Eddie Redmayne: I modelled for grannies

Eddie Redmayne decided to ditch modelling after experiencing the “heady days of knitting books”.

The 32-year-old’s turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything has already generated Oscars buzz - but things could have been very different for the Brit. Thanks to his chiselled good looks he started out as a model, but soon realised it wasn’t for him.

“The most success I think I had was doing a knitting magazine that was sent to grannies,” he laughed to Vogue magazine. “But after my huge, heady days in the knitting books, I left it behind.”

The Theory of Everything tells the story of the acclaimed physicist and Jane Wilde, who he fell in love with while studying at Cambridge University. It also tracks Stephen’s motor neurone disease ALS. Eddie met with Stephen a great deal to ensure he got things right.

One moment which sticks in his mind, is watching the May Ball scene with the physicist.

“It was like stepping back in time,” he recalled. “Everyone was dressed, and we were waiting for the fireworks display. As if on cue, Stephen came in in his wheelchair with his caregivers - it was night-time, and his face was uplit by his computer screen - and just as he arrived, the fireworks went off. It was the most rock-star entrance I’ve ever seen.”

Before embarking on the project, Eddie did a great deal of research. He spoke to people who suffer from the degenerative disease, and he was very affected by their stories.

The star recalled meeting the wife of one man who was completely immobile and asking her what the worst part of having a husband with ALS was.

“And she says, ‘Oh my God, d’you know what? I don’t know where to start,’” he said. “And she just stands there and then breaks down, and you watch her husband try to move his body to hug her, and he can’t do anything, and so she has to come and hold him.”