14 things you may not know about Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne

eddie redmayne
Eddie Redmayne won a best actor Oscar for his role in "The Theory of Everything."
Samuel de Roman/WireImage

  • Eddie Redmayne is an Oscar-winning actor.
  • At 37 years old, Redmayne has starred in multiple acclaimed movies, including "The Theory of Everything" and "The Danish Girl."
  • He now stars as Newt Scamander in the " Harry Potter" spinoff series " Fantastic Beasts."
  • Here are 14 things you may not know about him.

Eddie Redmayne is rapidly becoming a household name — particularly thanks to his blockbuster, five-movie contract for the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise.

But the Oscar winner, who began acting in plays when he was a teenager, is not quite ubiquitous just yet. After all, he still rides the subway.

Here are 14 things you may not know about the famous actor.


While he was raised in London, he's "weirdly obsessed" with New York City.

Eddie Redmayne on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in New York City.
Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

"When I was 13 or 14, I had a calendar of black and white New York photos and was endlessly trying to do drawings of them," Redmayne told Gotham magazine.

"And then my mum took me to New York, and we were lucky enough to stay in this hotel on the 21st floor. I opened the windows and the curtains, and there was St. Patrick's Cathedral, with all the high-rise buildings flying up above it. I kid you not, my knees buckled. I find New York the most electric, enlivening place."

During an interview with The Guardian, Redmayne called himself "a full-on London man," however. He also said he'd like to live in Paris and described Derbyshire in England as "the most beautiful place in the world."


He was classmates and rugby teammates with Prince William.

Eddie Redmayne introducing Prince William to his now-wife, Hannah Bagshawe.
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Audi

Redmayne told Glamour that he and Prince William were on the same rugby team at Eton College.

"He's a wonderful man," Redmayne said. "I always felt slightly sorry for him because everyone wanted to tackle the future king of England. He took all the hits."


He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with an art history degree.

Eddie Redmayne attending the "Crimes of Grindelwald" premiere at the Chaoyang Museum Of Urban Planning.
VCG via Getty Images

Redmayne told Gotham magazine that if he hadn't become an actor, he would have pursued a career as an art curator.

Fellow actor Andrew Garfield, who conducted the interview, said it's "awesome" to walk around a museum with Redmayne: "I was with a top-class tour guide because your knowledge and passion are so deep," Garfield told Redmayne. "You were a man at the exact right place in his life, doing exactly what he should be doing."


He's color blind.

Eddie Redmayne says his wife, Hannah Bagshawe, helps him put outfits together.
Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

"I'm actually very color blind," Redmayne told the Gentlemans Journal. "It's a weird thing, a confusing thing to explain. Lots of people think that I just see in black and white, but it's more like confusing tones of color. So, blues and purples or greys and browns may trip me up. It feels like you haven't been educated on your colors properly because they merge."

"Funnily enough, I was having this exact problem trying to pick out a tie for dinner tonight," he continued. "I had to ask for my wife's help."


He won a Razzie for worst actor the same year he was nominated at the Oscars for best actor.

Eddie Redmayne in "Jupiter Ascending."
Warner Bros.

In 2016, Redmayne was awarded a worst actor Razzie for his role in "Jupter Ascending," which was critically panned.

"I won a prize for it for the worst performance of the year," Redmayne recently told GQ. "So yeah, it was pretty bad performance by all accounts."

"My character had had his larynx ripped out by this wolf man, and so I made the slightly bold choice, which I thought was right, of talking like this," he told GQ, putting on a raspy voice. "In retrospect, it may have been too much."

The same year, Redmayne was up for best actor at the Oscars for his role in "The Danish Girl."


He still isn't sure whether his Oscar-nominated role in "The Danish Girl" was "the right thing to do."

Eddie Redmayne portrays Einar Wegener, a trans woman, in "The Danish Girl."

While Redmayne described the experience making "The Danish Girl" as "formative" and "extraordinary," he also grappled with criticism that a cisgender man should not be portraying a transgender woman.

"Just before our film came out, Caitlyn Jenner had been on the front of Vanity Fair. Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time magazine," Redmayne recently reflected in a video for GQ. "And it felt, perhaps, that it was time for trans people to be telling their stories."

"There was a certain amount of backlash, which I felt from that — which I understood and sort of agreed with," he continued. "I sort of committed to [the role] quite a long time beforehand. But, yeah. It's a complicated experience because I learned a lot and I met extraordinary people, and I still haven't necessarily reconciled whether it was the right thing to do."


