Eddie Redmayne is the prohibitive frontrunner for the best actor Oscar this year. Take one look at the new trailer for The Theory of Everything, and you'll see why. His performance as world renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking, is utterly transformative.
This has been a long time time coming for the 32-year-old actor, who's showed flashes of brilliance in films like Les Miserables and My Week With Marilyn. But, nothing he's done before could have prepared us for this.
Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at age 21 and his current condition is how the world sees him today: a wheelchair-bound savant who speaks through a computer. Here, Redmayne humanizes the genius in his portrayal of a dashing Cambridge student who falls in love with fellow student, Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones). In fact, the film was based on Jane's memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, and charts the couple's life as they unlock the secrets of the universe and deal with Hawking's crippling affliction.
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Both Redmayne and Jones received standing ovations in Toronto when they took the stage after the film's world premiere. And, as awards season kicks into high gear, something tells us it won't be their last.
The Theory of Everything is out on November 7.