Stephen Hawking is ‘very proud’ of Eddie Redmayne & his Oscar win

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Here are some assorted photos of Eddie Remayne and his wife Hannah Bagshawe at the Oscars, the Oscar parties and at LAX yesterday, leaving LA as soon as the Oscar festivities were over. Hannah hasn’t been on his arm for every LA event, and he’s said several times that she has a job and her own schedule, that she doesn’t drop everything to be his plus-one at every occasion. That’s a good thing, in my opinion. It makes Eddie seem like he went for a woman of substance, a woman who prioritizes her work and having a career.

As for Eddie’s amazing Oscar win, as I said on Oscar night, I was all for it, but there is currently some backlash and online muttering about it. I ended up watching Birdman and The Theory of Everything within a 24 hour period (thanks CB!) and I really thought that in a head-to-head race between Michael Keaton and Eddie, Eddie should win. Don’t get me wrong, Keaton’s performance was very good. He was actually the best part of the film, alongside Ed Norton. But I thought Birdman was such a stupid movie, mostly because the story annoyed me and the “unreliable narrator” crap made me roll my eyes. While TTOE didn’t break the mold with storytelling, Eddie’s performance as Stephen Hawking was incredible and remarkable. It was in the vein of Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot (a performance that won Day-Lewis his first Oscar too).

Throughout it all, Eddie had the blessing of the towering icon he was playing as well – Stephen Hawking liked the film and publicly complimented the film and Eddie personally (Hawking is said to have flirted with Felicity Jones too). After Eddie’s win, Hawking wrote this on his Facebook:

Congratulations to Eddie Redmayne for winning an ‪#‎Oscar‬ for playing me in The Theory of Everything Movie. Well done Eddie, I’m very proud of you. –SH

[From Hawking’s Facebook]

Aw.

As for what’s next for Eddie, he’s currently working on The Danish Girl, the true story of “Danish artists Einar Wegener and his wife Gerda.” Eddie stars with Alicia Vikander and… Amber Heard?

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Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

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36 Responses to “Stephen Hawking is ‘very proud’ of Eddie Redmayne & his Oscar win”

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  1. AuroraO says:

    I thoroughly enjoyed TTOE. Really great performance by Eddie. Could not have been easy.

  2. kri says:

    Nothing but love for this man’s work. look how happy they are!!

  3. Pri says:

    I am not surprised that Hawking is happy with this very PR-friendly biopic.

    If you read Jane (his wife’s) original autobiography, you’ll see a more complicated story, where he is not just the goofy and funny scientist depicted on film.

    • Sam says:

      Yeah, that always made me slightly uncomfortable as well. The original autobiography was written a few years after Stephen and Jane divorced, and it is very unkind to him (it’s out of print now, I have a friend who has a copy). Jane really unloaded in that one, and it’s easy to see why. She gave up so, so much to take care of him and to advance his career at the expense of her own, and he didn’t exactly treat her incredibly well.

      I always question a film that wants to be an autobiography of a person who is still alive. Either you’re going to piss them off by being honest or you’re going to be overall deferential. But I suppose in this case its not as bad since Jane and Stephen has largely reconciled and are okay with each other now (which is part of why Jane wrote another book that removed most of the bad parts).

      It’s the same thing with a Beautiful Mind. The worst parts of John Nash (including abandoning his first child’s mother because she was “beneath him” and trying to defect to the USSR) were all removed so the film could be an inspirational triumph over mental illness. That’s why any bio-pic needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

      But none of that means that Eddie didn’t turn in a great performance.

    • Miffy says:

      I haven’t read it and only had a vague idea that he left his wife for his nurse and while I enjoyed the film and for caught up in the schmaltz I did think afterwards “what a bastard!”

  4. paola says:

    My take on this might be unpopular but I don’t see the Oscar winning for a young actor as a blessing. What comes next is almost boring. Not his fault of course but he’s peaked already and he has to be very careful from now on with whatever projects he takes part in.
    I didn’t love the film, it changed my mind about Stephen Hawking ( I would describe him as a selfish a-hole ) but i loved Eddie’s rendition of him.
    I still believe there were so many weak movies and performances this year for the Oscars and Eddie’s performance stood out the most.

    Reese Whiterspoon’s forehead is hunting my dreams! I watched a clip of her presenting an award and it looked like her eybrows were trying to escape her face. Good god

    • Sea Dragon says:

      I had no idea that Hawking was an a*hole. Either way, his work is completely awe inspiring and to be on this great man’s radar would be a gift I’d cherish until my dying day.

      • paola says:

        I agree. Hawking is one of the greatest minds of our time. I’d cherish his compliment more than the Oscar itself.

    • Winterlady says:

      I agree about the Oscar being more a curse then a blessing, especially if a person wins it at such a young age. Here’s hoping this doesn’t diminish Eddie’s career like it has others (Adrien Brody comes to mind) and he keeps getting juicy roles.

  5. Cynthia says:

    They’re such a cute couple!

