[Rerun] Eddie Redmayne

Summary

---

Podcrushed – [Rerun] Eddie Redmayne

Release Date: March 4, 2026
Hosts: Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, Sophie Ansari
Guest: Eddie Redmayne

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Podcrushed centers around the fascinating life and career of acclaimed British actor Eddie Redmayne. The hosts—Penn, Nava, and Sophie—delve into Eddie’s journey from his unique childhood in a sporty, business-oriented British family to becoming an Oscar-winning performer known for his discipline, vulnerability, and passion. The conversation seamlessly blends discussion of Eddie’s formative years, complex family dynamics, early artistic experiences, love life, career highlights (including “The Day of the Jackal,” “The Good Nurse,” and “Cabaret”), and his insights into acting, authenticity, and British vs. American culture. As always with Podcrushed, the tone wavers between heartwarming nostalgia, reflection, and humor, making the interview relatable and deeply engaging.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Life, Family, and Finding His Path

• Sporty Family Roots: Eddie describes his family as “sensationally sportive,” with everyone excelling at sports except him, which pushed him towards music and theater.

  “...I was always doing the opposite. So sort of from an early age, music, and through music, really, theater became something that I was passionate about.” (08:41)

• “I kind of lacked a certain amount of [sporting ability].” (08:41)

• First Encounters with Art:
  Sitting at a piano at age six or seven, Eddie found freedom improvising—an experience that contrasts with later discipline.

  "I can remember from when I was about six or seven years old, that I could sit at a piano... I could sort of improvise something. And it felt incredibly freeing.” (10:21)

• Discovery of Theatre and Jackie Palmer Stage School:
  Eddie attended weekend theater classes as a child—exposed to peers like James Corden and soon started auditioning for musicals around age 10.

2. Childhood and Adolescence: Navigating Difference and Self-Consciousness

• Sibling Dynamics and Competition:
  He describes consciously avoiding direct comparison with his athletic brother by choosing different interests, even in sports.

  “I was quite self aware in what I was and what I was bad at. And I suppose that being able to manipulate the things that I was not so good at and use those things that I was better at to aid that.” (19:15)

• Mother’s Work Ethic and Protection:
  Eddie credits his mother’s “extraordinary work ethic and drive” and recounts a vivid memory of her fiercely protective reaction during a rugby injury.

  “She was also incredibly caring. I’ll never forget the image of my mom on the sidelines having to be restrained from coming on...” (22:16)

3. Formative Years at Eton Boarding School

• Culture Shock and Privilege: Eton’s tradition, uniforms, and exclusivity are discussed with both fondness and critical reflection on its insular privilege.

  “You wear a black tail coat, you wear a starched collar every day. ... when you’re young, you don’t question any of that.” (23:56)

• Being ‘Uncool’ and Pursuing Passion:
  Despite peer mockery, Eddie remained deeply committed to his artistic passions, partly protected by having already worked professionally.

  “...there was definitely a level of like, this guy is... God, he’s so eager. But... I’d earned money, I was like, I don’t give a fuck.” (26:07)

• First Crushes & Boarding School Romance:
  Early relationships unfolded through letter-writing and brief, ritualized phone calls from the communal “slab.”

  “...as I was writing ‘I love you’ to this person, my mate was like, ‘Dude, you kissed her once.’” (28:08)
  “So that was my functional relationship. It was letters and three minute conversations.” (29:06)

4. Love, Friendship, and Meeting His Wife

• The Friends-to-Lovers Story:
  Eddie met his wife Hannah at 15. For years, there was chemistry but the timing wasn’t right, until a serendipitous reconnection in their late 20s.

  “We always had this kind of chemistry... and all our friends were like, at last, why did it take 15 years?” (35:05)

• Hilarious “missed connections” story with a wrong phone number almost derailing their romance.
• Their first real date, after texting the right number, led to a spontaneous trip to Florence.

  “Our first proper date was where you are, in Florence.” (39:12)

5. Artistry, Ambition, and Character Preparation

a. Becoming ‘The Jackal’ and Immersive Acting

• Prosthetics and Transformation:

  “Prosthetics take a long, long time—you Zen out... actually, seeing the layers of those things appear is kind of helpful for getting into character because it’s not just plonked on you, you emerge from it.” (40:14)

• Playing Assassins and Compartmentalizing:
  Both Penn and Eddie reflect on the strangeness—and utility—of playing sociopathic or morally complex characters.

  “[Jackal is] an actor and he’s doing the best he can do. So if you. If there are any kind of faults there, blame it on the Jackal’s lack of acting capability rather than your own.” (41:37)

• Love of Silence and Subtlety:

  “I love that. I love. I hate words... I love those writers who really... have faith in actors to communicate that stuff.” (43:28)

b. On True Crime, “The Good Nurse,” and Ethics in Storytelling

• Balancing Portrayal and Responsibility:

  “...the appeal of that script was twofold. The director...has made some brilliant Danish movies based on true events, but that have a quasi documentarian quality...that are about displaying the events rather than insinuating or evoking indulgence in the watching of it.” (47:35)

• “The main villain...is actually the infrastructure. It’s the hospitals that moved him on. This guy who they were conscious was killing people...” (47:59)
• “The human need to know why is, I think, kind of at the core of our intrigue with true crime.” (49:58)

c. Cabaret and Responding to Backlash

• Eddie addresses the controversy around his casting as the Emcee in “Cabaret,” the role’s identity, and his own interpretation.

  “That character is descriptionless and deserves any form of interpretation. So I found it. I was upset by the backlash, but I had faith in my own take on the role.” (53:36)

6. Freedom, Self-Consciousness, and The Actor’s Journey

• Regaining Artistic Freedom:
  Collaborations with Jessica Chastain and his preparation for “Cabaret” rekindled Eddie’s passion for “instinctive freedom” in acting.

  “I think I was rediscovering a freedom...There was definitely a point where I just wasn’t necessarily inspired by the process...then, honestly, it was working with...Jess Chastain...that brought it back.” (56:28)

• Technical vs. Emotional Acting:
  Both Penn and Eddie discuss the challenges of technical acting in television vs. film and the precious, fleeting moments of full creative freedom on set.

  “For those millisecond moments...there is a moment of complete freedom, of total lack of self-consciousness. And that’s the drug...that brings you back and back.” (66:40)

• Penn on Eddie’s Presence & Lack of Self-Consciousness:

  “...you have this beautiful lack of self-consciousness, which it just...without that you can't be present and you can't do what we do. And I just want to commend you...” (65:49)

7. Cultural Differences & Personal Reflections

• British vs. American Directness:

  “We don’t quite say what we mean, and then we repress it and...bitch behind your back...Rather than in America, everyone says it up front.” (63:04)

• “There’s a difference between politeness and being disingenuous.” (64:08)

• What Would He Say to His 12-Year-Old Self?
  Eddie reflects on the switch from childhood freedom to adolescent self-consciousness, wishing his younger self had fully embraced “the art of not giving a fuck” and freedom of movement without fear of judgment. (68:05)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Artistic Freedom:

  “That mixture between kind of the control and the discipline of things you do versus the kind of that instinctive freedom that we all have in us is like, how those two things marry is kind of intriguing.” – Eddie (11:32)

• On Letters & Romance:

  “[My friend said], ‘Dude, you kissed her once.’ … Anyway, fortunately he guided me to probably not commit undying love to someone on the first… after having kissed them once.” – Eddie (28:08)

• On True Crime:

  “The human need to know why is, I think, kind of at the core of our intrigue with true crime.” – Eddie (49:58)

• On Acting as Intoxicant:

  “You would walk through the back alleys of the theater and down past these reels of costumes and these gigantic sets...the camaraderie and the eccentricity and uniqueness of theater people was just so seductive. I couldn’t believe that I got to do that...That was the intoxication.” – Eddie (00:00; 16:33)

• On Cultural Differences:

  “...Actually, we don’t quite say what we mean, and then we repress it and...bitch behind your back... Rather than in America, everyone says it up front.” – Eddie (63:04)

• On the Actor’s Freedom:

  “…there are definitely moments, those moments on screen, like the reason I love acting and there’s an addiction to it, is for those millisecond moments, I think, that happen maybe once every three years, in which there is a moment of complete freedom, of total lack of self-consciousness. And that’s the drug…” – Eddie (66:40)

