Eddie’s ready to stand up for his rights in blistering courtroom drama
EDDIE REDMAYNE has turned radical! The actor portrays Tom Hayden, a towering figure of 1960s activism, in Aaron Sorkin’s thrilling and energetic exploration of the court case that has become enshrined in U.S. history as The Trial Of The Chicago 7.
Hayden and a who’s who of American antiwar and civil rights protesters were charged with conspiracy and incitement to riot for disrupting the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago in 1968.
The radicalism of the era then exploded into the courtroom of Judge Julius Hoffman, whose behaviour towards the defendants and defence counsel was so outrageous he was condemned by Chicago’s legal establishment (Frank Langella gets him bang on).
There were so many big name revolutionaries in the dock that one of them commented it was like ‘the Academy Awards of protests’.
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 will surely end up at the centre of this awards season, with attention being paid to Redmayne’s co-stars, the creative team and his own stirring performance as Hayden.
Before accepting the part, the Oscar-winner said he knew little about that period of American history; and even less about the selfdescribed ‘Native American boy from the Midwest’ who believed in justice and equality for all, and went on to marry Jane Fonda.
The film’s been in the works for 15 years and has had many iterations of casts and directors. Two years ago, Redmayne was brought on board. He and wife Hannah Bagshawe ‘were packed up and ready to fly out to film’ when the project fell through.
But a year later, it was back on again. So last autumn, Redmayne found himself on trial with an assortment of codefendants, portrayed by a mouthwatering ensemble cast.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong are hippie leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, whom Judge Hoffman ordered to be gagged and shackled during proceedings — a move so shocking that Seale’s trial was separated from the main proceedings.
Redmayne was also reunited with Mark Rylance — a champion of his early career — who took the part of defence lawyer William Kunstler.
But even while making the small budget movie ‘ you felt the thing might collapse, daily’ Redmayne recalled.
Since filming completed nine months ago ‘it’s become more eerily relevant, day by day’. Not only are we seeing ‘mirror images with what took place in 1968 and 1969’ but ‘there was also a flu pandemic’ (Hong Kong flu).
Redmayne said he was moved by something Fonda wrote about Hayden at the time of his memorial in 2017, a year after his death. ‘She said he whispered to her, the day before he died, that seeing people willing to die for their beliefs changed him for ever.’ Redmayne, a father of two, said he thought he knew what drove Hayden to take a stand: Integrity.’
The actor won his Academy Award for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. He also garnered critical acclaim for The Danish Girl, in which he portrayed transgender pioneer Einar Wegener, an artist who in the 1920s became Lili Ebe after undergoing one of the first recorded genderreassignment surgeries. Redmayne stressed that he had never taken a role for political reasons. ‘I was compelled by the stories,’ he told me. ‘Similarly with this,’ he added of The Trial Of The Chicago 7, which Netflix will screen from October 16. Which does not mean he doesn’t have political views. ‘I’d just rather focus my attention on what my job is, which is telling stories,’ he said. ‘If those stories can have an effect and shift people’s opinions ...’ Well, then, he’s happy.
Like Hayden, he’s aware of the ‘ramifications’ of taking action. ‘Speaking out can end up doing damage to the things you believe in, rather than helping,’ he said. ‘What I try to do generally is keep my head down.’
But not always. For instance, he was angered that people with Motor Neurone Disease weren’t put on the extremely vulnerable list during the pandemic.
As a patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association he found that ‘truly shocking’, so he wrote to his MP.
Another thing he stood up for was transgender rights, making a statement in support following comments by J.K. Rowling, whom he knows through playing Newt
Scamander in her Fantastic Beasts films. (He’s back on set at the moment, shooting a third movie.)
He said he has many ‘ trans friends and colleagues’ who are ‘ having their human rights challenged around the world and facing discrimination on a daily basis’.
Though he disagreed with Rowling’s comments on the issue, he was alarmed by the ‘vitriol’ hurled at her on social media, which he termed ‘absolutely disgusting’, and which prompted him to write her a private note.
Over the past six months, Redmayne said he had become ‘so immersed in my little ones’ — children Iris, four, and Luke, two — that it felt ‘extraordinarily strange’ being back on set. (Fantastic Beasts 3 shot for just one day before being closed due to lockdown.)
‘ We’re being tested several times a week; we are wearing masks for rehearsal; we’re in bubbles,’ he said. ‘It does make you extra careful.’