Eddie Redmayne steadily has been building an impressive resume. He romanced Marilyn Monroe (well, Michelle Williams) in My Week with Marilyn. He held a tune – several, in fact – in Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables. And he’s currently courting Oscar buzz for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. But it turns out there are some movies Redmayne is NOT destined to be in, and some roles that just aren’t the right fit.
The actor has been doing a million interviews as of late in support of The Theory of Everything, and during a conversation with MTV, he admits that he auditioned for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Well, that isn’t special. Everyone auditioned for that movie, from Benedict Cumberbatch to Saoirse Ronan. Only, Redmayne’s audition didn’t go well. In fact, it went spectacularly bad. As he recalls:
There’s this wonderful casting director called Nina Gold, who I absolutely love. I went in and did this scene, and after seven times of trying to play… [Gold] was like, ‘Got anything else, Eddie?’ I was like, ‘No, I want out.’ ‘I think we’re going to have to agree to part on this one.’ I said, ‘Ok, that’s a childhood dream crushed.’"
It’s worth listening to the whole interview, especially this part about auditions, because Redmayne was up for Dane DeHaan’s part in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and also auditioned for The Hobbit. He’s totally and completely an "It" name who likely gets a chance to go out for the hottest roles. He just doesn’t land all of them! (This talk begins around the 28-minute mark.)
After people witness what Redmayne can do in The Theory of Everything, I’m willing to bet that is options will increase ten-fold. His range in various projects, so far, has been impressive. And the next project that we will see him in, Jupiter Ascending, is about as opposite from the Stephen Hawking biopic as we can imagine.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens next December. It doesn’t have Eddie Redmayne in it. The Theory of Everything does. It’s in theaters now.