---

Important Timestamps

• 05:45 – 06:05: Introduction of Eddie Redmayne, career overview
• 08:41 – 13:32: Eddie’s family, early divergence into arts, Jackie Palmer Stage School, sibling rivalry
• 16:33 – 19:03: Early theater roles, rejection, and the seductive backstage world
• 23:55 – 29:33: Eton boarding school, privilege, first crush, rituals of adolescent romance
• 33:34 – 39:12: Story of meeting, (almost missing connection with) wife Hannah; first date in Florence
• 39:49 – 44:44: “Day of the Jackal,” prosthetics, acting process, baby-faced assassins, artistic identity
• 46:20 – 49:58: “The Good Nurse,” ethics of crime storytelling, human complexity
• 51:07 – 53:36: “Cabaret” backlash and role interpretation
• 56:28 – 59:01: Artistic inspiration, technical vs. emotional acting
• 62:22 – 64:33: British vs. American working and communication styles
• 66:40 – 69:50: Adolescent self-consciousness, searching for freedom, advice to young self

---

Tone & Closing Thoughts

The episode is thoughtful, candid, and laced with Eddie’s characteristic warmth, vulnerability, and dry wit. The conversation is fluid, straddling universal coming-of-age concerns and specificities of an elite British upbringing, with plenty of intimate, joyful anecdotes and actorly shop talk. Eddie’s reflections on self-consciousness, family, craft, and self-acceptance make for an inspiring listen—full of relatability, laughter, and a sense of gentle encouragement for listeners navigating their own personal journeys.

---

Transcript

[Eddie Redmayne]

But you would walk through the back alleys of the theater and down past these reels of costumes and these gigantic sets. That. And that without the. Well, it is a cliche, but the smell of the makeup and the camaraderie and the eccentricity and uniqueness of theater people was just so seductive. I couldn't believe that I got to do that. I got paid 20 quid a performance, you know, which my parents would then sort of invited all their friends to come see it. And the tickets cost sort of 60 quid. So there was a massive loss making experience for everyone. But it was no, that. That was the. That was the intoxication.

[Penn]

Welcome to podcrushed. We're your hosts. I'm Penn.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I'm Nava.

[Sophie]

And I'm Sophie. And I think we would have been your middle school besties.

[Penn]

Writing letters of love upon a scratch. Parchment paper scratching with an ink quilt. No. Is this not. This isn't.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Resonating scratching.

[David]

That's perfect.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Welcome.

[Penn]

Welcome to podcrust. I have a question. Just to kick us off. Why not? Are you resting or making me money?

[David]

Wait, who?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Someone else.

[Penn]

Are you resting, Nava, or are you making me money? Or Sophie, how about you?

[David]

I've never heard this question, but I've also never rested.

[Sophie]

Suspicious. Although I can confirm never rested. Nava's never rested.

[David]

Never rested.

[Penn]

It's been my birthday recently. It's the best time of year.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Happy birthday.

[Penn]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Which also means that it's Sophie and David's little baby's birthday the day after November 2nd. It also commemorates the morning I woke up to this text from Nava. Are you resting or are you making me money? Pen, this is. This is probably.

[David]

Wait, what was the rest of it?

[Sophie]

What was the rest of the message?

[Penn]

Well, then you quipped back and that was the momager of this family. To which I said, this isn't a family.

[David]

Yeah, always, always offensive when you feel the need to point out we're not blood, technically.

[Penn]

And then. And then I said, p S. It's my B day. Nava, did you know that it was my birthday?

[David]

No, I honestly did not know that. Information is publicly available on Google, but I did not know.

[Penn]

So you don't have a Google alert,

[David]

you're saying, no, I should love Ken

[Sophie]

Badgley's the most famous Scorpio.

[Penn]

Am I? No.

[David]

Probably.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

Yeah, sure, sure, guy. Sure, sure.

[Eddie Redmayne]

So then.

[Penn]

So then Nava or Nivima, you know, just in. In text to speak. You're doing great, sweetie. Which I love. Sophie. Then said, p. S. I'm in labor.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That.

[Penn]

So that. That was the most casual.

[Eddie Redmayne]

P.S.

[Sophie]

i'm just like, such a chill girl in labor.

[David]

You're so chill, Sophie.

[Penn]

Yeah, I. I would have quipped about it in the days leading up that, like, maybe. Maybe you would be, like, resting on your belly, you know, like you're.

[David]

Yeah, the phone was on her belly

[Eddie Redmayne]

and the belly's like.

[David]

The phone is, like, bouncing.

[Sophie]

Well, actually, it was like the more chill side of labor, but I knew just group chat was popping off and pinging that I wanted to, you know, announce my departure.

[David]

And then how did you respond, Ben?

[Penn]

Oh, I just did that. Nice. I did that thing in comedy where I brought it back to the beginning. I said, you're doing great, sweetie. Put the phone down, though. Put the phone down, though, with a question mark. See?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Never.

[David]

This was a great moment in the group chat. I would venture to say perhaps my favorite moment in the group chat, primarily because Pen was participating, which is a rare honor in and of itself.

[Sophie]

Yeah. We finally have proof that Pen does read the group chat. And actually, not only does he read it, he goes back to read it.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I take a scroll every year back.

[Penn]

I do.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

I was just like, just like this for 37 minutes, just scrolling, trying to find it.

[Sophie]

No, this is a great moment from our group chat. And it turns out that U.S. cellular is actually doing a really cool campaign right now where they are turning your group chat moments into wrapping paper for the holiday season. So with your permission, I will be submitting this as our moment.

[David]

I don't know that I want this moment memorialized because I don't look so great, but I do think the idea of getting a gift wrapped in a memory is so meta. I love that.

[Penn]

So between now and November 24th, you can DM us cellular on Instagram with a screenshot of your favorite group chat moment of the year. Of the whole year. And they might, if you're lucky, they might send you a free group chat rap so you can literally give the gift of connection to your loved ones wrapped in a memory.

[Sophie]

Speaking of loved ones.

[Penn]

Yes. Today we are joined by the lovely Eddie Redmayne. If you don't know he's the award winning actor. I mean, he's got Tonys, oliviers, I think Baftas, Oscars. He's been everywhere and he's only 42. Really an incredible talent. You probably know him from his portrayal as Stephen Hawking.

[David]

A fun little piece of trivia is that he was the first man in his 80s to win an Oscar. So he holds that record, the first

[Sophie]

man from the 80s to play the

[Penn]

first man from the 80s now. But that's a huge point of clarification.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yes. What?

[Penn]

And he won that Oscar.

[David]

Born did you? Were you in the interview?

[Penn]

He won that Oscar, of course, for playing Stephen Hawking in the Theory of Everything. He's also been in the Fantastic Beasts films, the trial of Chicago 7. He's been on Broadway, on the West End. Most recently, he's got a miniseries called the Day of the Jackal out now on Peacock. It's about a ruthless, ruthless. A woofless. A ruthless assassin.

[Eddie Redmayne]

He's a ruthless British assassin.

[Penn]

He's a British assassin. The classic character, the Jackal, now made fresh and Modern in 2024. 2025. We were honored to have Eddie here today. You're going to love this one. Don't go anywhere.

[E]

Hey, it's Hasan Minhaj here from the Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know podcast. Among other things. And I hate the smell of rotting food almost as much as I hate wasting it in the first place. Thankfully, now I have mill. Mill is a food recycler that is odorless, guiltless and completely effortless. See, I've always wanted to reduce my food. It is one of the easiest ways for an individual to make a big impact on the environment. But I just cannot stand the mess of a compost bin in the kitchen. But with mill, all you do is drop in your scraps and you let it go. It works quickly and quietly, turning your food, even small bones, into nutrient rich grounds. Now I take out the trash way less. Yet my kitchen smells way better and I don't have to feel guilty when my zucchini gets moldy. Plus, it looks cool. Yeah, this trash can alternative is so fly. People keep asking me where I got the giant Alexa. It's chic and savvy, but you have to live with MIL to really get it. Good thing. You can try it risk free for 90 days right now and get $75 off with code HMDK. Visit mil.comhmdk that is mill.comhm.

