and what's that to me is just I couldn't stop thinking about how much time you must

have spent in the makeup chair because you have so many disguises. So my question for you is do you have a ritual, how do you stay sane doing hours and hours and hours of makeup? Um, how do I say sane is probably a more existential question. Period. The, the, I, first thing in the morning, you're right, prosthetics take a long, long time. And you do. have to go to a, and I don't know if you've done many. Not at that level. I've done like, you know, the bruises and the swell. Even they take. They take a while. They take a while.

Like an hour. But, I mean, you're drinking like three hours. Yeah, three or four hours. But you kind of, I'd never done prosthetics at this level, and you zen out, and you then put in your earpods, and you listen to a podcast until they

start doing your ears, and then your ear pods get stuck. But I find it actually a really good way into the day. The other thing about when you, in Day of the Jackal, he's, in the early scene, he's transforming into this kind of 75-year-old German, opening scene, yeah, chains, and seeing the layers of those things appear is actually kind of helpful for getting into character because it's not just plonked on you, it kind of, you emerge from it. And the other thing that was lovely in the Day of the Jackal is, whereas in moments in theory of everything, where I'd

work with some prosthetics, you're playing the person. Here, you know the prosthetics is part of the jackals toolkit and he's doing it himself so actually whenever I don't know how you are but whenever I was sort of feeling insecure about any of these characters that I was playing as the jackal I had to keep reminding myself that

the jackal is an actor and he's doing the best that he can do and that's kind of so if you if there are any kind of faults there you know blame it on the jackal's lack of acting capability rather than your own that's funny

another thing we have in common is that we play baby-faced assassins and so I was going to bring that but one thing that I you know sometimes I do struggle to believe the mortal stakes you know when the stakes are mortal

episode after episode after episode we've done in the end 50 episodes you know so that's a lot of mortal stakes of being like there's a body in the trunk but I love you but my thing is that if I ever don't believe it

well you know what this dude actually doesn't always believe it he's lying yeah so that I understand that it's a strange there's a strange mental space when you're playing somebody who is a sociopath actually

I think that's the point I mean it was interesting I did a film last year called the The Good Nurse playing a man of Charlie Cullen who is a real maybe the biggest mass murder in this country and trying to get into the psychology of that and the kind of the cruelty of it but the coldness of it

and also weirdly clearly the humanity that this guy had to his friends he seemed like a normal you have I the only way I can reconcile those two things and it's the same with the Day of the Jackal albeit a completely fictional character is that these are, that there is a polarity to them. It's two different people.

And yet those chinks, when those two people reconcile with each other are the kind of intriguing moment. You spend a lot of time silent in this. I would imagine, is it the most silent role you've ever played? Of course, I've seen the early episodes. It may be a change. I think it probably is, although strangely, playing, you know, Stephen Hawking

for the latter part of his life when he was, I would speak, was a lot about, about, although he would speak through his computer, it was a lot of silence, but I love that. I love, I hate words. I do too, that too, thanks. Always with a script, I'm like, lose it, losing. Yeah, and I love those writers also who really,

because I don't know how you find, but there's this whole thing quite often with scripts where it's almost like there's the producer's version, which is the version written that tells the story over it and then there's the version in which things are filleted out and have faith in actors

to kind of communicate that stuff but I really enjoyed that about this character the kind of enigma of him was thrilling yeah I suspected that I actually looked at the time code the first time you speak

is at 22 minutes into the first episode which is a long time and then you don't say much aside from practicing the German Yeah, that's the English bit. Sorry, you do say, you do, like, mutter German. I'm mudder German.

The way you're saying that, Ben, mutter German, I can't tell you how fucking long. It took me to sort that mutter. It's good. It's good. It was so strange. It was so strange. Like, acting in a language you don't speak a word of.

Because what's weird is you're playing, this character is German, but I had an amazing language coach, a woman called Simone. and she would teach me the German but you would also have to go look the way I kind of want the character to say it is if it was in English

it would be like oh these fucking people I can't do it and so you'd have to rely on her for the music of the of the phrasing or most of the words as well as the pronunciation of the words it was an interesting exercise

well what I love is that you kind of see that exercise in the opening scene again this thing of playing a sociopath transparently which is interesting you know you see the jackal rehearsing which i love you know i can't remember the words but it's it's a it's a it's a very jarring opening scene it's so it's um yeah there's an interesting musicality to it as you're like right and listening to i suppose what would have been a recording

of that man's real voice yeah yeah yeah but it was it um what was strange about it is i learned the german in my voice um you know and which was sort of kind of kind of Is that then, then suddenly when you've got this prosthetic on and he's this chainsmoker, he was down in this weird place that looked completely odd until you had the prosthetic on. But the idea of performance, the Jackal, as an actor, was one of the things that I found. It was that the whole show was an actor's playground in many ways.

