NEW YORK—His performance is already generating Oscar rumors. In “The Theory of Everything,” Eddie Redmayne is legendary physicist Stephen Hawking, embodying not only Hawking’s razor-sharp wit, humor, and love of life, but also the physical brittleness brought on by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
ALS is a rare but incurable disease that slowly shuts down control of all muscles. Although it typically manifests in patients’ 50s, Hawking developed symptoms when he was only 20. The disease has left him in a wheelchair and unable to speak, except through a computer program. Yet he has still managed to become a leader in his field.
“The Theory of Everything” begins at the start of Hawking’s career, and as he meets his future wife and caretaker-to-be Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), without whom none of his science would have been possible.
To prepare for the transformation, Redmayne spent four months studying ALS patients in a London clinic, speaking with specialists, watching Hawking’s BBC documentary, and reading Hawking’s books. He met with Hawking’s previous students and talked science with them.
But depicting a living physicist involved another challenge—meeting the man himself.
Redmayne described that encounter in an exclusive interview on Oct. 17.