[David]

Hey there, it's Julia Louis Dreyfus. I'm back with a new season of Wiser Than Me. The show where I sit down with remarkable older women and soak up their stories, their humor and their hard earned wisdom.

[Sophie]

Every conversation leaves me a little smarter

[David]

and definitely more inspired. And yes, I'm still calling my 91 year old mom Judy to get her take on it. All Wiser Than Me from Lemonada Media

[Sophie]

is out now, wherever you get your podcasts,

[Penn]

Eddie, thank you for coming.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Thank you for having me. Where are you guys?

[Sophie]

Nava's in la and I happen to be in Florence.

[Eddie Redmayne]

In Florence?

[Sophie]

Yeah.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I'm visiting my jealousy. Whereabouts?

[Sophie]

Right on the Arno. My parents live here. Yeah, it's nice. It's not a bad place to visit.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That's beautiful. I'm very jealous. I got engaged in Florence.

[Penn]

Really?

[David]

Aw, sweet.

[Penn]

So we do usually start at, like, just about 12.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

So we want to go there. But as far, if our research serves us. Did you research?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah. Right.

[Penn]

Did you start. Did you go to Jackie Palmer stage at age 10?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Is that straight in? Yeah, straight in.

[Penn]

Yeah. We are.

[Eddie Redmayne]

We are.

[Penn]

Welcome.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Welcome.

[David]

Wow.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Good morning. Yeah, I did. So my. I grew up in a family who were very sporty, and that was kind of, I suppose, the language in our. My elder brother, my younger brother, my half brother and half sister, my dad, everyone there was brilliant sporting capability, and I kind of lacked a certain amount of that.

[Penn]

Was it very clear very early on?

[Eddie Redmayne]

It was pretty clear pretty early on that anything that my brother, particularly my older brother, because we were quite close in age, anything he was brilliantly accomplished at, I was not. And so I don't know whether it was an active thing, but I was always doing the opposite. So sort of from an early age, music, and through music, really, theater became something that I was sort of passionate about. And I always. What was amazing, looking back on it, particularly as a parent now, is that despite my parents not really having any knowledge of that world, they were sensationally sportive.

[Penn]

That's what it sounds like. I mean, honestly, just what we learned. You know, Wikipedia gives you something. It does give you something. It really does seem like. I mean, I'm glad what you're saying supports what we were like, it really feels like you came out of nowhere a little bit in your family. I mean, I don't want to suggest a black sheep or something like that, but it's cool, you know, I mean, the rest of the family being so oriented in these other ways, you know, like, I think also very business oriented, just in terms of the careers that were pursued. Right.

[Eddie Redmayne]

But I think there was something, weirdly, the first sort of manifestation of something different was I sat at a piano when I was little and I was at a friend's house and my mum came round afterwards and the friend's parents were like, you know, you should get Eddie a piano because he really enjoys it. And she's like, I didn't even know he did. And I had this weird thing, which I can kind of remember from when I was about six or seven years old, that I could sit at a piano and my fingers would sort of do. I could sort of improvise something. Wow. And it felt incredibly freeing. And so my mom rented a piano and I started having lessons. And as I started to learn the piano properly, like technically, kind of all of that freedom or sort of facility disappeared. And I'm not. I sort of learned the piano in the very kind of formal way, and I wasn't particularly good, but I can remember.

[Penn]

Did it become less inspiring?

[Eddie Redmayne]

I guess I think so. But I remember early on, like, age, sort of nine or ten, being in a. In a concert at this school. They sort of. Everyone was playing their pieces and I was just sort of put in front of the piano to play and. And I remember having no fear, and I remember being at a sort of.

[Penn]

You mean just to improvise?

[Eddie Redmayne]

To kind of improvise. Nine and ten years old, looking back on. I mean, I fucking hate improvising. I'm a control freak. I don't know. There are all these elements, but I look back on that time as this kind of. I do have a glint of the memory of it, of what that freedom was. And I always think now with work and the older and many things in life, actually that mixture between kind of the control and the discipline of things you do versus the kind of that instinctive freedom that we all have in us is like, how those two things marry is kind of intriguing.

[Penn]

I'm with you. I'm totally with you.

[Eddie Redmayne]

So I've managed to avoid the Jackie Palmer children's session by talking about some.

[Penn]

Well, you know what.

[Eddie Redmayne]

What?

[Penn]

I was thinking that you just went to performing art school. Is that not what that is?

[Eddie Redmayne]

It's not. So, no. So I was at a normal school and I loved music, singing particularly, and I love theater. And one day I was on holiday and I met this lady and I was talking to her and she said, oh, my little brother is at this school in High Wycombe, which is just outside London. And so it was like a class. Yeah, it's a class and it is actually a school. But I just went at weekends, sporadically, and they had an agency there, and so I sort of signed up with a headshot and.

[Penn]

Oh, that's right. And you did end up modeling later. Is that what I got?

[Eddie Redmayne]

We don't need to go into that very unsuccessfully. But what was amazing is at this class, you would go once a year and do this kind of showcase at this theater. And James Corden was there. He was. I was a. I mean, even at that age, he was a couple of years older than me, but he was so charismatic and he was an amazing dancer and a sort of huge, sort of passionate theater kid. And. And yes, I started auditioning for like real sort of musicals and things. And. And just about. At 10, 10, 11. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah.

[Penn]

You know, I moved to LA when I was 12.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

And I started working. So for me. And by the way, they are former middle school administrators slash teachers. So the joke is, is that they're teachers and I dropped out of middle school.

[Sophie]

It's not a joke.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah, it's not a joke.

[Penn]

It's not funny. It's. It's mostly true.

[Sophie]

Stay in school.

[Penn]

Yeah. But I know that for me, like, I can remember standing in the arrivals, like pickup taxi line at LAX at 12 years old at like 9pm, listening to Drew Hill on my Walkman and just, you know, my life before and after was different. And, you know, in as much as I've been able to pursue a career as an artist, I guess I'm curious. When did acting specifically become like, wow, this is feeding me in a way, I don't think.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Not for a while, honestly. I think. I think it was music and weirdly, it was sort of movement and I am a really shoddy dancer, but I remember at that period feeling very free physically. And the elder I got, the more self conscious and restricted and sort of restrained I felt physically. But I'm just quickly curious about that moment in la, because you hear of American actors arriving in LA often young. So what does that mean? Does that mean that you had a career where you grew up and there was a moment where you said to your parents, like, I'm moving to la, or what does it mean to get off a plane? I know that doesn't sound crazy.

[Penn]

I was with my mom.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I was with your mom.

[Penn]

And that was for pilot season, you know. You've heard of that?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Probably, yeah. All the Britaxes, we all come out for pilot season in order to escape the rain.

[Penn]

Right, right. So it really meant that I had an agent and manager in Seattle, Washington, had been doing plays since I was about nine. Musicals for me, actually, music was the intro into it. I loved music, Knew nothing of acting through that. Got at the musical theater, then got into theater and then got into the suggestion of movies, TV commercials. I tested on. I remember. Do you recall the film with Mikko Hughes, a young child actor, and Bruce Willis called Mercury Rising.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I have not seen that movie.

[Penn]

Okay. It's fine. It was a role that I tested for and got very close to as like a nine year old.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

Oh, my God.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Do you remember that feeling, though, when you were that little?