I watched The Good Nurse soon after it came out, and I thought it was an incredible film. I actually went back and looked in my text. because I remember telling everyone I knew about it. Have you watched it? Have you seen the good news? Have you seen the good news? And I think I had texted five friends and two group chats.

Have you seen it? Let's talk about it. I thought it was incredible and you played him so well. But I think depicting true crime is so tricky because there's like a balance that you have to strike without, you know, like you described the polarity, trying to depict the polarity of a person. or at least using that in your preparation for the character. Everyone in the story is a real person, a whole person with lots of different facets to them. But you want to depict it in a way that doesn't glamorize the perpetrator,

but also doesn't dishonor the victims. And it's a very fine line. And I think the good nurse really struck that balance. And I guess my question is two parts. First, how do you think the team and yourself were able to strike that balance? Like what, if you have any insight into how that happened? And also what you think about the sort of rise now in true crime dramatizations. Healthy.

You know, it's so intriguing to hear that because it was something that I've wrestled with, thought a lot about for a couple of years. The appeal of that script was twofold. It was the director to be as long. who is this utterly brilliant Danish director who has made some brilliant Danish movies based on true events but that have a quasi-documentarian quality to them

that are not, that are about displaying the events rather than insinuating or evoking kind of, I don't know, an indulgence in the watching of it. So I knew that it was in his hands, And secondly, the script by Christy Wilson-Kerns, the piece is about Charlie Cullen,

but it's actually about this extraordinary woman who was able to sort of reveal him and pull him in. But the main villain of the piece is actually the infrastructure. It's the hospitals that moved him on. This guy who they were conscious was killing people, and they moved him on because they didn't want to deal with. with the libel or the law cases and the idea that that

how insidious that is and I felt that that there was dispassionate quality to the film in which those the villains of the piece were twofold both Charlie but also the system and and

and I felt that it was delivered with that with the observational quality of that rather than something that was emotionally indulgent I think that's actually really important in what we're calling true crime you know because what does feel sort of

maybe unhelpful at a cultural level is how indulgent it can be but then if we're telling stories about this depth of human nature that is more dispassionate I think that's where it can be more useful and more insightful. And also, weirdly, the thing that I found interesting about the goodness is at the end, this character who has appeared kind of gentle and kind and done these continuously horrific things, he's asked why he does it and he says because they didn't stop me.

And so there's no kind of revelation. I think quite often in human nature and true crime is looking for the catalyst. Like what is it that makes someone behave like this with the idea being that it's one moment of trauma? or one, you know, key that alleviates and opens up people's behavior. But I think human beings are more complex than that. And certainly in the good nurse, I think there were people that watched it going, wait, I wanted to know why. Obviously, that is a real life story in which hundreds of people's lives were taken

and families were affected. but the human need to know why is I think at the kind of at the core of our intrigue with true crime. Yeah, wow. Eddie, sorry, we're just jumping around because you've done so many incredible things. Let's go to Cabaret.

So you, I mean, there's so much we could ask about Cabaret, but one thing that stood out to me in doing research is that there was a bit of backlash when you were cast in the West End Cabaret and you shared that it created a little bit of a crisis of common, confidence in you. Yeah. And you seem to be someone

who prepares very rigorously for roles, but I'm curious, are you grateful for the backlash? Did it affect the way you played the role, the way you prepared for it? Do you think you would have gone

about it differently if people had just been thrilled from the jump? That's a great question. Firstly, I managed to sneak in last night to see Cabaret on Broadway. The production that I was in, which Adam Lambert is now doing,

and it is breathtaking. He is so extraordinary as all the cast are. But you're right, look, I have a history of parts that I've played that have been problematic in some of those choices and I've spent a lot of time ruminating on those things and wondering what I would do differently. I was, when it came to cabaret,

I didn't take the part I'd learnt my lesson and I didn't take the part on without knowing exactly what I was doing and the thing with Cabaret is the musical is based on Isherwood's book Goodbye to Berlin

which tells the story of the two protagonists Sally Bowles and Cliff Bradshaw and it but the MC doesn't exist so the part that I played in London and New York was the MC, the MC was a character that was created for the musical

by Joel Gray and Hal Prince, and it was to weave the kind of narrative together. But as far as what he exists as on the page, there is no character description for him. No one talks about him. He doesn't exist in the book. And now he has been played iconically by queer actors absolutely brilliantly.