  6. Div says:

    Eddie was fantastic. I do get the grumbling though because he campaigned hard compared to Keaton, but most of them campaign in that manner. Also, I think most critics were just a little meh on Theory compared to Birdman which probably also contributed to the grumbling

  7. Luca76 says:

    I mean congrats to him but he worked the awards circuit hard. Over on Oscar forums they called him Redcarpet because he attended any and every event where the Oscar voters were.
    Pretending he just one on the merit of his performance alone is niave.

    • 'P'enny says:

      no one cant blame him for it though, he’s 32 [I think] and its chance to network and shill at the top level of film makers and contacts. What’s he supposed to do, sit on his bum? Keaton has been around a lot, he’s known he doesn’t need to be awareness building quite so much. A English newbie whose name has been drowned out a lot lately by other English 30-something actors needs to work harder. Good on him and raise a glass.

    • Artemis says:

      There’s no shame in working hard and hustling for something you believe in. I thought the backlash against Hathaway was unfair (too) because I find it admirable when somebody isn’t ashamed to sell something they obviously are passionate about and believe in.

      Furthermore, a lot of actors pretend to be above it but hustle hard behind the scenes and they are the ones who are ‘praised’ for not caring or ‘not needing it’. Meryl Streep and Daniel Day Lewis are prime examples of this. Joaquin Phoenix is probably one of the few that really don’t care but then again, he can be a complete dick during promotional tours. I find actors that CARE about their work and make great effort to promote it (and themselves) much better than those who hide their thirst and then get the benefit of not receiving backlash because not caring is cool apparently?

      Why aren’t people allowed to care in the first place?

      • Luca76 says:

        I don’t really have a problem with campaigning per se either. I have an issue with elevating this guy as being a class act or above all the shameless PR. He only looks above it because the press isn’t interested enough to dissect his PR game.
        There is an element of campaigning that is just doing your job and supporting your projects. There of course is another which is basically selling a celeb as a product. Some people seamlessly sell themselves and it doesn’t come off as offensive others have a few ‘seams’ showing in their game.
        It’s also so obvious how the Oscars are BS and the best performance rarely wins or even gets nominated. It’s all a matter of who made a small group of white men like them enough to give them a statue.

    • Dree says:

      @Luca76
      Matthew M ( unlike Chiwetel) did the same type of campaigning last year as did countless other winners. And i don’t think Cumberbatch was campaigning any less than Redmayne. So i don’t see how that counts against him? Personally i would have liked to see Keaton win, but given the choice between the two english toffs i can see how the academy was more taken with Redmayne. His was a more physical performance ( which the academy traditionally likes) and Redmayne is simply a more personable, charming man than Cumberbatch.

  8. maria says:

    I literally went AAAAAWWWW when I saw that first pic. See, THAT is a loved up couple!

  9. M.J. says:

    I know pretty much nothing about Eddie, beyond his Oscar win, but he and his wife are such a cute couple.

  10. Thinker says:

    Anyone else notice the wife is a chin-twin with Jen Aniston? It’s the same chin!

  11. Gracie says:

    Adorable couple! Adorable pictures!

  12. Diana B says:

    So happy for him. And he looks adorable with the wifey.

  13. Dree says:

    He’s just so charming. He really won my over every time i saw him speak.

  14. Bobby the K says:

    I think actors should promote their movies to the best of their ability.

    But it becomes more apparent every year that the more they campaign for an award the better the odds of getting one. It’s getting to be less and less about artistic merit.

  15. Patty says:

    That article at Huffington Post is ridiculous. The writers argument is that Keaton should have won for the following reasons:

    “He won’t have another shot like this”
    “Eddie is too young”
    “It could have been the first time in years that all of the Best and Supporting categories went to actors / actresses playing fictional characters”

    It is interesting that nothing is actually said of the actual performances. I understand those who are disappointed because they thought Keaton gave the best performance; but the truth is most of the arguments in favor of Keaton are along the lines of: he won’t get another shot, but Redmayne will – and that is debatable, anything can happen. And that Keaton was somehow owed it based on career longevity and his big comeback. Truth is Keaton was basically playing himself in Birdman.

    For what it is worth, having seen Nightcrawler a few weeks ago, I think Jake Gyllenhaal was completely robbed. In fact I would have changed the nominees for best actor almost completely. My list: Gyllenhaal, Spall, Oyelowo, Fiennes, and Redmayne. If I had a vote, I would have went for one of the first three.

  16. taxi says:

    I saw TBoE, Birdman. TIG, & Sniper. Redmayne was the best, ime. Keaton was good & had lots of cge to bump the performance. Redmayne’s portrayal was chameleonic and few could have done that.
    Cumberbatch’s vigorous campaign was sidetracked when the gf turned up pregnant after dating such a short time. Cumby had to shift gears to frame an unexpected pregnancy in the most favorable way. The quick wedding looks like a patch on a puncture.

  17. MarcelMarcel says:

    It’s heartbreaking to see Lili Elbe be misgendered. She was born as Einar Wegener and later came out as trans woman. I really wish she was played by a trans woman not a cisgendered man. She was an incredible, inspiring artist. I’m assuming the misgendering isn’t Kaisers fault but rather the studios by the way.
    I recommend googling her, she’s super fascinating.

  18. stormie says:

    His wife is SO STYLISH. Her dress was one of the best.