[Penn]

My reference was of all things Dustin Hoffman and Rain Man. So, like, at nine years old, I recall that, like watching that and wanting to emulate that and feeling really good about trying to embody that. All those tics and stuff, which. So that's something that we also have in common. You have done. I'm thinking of the, you know, the incredible embodiments of physicality and tics that you've, you know, in certain roles, I guess. Like, what was your. What was your perspective on art and the theater then? Did it seem illustrious and majestic and, like, far off.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It felt romantic is what it was. By that point, I was going to the theatre in London sporadically. My parents would take me and at about the age 12, through this agent, through the Jackie Palmer Children's Agency, I got a part in a production of Oliver. But I mean, hearing about your test, I remember. I remember that feeling when I first had an agent. A week later I got an audition for Annie get yout Gun. And it was in the West End. And I was like, this is it. This is where it all starts. I remember learning the song and going and queuing. There being this queue outside the theater, this line that went round the block and lots of kids from theater schools all wearing their matching sort of sweaters. And you went on stage and it was like an episode of American Idol. You sort of all had your number and I prepared the whole song, a whole kind of number. And after singing one line of that song, it was kind of. And I remember it was such an extreme memory. And now I sort of can't. Of rejection and I sort of can't believe that my. The strength, in some ways of my parents allowing me to. I was like, no, but I want to keep trying. I want to keep trying to. But the Oliver was something I got. And I was just one of, you know, 60 kids in the cast. But I remember that feeling of being at high school and in the middle of class, age 12, getting up and walking across the bridge over the Thames and getting on the subway, the tube from Hammersmith Broadway to Oxford Circus, right into the kind of epicenter of London and going to the London Palladium, which was this incredible old theater. And Jonathan Pryce was playing fag. I was one of many kids, but you would walk through the back alleys of the theater and down past these reels of costumes and these gigantic sets that. And that without the. Well, it is a cliche but the smell of the makeup and the camaraderie and the eccentricity and uniqueness of theater people was just so seductive. I couldn't believe that I got to do that. I got paid 20 quid a performance which my parents would then sort of invited all their friends to see it. And the tickets cost sort of 60 quid. So there was a massive loss making experience for everyone. But it was no, that, that was the. That was the intoxication.

[Sophie]

That was the moment you mentioned your brother. Him being into sport kind of. And because he was close in age made you kind of veer in the other direction. But I'm curious about your relationship in general.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah, well, I'm really close to my family and I. So my elder brother is two and a half years older than me. And then my brother Charlie is sort of decade or so older than that. And who is my. So he's my half brother and my half sister Eugenie, who's a bit older than that. And then my little brother Tom is six years younger. So I really grew up in those sort of formative years. Tom was little and James, my brother, who's two and a half years older, was very present and he was and is very talented, brilliantly driven, but he's a force of nature. And we have very sort of differing personalities. And I never. It's interesting cause I love sport and I still do, but it was just he was so good at it that anything that he did, I don't know whether it was subconsciously I chose to do the opposite. So even within sport in England in the summer you basically play cricket and or a few people play tennis. And so he would play cricket, I would play tennis, he would play football, I would play rugby. And I think it was just not wanting comparison really. But even then, as even in the world of sport, I remember being aware of my. I was quite self aware in what I was and what I was bad at. And I suppose that being able to manipulate the things that I was not so good at and be use those things that I was better at to aid that. So in sport I could act the part, I could say the right things and sort of put on the right tone of voice to make it look like I knew what I was talking about. But it never felt sort of instinctive to me.

[David]

Eddie, I've heard you talk about how competitive your family is and I think in particular You've said your mom. And I'm curious if you have a memory of a moment where you realized it might be more than usual, it might be over the top, the degree of competitiveness in the family.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That's a really good question. It was really a work ethic. My mum has an extraordinary work ethic and drive and she instilled that in all of us from, from an early age. And I went to boarding school when I was 13, but sort of, by, by that time I had a sort of level of discipline and I think I probably retained that level of discipline. I don't think it's always necessarily a good thing that. But, but, but it, it. And, and these things are things you now question now that I'm a parent, like. But, but I'm trying to think of. Well, there was one. I'm trying to think of a specific moment when she was competitive. She was also incredibly caring. And I remember there was this one time when I was playing a rugby match and I was pretty skinny, but I was playing for.

[Penn]

You were.

[Eddie Redmayne]

As opposed to now. Sadly, I never had my bulk up phase despite my best efforts. I was playing game rugby and my mom would come to watch. We were playing this school and within about the first minute, this sort of crash move came when this guy ran towards me. And when you're a teenager, you know, I definitely looked like I was sort of 14 years old and this guy looked like he was 25 and he was 6 foot, he was called Dougie. And he sort of lifted me over his shoulder, threw me on the ground and then sort of fell on me with his elbow on my ribs and sort of broke my ribs. I'll never forget the image of my mom on the sidelines having to be sort of restrained from sort of coming on and how you say her level of protection and. But yeah, that was after that, that was the sort of last game of rugby. I think that she could sort of bear.

[David]

Wow. Yeah, no, that's great.

[Penn]

So it's called Pod Crushed. This podcast we do like to ask about, you know, first crushes, first heartbreaks that are so characteristic of this time. You know, that can, that can, that can be so massive at the time. You look back and cringe and just think like, you know, what was I thinking or what was I doing? But you were in boarding school, which also challenges that. I mean, you know, so I'm curious, do you have a memorable story?

[Eddie Redmayne]

Where to start with boarding school? Right. Because I sort of went to. So I went to boarding school at 13, but I. The school that I went to is this school, Eton, that is, you know, one of.

[Penn]

Never heard of it.

[Eddie Redmayne]

One of the most. It's an extraordinary place. It's. And of course, when you're that little, you don't understand that and you don't. You normalize so much. So, for example, at Eton you wear a black tail coat, you wear a starched collar every day. Wow. And you wear this sort of strange little starched piece of fabric that goes in and as you say every day. And you're in the middle and it's a town, really very, very beautiful town. It sort of perhaps feels more like a university. And there are tourist busts that go past every day and they're kind of looking at you dressed as penguins. And yet you completely normalized the fact that you're dressed as a penguin because everyone else is dressed as a penguin. And it doesn't feel weird because when you're young you don't. Well, I didn't question any of that. But it is a school that is embedded in history. It was founded by Henry vi, who also founded King's College Cambridge. And it is, it had the most staggering facilities kind of imaginable and it's. You pay a lot of money to go there. They now have brilliant scholarships and you can get grants to go. And now their outreach is substantially more than it was in my day. But my God, is it a privileged place to go? But again, you don't. You're perhaps not conscious of it, but there's another thing that happens with school when you're that age is, I think, and it was an all boys school as well, that you. The self consciousness begins to kick in around that age and the notion of caring too much or being passionate about something kind of is deemed uncool, of course. You know, and, and that was. I felt like I was and remain a deeply uncool human being. And. And so I was pretty passionate about many things then and so could exploit the facilities which. Dumbfounding art department. Incredible theater.

[Penn]

So you remained passionate.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I did.

[Penn]

I mean, clearly you did.

[David]

I did.

[Eddie Redmayne]

And I think I was mocked for it in the. But in the crushedness of the pod. Crushed, you know, there was definitely a level of like, this guy is, you know, God, he's so eager. He's so. And, but again, perhaps I. And because I'd done by this point, theater and you know, and professionally and I'd earned money, I was kind of like, I don't give a fuck. This is, this is what my. But one of the sadnesses I witnessed of that school, which is if you do go there and your parents have paid all this money and yet you are busy playing the kind of. I don't want to engage. It's just such an extraordinary waste because it has dumbfounding things back to the crush rather than the crushedness. There was this thing called the slab, which was this area in each of the boarding houses. So the school was divided up into boarding houses and had 10 boys in each year in the house. And the slab was this communal area as you entered a house. And it was where there were pockets for notes that might get sent around the school. And it was where people would linger. And there was the phone booth. And so my first relationships were letters. I remember I'd kissed a girl at this party and she was at a boarding school as well. And so how did you even have parties?

[Penn]

I'm just.

[Eddie Redmayne]

You don't have to pay so much. Parties in London in which sort of. Everyone would gather. They were sort of events that were sort of organized for the schools.

[E]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I actually don't know whether it was. It wasn't specifically for the schools, but I remember that you'd start writing letters. And I remember age 13, because you were in Borninghearts. A friend came in and he saw me sort of writing my first letter. And as I was writing I love you to this person, my mate was like, dude, you kissed her once.

[Penn]

Sure you love her?

[Eddie Redmayne]

I was like, isn't that what you say? Anyway, so this. Anyway, fortunately he guided me to probably not commit undying love to someone on the first. After having kissed them once. And I sent many letters to this person over a term. We saw each other and we'd speak on. We would have these phone calls on the slab that you'd do phone calls on a Saturday night. And you would wait and there'd be this line of people. All the older boys would do the calls first. And you'd go into this little. To the phone booth and it would stink of kind of like adolescent male bo. And then you would do your call to this person who would then have it to their school. And they would go. You'd wait 10 minutes while they were summoned from watching Baywatch or something and come back and have your sort of three minute conversation before you get pulled out by someone else. So that was my functional relationship. It was letters and sort of three minute conversations for.