And certainly, for example, example, in the Alan Cumming version, at the end of the piece, the MC, his costume is taken off and he's revealed in a concentration camp outfit with a pink triangle, which was incredibly moving and was incredibly powerful on Broadway, and I think had sort of made people go, this is a gay character, and so I absolutely understood the questioning of that, but actually my take on it, rather than the MC being the victim. was the MC as perpetrator. And this idea that in my take on the MC,

he starts in this world. He's kind of based on some of those characters from, you know, German expressionist movies. He can lull people in, as those cabarets did, and skewer audiences, people who've paid a lot of money to kind of be slapped in the face a bit, you know. And then gradually over the evening,

this kind of puckish, figure rises into the kind of Aryan um perpetrator and and I think when I was cast people assumed that I was going to be doing and because of the work that I'd done previously that I was taking a you know an iconically queer role and whilst I absolutely understand that discussion I also think there is you know that that character is descriptionless and and deserve there's any form of interpretation. I found it, I was upset by the backlash, but I went when it was announced, but I had faith in my own take on the role.

And I sort of had to wait for, I suppose what I was saying is please just wait and see the performance before you make judgment on it. And we'll be right back. Fall is in full swing and it's the perfect. time to refresh your wardrobe with pieces that feel as good as they look. Luckily, Quince makes it easy to look polished, stay warm, and save big without compromising on quality. Quince has all the elevated essentials for fall. Think 100% Mongolian cashmere from $50. That's right, $50. Washable silk tops and skirts, and perfectly tailored denim, all at prices that feel

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through your sort of, your sort of partnership with Jessica Chastain, what do you feel you had lost, and maybe what are some of the reasons why, and what were you rediscovering? I think I was rediscovering of freedom, honestly. I feel that, and I think it was cabaret and the process of prepping for cabaret and throwing myself into different worlds of going back to,

I went to, like, clowning school in Paris. I went and worked with this brilliant choreographer, Julia Chang, people who physically, vocally took you to different places, that made me realize that what happens with acting is you work hard, you audition for everything you can, you desperately try to make a career. If you can, you get a job, you do it, you get pigeonholed into different places,

depending on what that moment is. So I look back on my work and there was definitely like a, I had a sort of Elizabethan period, like any film with Elizabeth. You've gotten some good pigeonholes. I guess I don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about. You've had many pigeonholes, which means there's no pigeon hole at all. But it got to a point, I think, where I just... I was sitting on...

Well, I wasn't necessarily inspired by the process. And then, honestly, it was working with Tobias Lynn Holman, Jess Chastain, a brilliant cinematographer called Jodie Lee Leipes, who did this thing, went on the first day on the goodness. I arrived on set, and I was in this corridor in a hospital. And it was, the set was virtually pitch black. But I couldn't, you could see nothing. And then I looked in the camera and it was much lighter.

And there was a kind of, he was, Jody was filming it that way to create this kind of graininess, almost like a film texture. And it was amazing because it meant that you didn't see the crew and you didn't see. So that, that odd thing that I always find with filming is that the first kind of mental leap that you have to take is you're having an intimate chat.

And there are, you know, 20 people's, standing here it was our brilliant crew became kind of recessive or disappeared and I remember years ago doing a pilot

for an HBO thing which Barry Akroyd shot and Barry shoots on these long lenses from miles away and it was the most wonderful experience imaginable because we could be shooting

this scene without the feeling of being scrutinized and I don't know how you find but every time I mean my show has never seen it it's the cameras are I'm often acting with an X on the map box.

That was fantastic piece for me. Right, yeah, exactly. It's a different skill, isn't it? Completely different skill. It's a kind of, and it's innately more technical, and it's bloody hard. Yes, in my current role,

I feel like I have become such a technical actor that I'm constantly thinking about lighting. I mean, I directed an episode, so it sort of ended up paying off in that sense, but it's, yeah, that what you're describing right there sounds really lovely. So Penn talks about the directing. Oh, they don't want to hear that.

