EDDIE REDMAYNE
Theory of Everything star talks to LAURA HARDING about his transition from immersive movie roles to playing a wide-eyed caveman in the latest Aardman Animations production
EDDIE Redmayne is an Oscar winner and one of the most acclaimed actors in the world.
But that didn’t mean it was any less terrifying joining the stellar voice cast of the latest Aardman movie.
The star of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl is now voicing a toothy caveman called Dug in Aardman Animation’s film Early Man.
The company who brought the world Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run – and won plenty of Oscars of their own – are now turning their hand to the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures roamed the Earth.
Eddie laughed: “Dug has a massive mouth, I have a massive mouth so we related there.
“I definitely did spend a lot of my time with really wide-open eyes.”
While some actors have extensive experience of voice work, lending their dulcet tones to countless animations, ads and documentaries, Redmayne’s knowledge was more limited.
He said: “The only other thing I’ve ever done was to voice the train Ryan in an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.
“I was told they get everyone to open their eyes incredibly widely and talk with great enthusiasm.
“That is what I did back then and I took a little bit of that into Dug because he had a similar optimism.”
Some of that optimism might have come in handy for the 36-year-old, who said he was a bundle of nerves about joining an Aardman project and working with famous animator Nick Park, the creator of so many beloved characters.
He said: “I’ve loved Aardman since I was little but what if I went in and did the voice and they said, ‘Oh, you’re going to do it like that?’
“In order to preemptively not get fired, I said, ‘Could we have a session where we play around with who Dug is?’ We did and sweetly, Nick didn’t want to fire me.
“I’ve known of Nick since I was growing up, watching him win Oscars, and those amazing award speeches he would give.
“He’s the most affable gentleman and it’s the same when you spend time with him, he’s so disarming.”
So how real was the fear he might get fired? “It’s happened before,” he sighed. “Many a bad experience. I’ve been fired from many a voiceover job.”
Who would fire this delightful chap? Is he joking? It’s hard to tell.
He said: “People ask you to do a film and you stand in a booth and open your mouth and they go, ‘Uh-oh, he doesn’t have a very good voice, does he?”’
Certainly it’s hard to reconcile the voice speaking now – laughing but earnest, just a trace of Eton College, where he went to school – with the slightly gormless tones of Dug.
Eddie said: “Normally when you’re acting, you start with the script