[Penn]

That's so romantic.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah. And then she dumped me after. Cause she sent me a letter being like, Eddie, you know, I suppose we haven't seen each other. I'm not sure that's a relational. Yeah, good point, well made. So it wasn't that crushing.

[Penn]

You're right.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Okay.

[Penn]

That's not quite what it is. No, no. I mean I love, I mean I love just the image that could have happened a hundred years ago. I feel like the way that it was happening. Especially in your penguins in my penguin suit.

[Eddie Redmayne]

And. Yeah, and the. The. But I miss letters.

[David]

Stick around. We'll be right back.

[Sophie]

I used to dread switching banks. So many hidden fees and confusing rules. Then I found Chime and it actually makes managing money simple, stress free and fee free. Chime is smarter fee free banking built for everyday life. No overdraft fees, no monthly fees and no minimum balance. With MyPay, you can also access up to $500 of your paycheck early and get paid up to two days sooner than you normally would. The Chime card helps you build credit with your own money while earning cash back on everyday purchases. Savings accounts earn up to 3% APY. That's seven times higher than a traditional bank. With 24. 7 support and a five star USA Today rating, millions are banking smarter with Chime. My younger self could have greatly benefited from something like Chime. I not only the overdraft coverage so that you're avoiding those overdraft fees, that's an issue that I'm still working on, to be honest. But also the ability to build credit while earning cash back. I mean, who doesn't love that? As a young adult managing their finances for the first time, living it up in New York City, I really could have used something like Chime. Chime makes your everyday spending work harder by delivering real rewards and financial progress. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank join the millions who are already banking fee free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com podcrushed that is chime.com

[David]

podcrushed I've gotten so selective about what I'll bring into my closet. If a piece isn't comfortable, versatile and well made, I'm just not going to wear it. So that's why Quince is one of the brands that I just keep coming back to. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples from premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk and organic cotton poplin. These are the kinds of pieces that elevate everyday outfits without overthinking it. Their lightweight cotton cashmere sweaters are perfect for the Changing seasons and the spring colors and prints feel fresh but not so trendy. What I really appreciate is how Quint's approaches pricing. They work directly with safe ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. Which means that you're not paying for brand markup or brick and mortar retail stores, just thoughtfully made long lasting clothing at prices that actually make sense. I was recently searching for a birthday gift for one of my favorite cousins and he's a little bougie. So I wanted to get him something really nice and I landed on Quince's Mongolian cashmere crew neck sweater in the color olive twist. Oh my gosh, so beautiful. Then I got him some cashmere trouser socks. Let's just say that I was the favorite cousin this year, which is something that I'm always looking for. You also can be the favorite cousin right now. Go to quince.com podcrush for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to Q U I n c e.com podcrushed for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com podcrushed do you ever find yourself scrolling through headlines, especially health headlines, and just thinking that can't be true? Well, I certainly do. 2025 brought us some ridiculous, far fetched health claims and some especially terrifying changes in public health. What's in store for us in 2026? I'm Chelsea Clinton and we're back with season two of my podcast, that Can't Be True. Follow along and catch up on season one wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sophie]

I have a question. It does take us fast forwards a little bit, but as I understand it, you had been friends and known your wife Hannah now for 12 years before you ever started dating.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Is that right? That is true, yeah.

[David]

Okay.

[Sophie]

Okay. And I think that's remarkable. And I was wondering, maybe more people should be looking within their friend group for their life partner. And I wondered how you made that leap from friends for so long to partners.

[Eddie Redmayne]

So I met Hannah probably when I was about 15 at a party. And without being, you know, it really was one of those moments when I saw, I saw clocked eyes of someone across the room. And I was. And we chatted and she's incredibly funny, Hannah, and deeply charismatic. And I was like, this is amazing. This is it. And she sat on my knee and asked me to introduce her to this guy. Across the room. And I was like, fuck you. Anyway, that's where the friendship started. And then for years, that's when the 12, 15 years was. Was we were kind of part of the same friend group, but we were never close friends. We always had this kind of chemistry, for want of a better word, that whenever we saw each other, there was something alive. And we would be at parties, but we were always in relationships. So it wasn't a close friendship. It was one that. It was a.

[Penn]

It was waiting to unfold.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It was. Wait, yeah. But then many years later, it was sort of. It was known within our group of friends that this chemistry existed and was it ever going to be acted on? And literally, When I was 30, I think, or 29, I was at a friend's wedding and Hannah's always late, and she was meant to be one of the kind of bridesmaids of one. And I was at this wedding in this church, and 10 minutes into the wedding, there's door slammed open, my mate nudged me, and Hannah came on, running in late to the wedding. And so even. And that night we got together and I thought it was, you know. And I texted her a couple days later, and all our friends were like, at last. Why did it take 15 years? And I text her the next day. No, I left it two days. I'd learned from my years, my early, don't say I love you in two days. And then you said, I love you, I love you. And it's always been text her. And then she didn't respond. And I was like, you see, I knew it. It's like this fickle quality. And anyway, year went by, and a year went by because I wasn't gonna. I wasn't gonna go back. Glutton for punishment, you know. And a year later, this friend of ours, Laura, was like, eddie, why did you never get in touch with Hannah? I was like, I did. I texted her. She said, what number? I said, this number. She said, that's not her number. I know. So we.

[Penn]

You had the wrong number. I had the teen years.

[David]

This is like the number.

[Eddie Redmayne]

But then it was while. I remember it clearly because I just rehearsed Les Miserables, the movie, and I had four days off before we started filming and I was single. I booked to go to Florence and I, you know, to sort of drink double espresso and chain smoke and write poetry. Yeah, that's great. All the above. And anyway, I texted Hannah on this right number and I said, you know, you don't want to go to the theater, do You. And she sort of said, yeah, let's do that. And we went to the theater and that night went out for supper. And it was extraordinary because it was the first time it was someone that I'd known for 15 years, felt knew me for exactly who I was, rather than, you know, that. That sort of. I'm speaking myself, but that version of a person you can put on when you're trying to start dating and trying to be the sort of best version of you. So there was no bullshit. She kind of could see straight through all of that. So. And it was just. Anyway, that evening went pretty wonderfully, and I said, drunk. Later, I was like, you don't want to go to Florence next week, do you? And she said, you don't mean that. And I said, kind of do. And so the next day, I sent my EasyJet booking form, which is. Do you know what EasyJet is? It's like jet blue. It's really remote. It's sort of. Yeah, no frills.

[Penn]

I used it once.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Exactly. It's a no frills, very convenient airline. Anyway, she let me stew for a few hours, and then she. She sent her booking form. And even then, I knew if this relationship was to have any legs, that we had to meet on the plane rather than at an airport. And I was right, because I got on the plane the next day, and I was sitting next to these three nuns and a monk from Ireland, and the plane was absolutely rammed, and there was just one seat next to me, free. And the captain was like, ladies and gentlemen, we're waiting for one person. And Hannah arrived late and has remained late for the rest of our relationship. But that's. And so, yeah, kind of our first proper date was way you are in Florence.

[Penn]

Yeah.

[Eddie Redmayne]

So sweet.

[David]

Eddie, that's so incredible.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That's a long winded. You didn't know.

[Penn]

It's great. Yeah.

[David]

Eddie, I wish we had you for three hours. You're such an amazing storyteller. We do want to transition to your career. And just to be mindful of the

[Eddie Redmayne]

career, Schmidt, it's amazing.

[David]

Just to be mindful of time, I think. Let's start with Day of the Jackal. We got screeners. And what stood out to me is just I couldn't stop thinking about how much time you must have spent in the makeup chair because you have so many disguises. So my question for you is, do you have a rich. How do you stay sane doing hours and hours and hours of makeup?

[Eddie Redmayne]

How do I say sane is probably a more existential question. Period. I. Firstly, it's first thing in the morning. You're right. Prosthetics take a long, long time and you do have to go to a. And I don't know if you've done many.

[Penn]

Not at that level. I've done like, you know, the bruises and the swelling, they take a while.

[Eddie Redmayne]

They take a while.

[Penn]

Like an hour. But I mean, you drinking like three hours.