No, I do, actually, please. But I do want to hear about how did you find that first moment when you, because I've thought about that well. But like having... Would you direct a, you'd probably direct a film, right? Would you direct something that you would act in? I don't know. That's my question, is how did you...

What was that first moment like? I mean, for the sake of Brevet, I would love to give you the, as an in-depth answer as you as you want, but for the sake of our podcast and time, I will try to give you something. Clothed in the garment of brevity. Let me pause for a while. So because the role is so technical,

because the show is called you, and I'm at the center of it, everything is from my perspective. My voiceover is like 90% of the spoken words. I am often acting with X's on a matbox because the camera has to be right here because the whole thing is glued together by like my face and thoughts happen.

It is already like a producerial, editorial, technical. I work more with the camera crew than I work with other actors. like literally I have a different crew and cast every season like it is a role that is so

uncommonly central to the apparatus that directing was like oh no this is actually kind of like I almost would rather do this if the gift and what I did not get was time to prep yeah adequate time to prep

I couldn't watch playback so it was like I was doing everything very intuitively never do it again like that however it was very interesting and I was in London by the way I love I love I love London

but also time to prep but also presumably time to edit because this is why I don't On these shows, it's so, my show I found so relentless. Yes, yeah, television, even when you're doing it at the prestige level, it's, yeah, time is so hard to come by. You're just doing so much and so little time. I was editing on L.A. time in London,

so I'd come home from a full day and then edit on over Zoom. But then, you know, in television, this is the thing. You're not the same, you're shepherding something as opposed to generating it the way you are in film. You know, as a director in television, you have an easier job. It's a little more utilitarian. So, you know,

you get to leave your stamp. You get, you get to have certain moments where it's like this is the essence of what we do and that's awesome. And then a lot of it is kind of facilitating things that the crew already knows how to shoot the show, you know? Yeah. I'd love to have a chat, a proper chat with you about the difference between

the American system and the British system. I think there are quite a few. There are some significant differences. We had trouble doing our show in London We were like a month over in the end Wow Yeah For a lot of reasons

For reasons that are Where are you staying Ladbrook Grove Where I live Yeah Yeah I love it I apart from being away From my family for so long

I loved it there I loved it It's a great city I've got to say I've been away I was in Hungary Doing Dare the Jackal for eight months

And I had four days off And came to New York Where I've been for it So I've just got home He says from New York But I just got back to London And it's, yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful place. I sort of forget how wonderful it is.

You mentioned the differences between America and American film and British film. And I'm curious, my mom is English, my dad is American. And so I know, it goes without saying that there's such cultural differences between the two places just generally. And I'm curious for you growing up in England and then also, you know, being in Hollywood, what are the cultural differences that you had to get used to? I don't know if they're cultural differences or they're my but I think there's a kind of there's an odd thing with the sort of the English politeness you know that manifests itself in actually

we don't quite say what we mean and then we repress it and and bitch behind you know behind your back that we haven't said what we wanted to say and can't you read what I'm saying by the subtext with which I said it rather than in America, everyone says it's sort of up front but then... I even noticed when you said

the first two questions you at least told us that you proposed to your wife, but you said you don't want to go to the theater, do you? And then you said, you don't want to go to Florence, do you? Do you want to say? Do you want to? You're like, nah, you know what it? I mean, how much do you pay for therapy?

Like, you can be my therapist. But it's also, what's weird, honestly, as a British actor, though, is you go, fuck, you then read when you start coming over and you do press and people are like, oh, it's English, he's sort of charming. And you go like, oh, shit. Like, is that part of your schick, you know? It's the only reason you've made it.

Seriously, genuinely, don't get me there. Like, it's a bit of the moments when you go, but I am I am trying as I get older to sort of get rid of it because there's a difference in politeness and being disingenuous

and actually You don't strike me as Well I don't necessarily So my wife is British But she moved here when she was 12 Right So she has a very like She has a very un-British

Like sincerity and earnestness And like she's so open and warm in that way In a way that's like I actually kind of thought she was like South America when I first met her I didn't know what that was. And then after having spent some time there, I definitely have more of a sense of what you're saying.