He loves the TV show "The Hills" and the Australian soap opera "Neighbors."

MTV is set to reboot "The Hills" in 2019 without Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari.

"Particularly when I'm working, I find I can't watch proper television. I have to watch just mindless reality TV," he recently told W magazine. "I'm quite excited because ' The Hills,' which was my original reality TV guilty pleasure, is coming back."

"I was quite into Heidi Montag, who I had a sort of love/hate relationship with," he continued.

Redmayne was also offered a cameo role in Australia's most famous soap opera, "Neighbors," after describing Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne, who play Karl and Susan Kennedy on the show, as "the greatest unsung acting duo in history."


He has also said that Dani Dyer from "Love Island" is his "favorite human being in the world."

Dani Dyer attending the "Love Island Live" event.
Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images

Redmayne revealed to Glamour that he and his " Crimes of Grindelwald" co-star Callum Turner became very invested in the debauched British reality show "Love Island" while filming.

"By the way," he continued, "the other day, Dani Dyer, who is my favourite human being in the world, was nice about me on telly and it made my life. Literally, she's the nation's sweetheart and if it was the Oscar or Dani, it would be Dani every time."


The filmmakers for "The Theory of Everything" originally rejected the idea of Redmayne for the lead role.

Felicity Jones portrayed Stephen Hawking's first wife Jane Wilde in "The Theory of Everything."
Focus Features

Redmayne told the Gentleman's Journal that "five or six other actors said no" before he was cast as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything."

Redmayne also told GQ that he essentially had to guilt-trip the filmmakers into meeting with him for the role, as he had recently done a film ("Les Misérables") for the same production company.


He made a point to tell Stephen Hawking that they're both Capricorns.

Eddie Redmayne and Stephen Hawking attend the EE British Academy Film Awards after party in 2015.
Eamonn McCormack/WireImage

As Redmayne told BBC Radio 1, his birthday, January 6, is only a couple days before Hawking's birthday on January 8.

Upon first meeting the famed theoretical physicist, Redmayne pointed out, "It's funny... because we're both Capricorns!"

"I am an astronomer, not an astrologer," Hawking responded.


He auditioned for villain roles in both "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars."

Christian Coulson portrayed Tom Riddle in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
Warner Bros.

Before he was cast as Newt Scamander for the "Fantastic Beasts" series, Redmayne had auditioned to play a pre-Voldemort Tom Riddle for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

"I actually auditioned to play Tom Riddle when I was back at university," Redmayne told Empire. "I properly failed and didn't get a call back. Over the years I always hoped I might be cast as a member of the Weasley family, but unfortunately not."

Redmayne also described his audition to play a "baddie" in " Star Wars: The Force Awakens" as "catastrophic."


He's a Hufflepuff.

Eddie Redmayne portrays Newt Scamander in the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise.
Warner Bros.

Just like his character in "Fantastic Beasts," Redmayne was sorted into Hufflepuff on the official Pottermore website.

"That would be really depressing for me to find out that like I'm not actually Hufflepuff and then it sorted me with Hufflepuff," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I literally was by myself at home and I yelped with excitement that I got Hufflepuff. I was like, 'the magic exists.'"


His Patronus is a Basset hound dog.

We don't yet know Newt Scamander's patronus.
Courtesy of Warner Bros.

"When I was doing the first 'Fantastic Beasts,' I did this whole Pottermore Patronus thing and I was a Basset hound dog. Twice," he told Buzzfeed. "Which sort of broke all the algorithm rules of that thing, so I felt like that was the world — or J.K. Rowling's world — telling me that I was, in fact, a Basset hound. I'll take that."

Read more: All the known Patronuses of the 'Harry Potter' characters — from Dumbledore to the Weasley twins


He's at his happiest while eating pizza with extra pepperoni.

Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for best actor in "The Theory of Everything."

Redmayne told Buzzfeed that "La Reine Romana with extra pepperoni, salad, and dressing on the side from Pizza Express" is "literally my favourite thing in the world."

"When I'm eating it I'm at my most happy," he said.

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SEE ALSO: Eddie Redmayne hired a movement coach to teach him wand skills for his role in 'Fantastic Beasts'

DON'T MISS: 12 sneaky 'Harry Potter' references you may have missed in 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald'

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