[Eddie Redmayne]

This was. Yeah, three, four hours. But. But you kind of. I'd never done prosthetics at this level. And you Zen out and you then put in your earpods and you listen to a podcast until they start doing your ears and then your earpods get stuck. But I find it actually a really good way into the day. The other thing about when in Day of the Jackal, in the early scene, he's transforming into this kind of 75 year old German.

[Penn]

That opening scene.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah. Chainsmoker. And. And seeing the layers of those things appear is actually kind of helpful for getting into character because it's not just plonked on you, you emerge from it. And the other thing that was lovely in the Day of the Jackal is whereas in moments, in Theory of Everything, where I'd work with some prosthetics, you're playing the person here. You know, the prosthetics is part of the Jackal's toolkit and he's doing it himself. So actually, whenever. I don't know how you are, but whenever you're. I was sort of feeling, you know, insecure about any of these characters that I was playing as the Jackal. I had to keep reminding myself that the Jackal is an actor and he's doing the best that he can do. So if you. If there are any kind of faults there, you know, blame it on the Jackal's lack of acting capability rather than your own. That's funny.

[Penn]

Another thing we have in common, Eddie, is that we play baby faced assassins.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Baby face assassin assassins. She set up a club.

[Penn]

But one thing that I, you know, sometimes I do struggle to believe the mortal stakes, you know, when the stakes are mortal. Episode after episode after episode. We've done, in the end, 50 episodes, you know.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah. So that's a lot.

[Penn]

50 hours.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That's a lot of mortal stakes of

[Penn]

being like, there's a body in the trunk, there's a body up here, there's a body. But I love you. Yeah. But my thing is that if I ever don't believe it.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Well, you know what?

[Penn]

This dude actually doesn't always believe it. He's lying.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

So That I. That I understand that it's a strange. It's a strange mental space when you're playing somebody who is a sociopath.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Actually, I think that's the point. I mean, it was interesting. I did a film last year called the Good Nurse, playing a man called Charlie Cullen, who is a real, maybe mass murderer in this country. And trying to get into the psychology of that and the kind of. The cruelty of it, but the coldness of it. And also, weirdly, clearly, the humanity that this guy had. To his friends, he seemed like a normal. The only way I can reconcile those two things, and it's the same with the Day of the Jackal, albeit a completely fictional character, is that these are. That there is a polarity to them. It's two different people. And yet those chinks, when those two people reconcile with each other, are the kind of intriguing moments.

[Penn]

You spend a lot of time silent in this, I would imagine. Is it the most silent role you've ever played? Of course, I've seen the early episodes. It may change.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I think it probably is. Although, strangely, playing Stephen Hawking for the latter part of his life, when he was able to speak, was a lot about. Although he would speak through his computer, it was a lot of silence. But I love that. I love. I hate words. Always with a script, I'm like, lose it. Lose it. Yeah. And I love those writers also who really. Because I don't know how you find it. There's this whole thing quite often with scripts, where it's almost like there's the producer's version, which is the version written, that tells the story over it. And then there's the version in which things are filleted out. And have faith in actors to kind of communicate that stuff. But I really enjoyed that about this character. The kind of enigma of him was thrilling.

[Penn]

Yeah, I suspected that. I actually looked at the time code. The first time you speak is at 22 minutes into the first episode, which is a long time. And then you don't say much.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Is that the English?

[Penn]

Yeah, that's the English.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Best way. Sorry.

[Penn]

You do say you do, like, mutter German.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I mutter German. The way you're saying that meant I mutter German. I can't tell you how fucking long it took me to sort that. Good.

[Penn]

It's good.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I mean, look, you know, it was so strange. It was so strange, like acting in a language you don't speak a word of.

[Penn]

Yeah.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Because what's weird is you're playing this character who's German, but I had an amazing language coach who called Simone, and she would teach me the German. But you would also have to go, look, the way I kind of want the character to say it is, if it was in English, it would be like, ugh, these fucking people. I can't do that. And so you'd have to rely on her for the music of the phrasing, most of the words, as well as the pronunciation of the words. It was an interesting exercise.

[Penn]

Well, what I love is that you kind of see that exercise in the opening scene again, this thing of playing a sociopath transparently, which is interesting. You know, you see the Jackal rehearsing, which I love. You know, I can't remember the words, but it's a very jarring opening scene. It's so. It's. Yeah, there's an interesting musicality to it, as you're like. And listening to, I suppose, what would have been a recording of that man's real voice.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was. It. What was strange about it is I learned the German in my voice and. Which was sort of kine sacht. But then suddenly, when you've got this prosthetic on and he's this chainsmoker, he'. It was down in this weird place that looked completely odd until you had the prosthetic on. But the idea of performance, the Jackal as an actor was one of the things that I found it was that the whole show was an actor's playground in many ways.

[Sophie]

I watched the Good Nurse soon after it came out, and I thought it was an incredible film. I actually went back and looked in my text because I remember telling everyone I knew about it. Have you watched it? Have you seen the Good News? Have you seen the Good News? And I think I had texted five friends and two group chats.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Wow. Have you seen it?

[Sophie]

Let's talk about it. I thought it was incredible. And you played him so well. But I think depicting true crime is so tricky because there's a balance that you have to strike without. Like you described the polarity. Trying to depict the polarity of a person, or at least using that in your preparation for the character in the story is a real person, a whole person with lots of different facets to them. But you want to depict it in a way that doesn't glamorize the perpetrator, but also doesn't dishonor the victims. And it's a very fine line. And I think the Good Nurse really struck that balance. And I guess my question is two parts. First, how do you think the team and yourself were able to strike that balance. Like what if you have any insight into how that happened. And then also what you think about the sort of rise now in true crime dramatizations.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Healthy. You know, it's so intriguing to hear that, because it was something that I wrestled with, thought a lot about for a couple of years, that the appeal of that script was twofold. It was. It was the director, Tobias Lindholm, who is this utterly brilliant Danish director who has made some brilliant Danish movies based on true events, but that have a quasi documentarian quality to them, that are not. That are about displaying the events rather than insinuating or evoking kind of, I don't know, an indulgence in the watching of it. So I knew that it was in his hands. And secondly, the script by Christy Wilson Kearns, the piece is about Charlie Cullen, but it's actually about this extraordinary woman who was able to sort of reveal him and pull him in. But the main villain of the piece is actually the infrastructure. It's the hospitals that moved him on. This guy who they were conscious was killing people, and they moved him on because they didn't want to deal with the libel or the law cases and the idea that. That. How insidious that is. And I felt that there was dispassionate quality to the film in which those. The villains of the piece were twofold by Charlie, but also the system and. And I felt that it was delivered. With that. With the observational quality of that, rather than something that was emotionally indulgent.

[Penn]

I think that's actually really important in what we're calling true crime, you know, because what does feel sort of, maybe unhelpful at a cultural level is how indulgent it can be. But then if we're telling stories about this depth of human nature that is more dispassionate, I think that's where it can be more useful and more insightful.

[Eddie Redmayne]

And also, weirdly, the thing that I found interesting about the Good Nurse is at the end, this character who has appeared kind of gentle and kind and had done these continuously horrific things. He's asked why he does it, and he says, because they didn't stop me. And so there's no kind of revelation, I think, quite often in, like, human nature. And true crime is looking for the catalyst. Like, what is it that makes someone behave like this? With the idea being that it's one moment of trauma or one, you know, key that alleviates and opens up people's behavior. But I think human beings are more complex than that, and certainly in the Good Nurse, I think there were people that watched it going, wait, I wanted to know why. I mean, obviously that is a real life story in which hundreds of people's lives were taken and families were affected. But the human need to know why is, I think, kind of at the core of our intrigue with true crime.

[David]

Yeah, Eddie, sorry, we're just jumping around because.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Please, jump, jump away.

[David]

Let's go to Cabaret. So you. I mean, there's so much we could ask about Cabaret, but one thing that stood out to me in doing research is that there was a bit of backlash when you were cast in the West End Cabaret and you shared that it created a little bit of a crisis of confidence in you.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[David]

And you seem to be someone who prepares very rigorously for roles. But I'm curious, are you grateful for the backlash? Did it affect the way you played the role, the way you prepared for it? Do you think you would have gone about it differently if people had just been thrilled from the jump?