But you, you know, I have to say you, this self-consciousness that you just mentioned. I mean, you didn't use that word, but like what strikes me is that you and your early 20s, you know, coming out of, like, boarding school and the experiences you had there, I did really want to hear about your thesis with this color blue and like that was, we can't get into that.

your lack of self-consciousness that you at least between those moments of action and cut because I understand that who you are between action and cut is not this person you necessarily ever get to be anywhere else you know there's something very special about those moments and the best thing we can do as actors is just strip away all that we've prepared

and thought of would you say no I prep I prep just exhaustively so I'm really with you there too we have just so many similarities it's uncanny but that lack of self-consciousness like seeing you say in the Good Shepherd you know how old were you there

24? 24 yeah yeah yeah yeah you're standing alongside some of our most iconic American actors and that's its own just I mean you're like on a film set those differences you just you have this like beautiful lack of self-consciousness which it just I think that's what you know

all the other things make you're great but that to me is like without that without that you can't You can't be present, and you can't do what we do. And I just want to commend you on, like, you know, whatever the wild insecurities you must have, which everybody has, between action and cut, you at least know how to, like, strip it away. Thank you, very.

And it means a lot because it's, I think of, you know, adolescence. Like, for me, the moment of adolescence was the moment of a switch going off into self-consciousness. Exactly. And I hate it. And why I brought up that sort of piano thing was I just, I remember there being a period where you didn't think about making friends. I remember that being a thing when I arrived at age 13 at school and suddenly having to think about conversation.

Until then, everything was on instinct. And my kids are six and eight. And I just, it's so glorious to see that. And I don't know what that is that chafes away at it. But there are definitely moments. Those moments on screen, like the reason I love acting and there's an addiction to it is for those millisecond moments, I think, that happen maybe once every three years in which there is a moment of complete freedom, of total lack of self-consciousness, and that's the drug. That, for me, is the thing that brings you back and back, but I love that you think I've conned you into thinking that I'm not self-conscious for a lot of time. Well, no, no, no, I mean, I know that you are.

I just think that you have a utility of stripping in a way enough so that you, so that I think that's what makes great actors great. I think it could be as simple as that. It's the self-consciousness between action and cut. So you were bringing it back to that time of adolescence, which we love it. So, we love it. So if you could go back to 12-year-old Eddie, what would you say or do? If anything. And this is our last question. Yeah, I think, you know, I've talked about not caring what people think, you know, I think that's true to an extent in that I don't care of, you know, when I was at school.

And I think that I sort of, I think that's true to an extent in that I put up some pretty hard barriers to go, I don't care, you can throw the mockery at me, you know, I don't give a shit. But I actually think that is when the strictures started coming out and I think it was probably exacerbated by being at an English boarding school. I kind of wish that I had, that art of not giving a fuck had really been more potent than because I'll not forget when I was prepping for cabaret. I went and spent a day moving with this choreographer, Julia Cheng, and I really can't dance, but she is this extraordinary dancer who specialised in street dancing and whacking and vogueing,

and I was terrified to go into this room with her because I was, what the hell. And she just brought movement out of me in a way in which, if anyone had watched, it would have been the most humiliating thing in the world, but I felt free. And I hadn't felt that feeling since I was, since before adolescence, before that moment of and and i think that freedom is is something that we can all aspire to in some ways um but that's probably what i would say i have no idea what it was that i would say it's about quite loquacious and weird eddie i just want to say i think you're physically

the furthest away a guest has ever been and at the risk of embarrassing you i do want to say that the whole interview i've had this like been flooded with this feeling of feeling so lucky to be in your presence because you just seem like an extraordinary person so even though you're like physically far away, I can like feel that. Thank you so much. It's been a real, real treat for me.

And I'm sorry not to meet you guys in person. I'm very jealous you're in Florence. Say hi to the Arno for me. Go and sit on one, go and Santa Spirito and have a peach dacery. Oh, you're okay, I know you've been here because that is the best square. That's the best piazza.

It was so nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, mate. Thank you guys. You can watch the Day of the Jackal on Peacock, and you can keep up with him online. No, you can't. He's off socials, but go watch Day of the Jackal. We are so excited that you can now listen to Podcrush, ad free on Amazon music. In fact, you can listen to any episode of Podcrushed ad free right now on Amazon Music with an Amazon Prime membership. How do you react to an intro? I always find it quite cringing.

I have to, see, I don't like doing it live because... Because you know what it feels like. Yes, and I hate when people list my Oscar nominations as well. I know that's the problem you have. It's the one I get to. Also my BAFTAs, also my Olivier's, also my Tony's. It's infuriating. It's humiliating.

Like, can you just please focus on the work? Thank you.