[Eddie Redmayne]

That's a great question. Firstly, I managed to sneak in last night to see Cabaret on Broad, the production that I was in, which Adam Lambert is now doing, and it is breathtaking. He is so extraordinary, as all the cast are. But you're right, look, I have a history of parts that. Parts that I've played that have been problematic in some of those choices, and I've spent a lot of time ruminating on those things and wondering what I would do differently. I was. When it came to Cabaret, I didn't take the part. I had learnt my lesson and I didn't take the part on without knowing exactly what I was doing. And the thing with Cabaret is the musical is based on Isherwood's book Goodbye to Berlin, which tells the story of the two protagonists, Sally Bowles and Cliff Bradshaw. But the MC doesn't exist. So the part that I played in London and New York was the mc. The MC was a character that was created for the musical by Joel Gray and Hal Prince, and it was to weave the kind of narrative together. But as far as what he exists as on the page, there is no character description for him. No one talks about him. He doesn't exist in the book. And. And now he has been played iconically by queer actors, absolutely brilliantly. And certainly, for example, in the Alan Cumming version, at the end of the piece, the mc, his costume is taken off and he's revealed in a concentration camp outfit with a pink triangle, which was incredibly moving and was incredibly powerful on Broadway. And I Think had sort of made people go, this is a gay character. And so I absolutely understood the questioning of that. But actually, my take on it, rather than the emcee being the victim, was the emcee as perpetrator. And this idea that in my take on the mc, he starts in this world. He's kind of based on some of those characters from German expressionist movies. He can lull people in, as those cabarets did, and skewer audiences, people who've paid a lot of money to kind of be slapped in the face of it. And then gradually over the evening, this kind of puckish figure rises into the kind of Aryan perpetrator. And I think when I was cast, people assumed that I was gonna be doing and because of the work that I'd done previously, that I was taking an iconically queer role. And whilst I absolutely understand that discussion, I also think there is, you know, that character is descriptionless and deserves any form of interpretation. So I found it. I was upset by the backlash, but when it was announced, but I had faith in my own take on the role. And you sort of had to wait for. I suppose what I was saying is, please just wait and see the performance before you. You make judgment on it.

[Sophie]

And we'll be right back.

[David]

Only 18 states require sex ed to be medically accurate. And relationship classes. Let's fix that. I'm Shan, an ASEX certified sex educator with a master's in psych. And on my podcast, Lovers by Shan, we make learning about love as mind

[Eddie Redmayne]

blowing as making it.

[David]

Celebrities and fascinating people share an intimate story. Then we uncover the lesson for all of us. Watch Lovers by Shan from Lemonada Media on YouTube or listen wherever you like your podcast,

[Penn]

given how. How much you invest. And I mean, I love the way you're reflecting on this. It's. It's. It's really beautiful and really inspiring to hear somebody who just, you know, cares so much and then has had the opportunity to dig into stuff where you can care that much. And it's just. I mean, it's. It's really lovely to hear when I read once that you. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the Internet. Is it true that on the set you described at some point rediscovering a love for. Maybe it was film acting on the Good Nurse through your sort of partnership with Jessica Chastain. What do you feel you had lost? And maybe what are some of the reasons why? And what were you rediscovering?

[Eddie Redmayne]

I think I was rediscovering a freedom, Honestly, I feel that. And I think it was Cabaret and the process of prepping for cabaret and throwing myself into different worlds of going back to. I went to, like, clowning school in Paris. I went and worked with this brilliant choreographer, Julia Cheng. People who physically, vocally took you to different places. That made me realize that what happens with acting is you work hard, you audition for everything you can. You desperately try to make a career. But, like, if you can, you get a job, you do it. You get pigeonholed into different places depending on.

[Penn]

I know nothing about that moment.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It's so. I look back on my work and there was definitely like a. I had a sort of Elizabethan period, like. And of any. You've gotten some good pigeonholes, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining.

[Sophie]

But, yeah, you've had many pigeonholes, which means there's no pigeonhole.

[Eddie Redmayne]

But it got to a point, I think, where I just. I was sitting on. I was. Well, I wasn't necessarily inspired by the process. And then, honestly, it was working with Tobias Lynn Herman, Jess Chastain, a brilliant cinematographer called Jodi Lee Leipes, who did this thing when. On the first day on the. Goodness. I arrived on set and I was in this corridor in a hospital, and it was. The set was virtually pitch black. Black. Like, I couldn't. You could see nothing. And then I looked in the camera and it. It was much lighter and you could. And there was a kind of. He was. Jody was filming it that way to create this kind of graininess, almost like a film texture. And it was amazing because it meant that you didn't see the crew and you didn't see. So that. That odd thing that I always find with filming that you. That the first kind of mental leap that you have to take is you're having an intimate chat and there are, you know, 20 people standing here. It was. Our brilliant crew became kind of recessive or disappeared. And I remember years ago doing a pilot for an HBO thing which Barry Aykroyd shot. And Barry shoots on these long lenses from miles away. And it was the most wonderful experience imaginable because we could be shooting this scene without the feeling of being scrutinized. And I don't know how you find. But every time.

[Penn]

I mean, my show has never seen it. It's the cameras. I'm often acting with an X on the map.

[Eddie Redmayne]

That was a fantastic piece for me. Right?

[Penn]

Yeah, exactly.

[Eddie Redmayne]

So it's a different skill, isn't it?

[Penn]

A completely different skill.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It's a Kind of. And it's innately more technical and it's bloody hard.

[Penn]

Yes. In my current role, I feel like I have become such a technical actor that I'm constantly thinking about lighting. I mean, I directed an episode, so it sort of ended up paying off in that sense. But it's. Yeah. What you're describing right there sounds really lovely.

[Eddie Redmayne]

And talk to me about the direction.

[Penn]

Oh, they don't want to hear this.

[Eddie Redmayne]

No, I do, actually, but I do want to hear about. How did you find that first moment when you. Because I've thought about that. Well, and.

[Penn]

But, like, would you direct. You'd probably direct a film, right? No, I mean, would you direct something that you would act in?

[Eddie Redmayne]

I don't. I don't know. That's. My question is how did you. What was that first moment like?

[Penn]

I mean, for the sake of Brevet, I would love to give you the. As an in depth answer as you. As you. As you want. But for the sake of our podcast and time, I will try to give. Give you something clothed in the garment of brevity. Let me pause for a while. No, it's so. Because the role is so technical, because the show is called you and I'm at the center of it. Everything is from my perspective. My voiceover is like 90% of the spoken words. I am often acting with X's on a matte box because the camera has to be right here, because the whole thing is glued together by my face and thoughts happening. It is already a producerial, editorial, technical. I work more with the camera crew than I work with other actors. Like, literally. Yeah. I have a different crew and cast every season. It is a role that is so uncommonly central to the apparatus that directing was like, oh, no. This is actually kind of like. I almost would rather do this if the gif. And what I did not get was time to prep. Yeah, Adequate time to prep. I couldn't watch playback, so it was like I was doing everything very intuitively.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah.

[Penn]

Never do it again like that. However, it was very interesting. And I was in London, by the way. I love. I love London.

[Eddie Redmayne]

But also time to prep. But also presumably time to prep to edit, because this is why I don't. It's so My show I found so relentless.

[Penn]

Yeah, yeah. Television. Even when you're doing it at the prestige level, it's. Yeah. Time is so hard to come by. You're just doing so much in so little time. I was editing on LA time in London, so I'd come home from a full day and then edit over zoom. But then, you know, on television, this is the thing, you're not the same. You're shepherding something as opposed to generating it the way you are in film. You know, as a director in television, you are. You have an easier job. It's a little more utilitarian. So you get to leave your stamp. You get to have certain moments where it's like, this is the essence of what we do. And that's awesome. And then a lot of it is kind of facilitating things that the crew already knows how to shoot the show.

[Eddie Redmayne]

You know, I'd love to have a chat, a proper chat with you, about the difference between the American system and the British system. I think there are quite a few.

[Penn]

There are some significant differences. We had trouble doing our show in London. We were like a month over in end.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Wow.

[Penn]

Yeah, for a lot of reasons. For reasons that are.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Where were you staying?

[Penn]

Ladbroke Grove, mostly.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Where I live. Yeah.

[Penn]

Oh, yeah. I love it. Apart from being away from my family for so long, I loved it there. I loved it, loved it, loved it.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It's a great city, I've got to say. I've been away. I was in Hungary doing Dare the Jackal for eight months, and I had four days off and came to New York, where I've been for. So I've just got home, he says, from New York, But I just got back to London and it's. Yeah, it's beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful place. I sort of forget how wonderful it is.

[Sophie]

You mentioned the differences between America and American film and British film, and I'm curious. My mom is English, my dad is American, and so I know it goes without saying that there's such cultural differences between the two places, just generally. And I'm curious, for you, growing up in England and then also, you know, being in Hollywood, what are the cultural differences that you had to get used to?

[Eddie Redmayne]

I. I don't know if they're cultural differences or they're my. But I think there's a kind of. There's an odd thing with the sort

[Penn]

of

[Eddie Redmayne]

the English politeness, you know, that manifests itself in. Actually, we don't quite say what we mean, and then we repress it and. And bitch behind, you know, behind your back that we haven't said what we wanted to say. And can't you read what I'm saying, you know, by the subtext with which I said it? Rather than. In America, everyone says it sort of up front.

[Penn]

But then I even noticed when you said the first two questions, you at least Told us that you proposed to your. Not proposed to your wife. But you said, you don't want to go to the theater, do you? And then you said you don't want to go to Florence, do you? As opposed to saying, do you want to? You're like, nah, you don't wanna.

[Eddie Redmayne]

I mean, how much do you pay for therapy? You could be my therapist. But it's also what's weird, honestly, as a British actor though, is you go, fuck you.

[Penn]

Then read.

[Eddie Redmayne]

When you start coming over and you do press and people are like, oh, it's English, he's so sort of charming. And you go like, oh shit. Like, is that part of your shtick? You know?

[Penn]

And that's the only reason you've made it.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Seriously, genuinely, don't, don't get me there. Like, it's a bit of slipper down moments when you, like, you go, but I am trying as I get older to sort of get rid of it. Because there's a difference between politeness and being disingenuous.

[Penn]

And actually you don't strike me as well, I don't necessarily. So. My wife is British, but she moved here when she was 12.

[E]

Right.

[Penn]

So she has a very, like, she has a very un British, like, sincerity and earnestness and like, she's so open and warm in that way. In a way that's like. I actually kind of thought she was like South American when I first met her. I didn't know what that was. And then after having spent some time there, I definitely have more of a sense of what you're saying. But I have to say this self consciousness that you just mentioned, you didn't use that word. But what strikes me is that you, in your early 20s, coming out of boarding school and the experiences you had there. I did really want to hear about your thesis with this color blue. And that was. We can't get into that. Your lack of self consciousness that you, at least between those moments of action and cut. Cause I understand that who you are between action and cut is not this person you necessarily ever get to be anywhere else. You know, there's something very special about those moments. And the best thing we can do as actors is just strip away all that we've prepared and thought of. Say, no, I prep. I prep just exhaustively so. I'm really with you there, Tooby. There's just so many similarities. It's uncanny. But that lack of self consciousness, like seeing you say in the Good shepherd, you know, how old were you there? 24.

[Eddie Redmayne]

24, yeah, 24.

[Penn]

I mean, you know, you're standing alongside some of our most iconic American actors. And that's its own gist. I mean, you're like on a film set, those differences, you're just. You have this like beautiful lack of self consciousness, which it just. I think that's what, you know, all the other things make you great and other. But that to me is like without that, that without that you can't be present and you can't do what we do. And I just want to commend you on like, you know, whatever the wild insecurities you must have, which everybody has between action and cut, you at least know how to like strip it away.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Thank you. It means a lot because I think of, you know, adolescence. Like, for me, the moment of adolescence was the moment of a switch going off into self consciousness.

[Penn]

Exactly.

[Eddie Redmayne]

And I hate it. And I can, like, why I brought up that sort of piano thing was I just. I remember there being a period where you didn't think about making friends. I remember that being a thing when I arrived at age 13 at school and suddenly having to think about conversation. Until then, everything, everything was on instinct. And My kids are 6 and 8 and I just. It's so glorious to see that. And I don't know what that is. That chafes away at it. But there are definitely moments, those moments on screen, like the reason I love acting and there's an addiction to it, is for those millisecond moments, I think, that happen maybe once every three years, in which there is a moment of complete freedom, of total lack of self consciousness. And that's the drug. Like that for me is the thing that brings you back and back. But I love that you think I've conned you into thinking that I'm not self conscious for a long time.

[Penn]

Well, no, no, no. I mean, I know that you are. I just think that you have a utility of stripping in a way enough so that I think that's what makes great actors great. I think it could be as simple as that. It's the self consciousness between action and gun. So you were bringing it back to that time of adolescence, which love it. So thematic. That's when it switches on. So if you could go back to 12 year old Eddie, what would you say or do if anything? And this is our last question.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Yeah, I think, you know, I've talked about not caring what people think, you know, when I was at school. And I think I sort of. I think that's true to an extent in that I put up some pretty hard Barriers to go, I don't care. You can throw the mockery at me, you know, I don't give a shit. But I actually think that is when the strictures started coming out. And I think it was probably exacerbated by being at an English boarding school. I kind of wish that I had. That art of not giving a fuck had really been more potent then. And because I'll not forget, when I was prepping for Cabaret, I went and spent a day moving with this choreographer, Julia Chang. You know, I really can't dance. But she is this extraordinary dancer who specializes in street dance and whacking and voguing. And I was, like, terrified to go into this room with her because I was like, what the hell? And she just brought movement out of me in a way in which, if anyone had watched, it would have been the most humiliating thing in the world. But I felt free. And I hadn't felt that feeling since I was sincere, before adolescence, before that moment of. And I think that freedom is something that we can all aspire to in some ways, but that's probably what I would say. I have no idea what it was that I would say, but loquacious and weird.

[David]

Eddie, I just want to say I think you're physically the furthest away a guest has ever been. And at the risk of embarrassing you, I do want to say that the whole interview I've had this, like, been flooded with this feeling of feeling so lucky to be in your presence because you just seem like an extraordinary person. So even though you're, like, physically far away, I can, like, feel that. So feel really honored.

[Eddie Redmayne]

It's been a real, real treat for me. And I'm sorry not to meet you guys in person. I'm very jealous. You're in Florence. Say hi to the Arno for me. Go and sit on one. Go in Santa Spirito and have a peach daiquiri. Oh.

[Sophie]

You okay? I know you've been here. Cause that is the best square.

[David]

That's the best piazza.

[Sophie]

It was so nice to meet you.

[David]

I love you so much.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Thank you so much, mate. Thank you, guys.

[David]

You can watch the Day of the Jackal on Peacock and you can keep up with him online. No, you can't. He's off socials. But go watch Day of the Jackal.

[Sophie]

We are so excited that you can now listen to podcrust Ad Free on Amazon Music. In fact, you can listen to any episode of podcrust Ad Free right now on Amazon Music with an Amazon prime membership.

[Eddie Redmayne]

How do you react to an intro I always.

[Penn]

How do you do an intro? I have to see. I don't like doing it live because.

[Eddie Redmayne]

Because you know what it feels like.

[Penn]

Yes.

[Sophie]

And I.

[Penn]

And I. And I. I. I hate when people list my Oscar nominations as well. That's. That's. I know. That's the problem you have. It's the one I get, too. Also my baftas, also my Oliviers, also my Tonys. It's infuriating. It's humiliating. Humiliating. Like, can you just please focus on the work?

[David]

Want to listen to your favorite Lemonada shows without the ads? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium On Apple Podcasts, you'll get ad free episodes and exclusive bonus content from shows like Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis Dreyfus, Fail Better with David Duchovny, the Sarah Silverman Podcast, and so many more. It's a great way to support the work we do and treat yourself to a smoother, uninterrupted listening experience. Just head to any Lemonada show feed on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe Make Life Suck Less with Fewer Ads With Lemonada Premium, are you looking for ways to make your everyday life happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Rubin, the number one bestselling author of the Happiness Project, bringing you fresh insights and practical solutions in the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast. My co host and happiness guinea pig is my sister, Elizabeth Craig Craft. That's me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore ideas and hacks about cultivating happiness and good habits. Check out Happier with Gretchen Rubin from lemonada Media.