埃迪·雷德梅尼：一直在路上

Eddie Redmayne can barely contain himself. The gangly， boyish， and eminently charming actor is meant to be seated on a plush couch in his inordinately posh Manhattan hotel suite， but he seems incapable of staying put. He frequently springs up to further demonstrate whatever point hes in the middle of making， and even when he is seated， his deep， throaty voice races headlong out of him， his mouth often tripping over his words.

Redmaynes infectious verve is， ironically， in service of explaining how he learned to keep his body resolutely stiff and static. With the film The Theory of Everything， the 32-year-old Redmayne has been winning the best reviews of his young career， for his performance as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

The film tracks Hawkings physical decline from his early days as a doctoral candidate at Cambridge. Its main emotional focus， however， is how the disease affected his romance with and eventual marriage to Jane Hawking， whose memoir served as the basis for the film. Playing Hawking proposed one of the most intimidating challenges imaginable for an actor： Faithfully portraying the physical specificity of Hawkings disease meant bottling up virtually every tool available to capture his emotional inner life.

But according to The Theory of Everythings director， James Marsh， it was a challenge that Redmayne was up to from the moment the two first met to discuss the role. “Eddies a very intelligent actor，” Marsh says a few weeks later on the phone. “I was struck by how much he understood the nature of the psychology of the role， and what he had to do is to physically prepare for what then would become an emotional performance.”

Back in his hotel suite， however， Redmayne often says， almost contritely， that he had not gone through formal training as an actor （Instead， he studied the history of art at Cambridge）. “Ive always wondered if at drama school you get a given process，” he says. “Every single job I do， whether its theater or film， Im still grappling to find a process. But interestingly， when I got cast in The Theory of Everything， my instinct was to make it quite a formal one.”

Redmayne—as well as his costar Jones， who also had to discover how best to play a living person—had to become something of a detective mixed with an investigative reporter mixed with a movement artist. After teaming up with dancerchoreographer Alexandra Reynolds， Redmayne met with doctors， nurses， and patients at the Queen Square Centre for Neuromuscular Disease in London. “They have an ALS clinic every week， and at the end the doctor would say， ‘Theres an actor here trying to play Stephen Hawking， would you be interested in meeting him？” says Redmayne. “And across the board， people were sensationally generous. … Some people would allow me to feel their hands， to feel the weight of their bodies.”

At the clinic， Redmayne also learned about the differences between the loss of “upper” neurons—which causes the affected areas to fix into a rigid shape—and“lower” neurons—which causes the opposite， the body to go loose and limp. But those losses are specific to each person，which meant Redmayne had to sort out—based mostly on archival photos and whatever he could find on YouTube—how Hawkings motor neuron disease uniquely manifested itself， and when. He then showed those images to the doctors at Queen Square so they could render a loose sort of diagnosis.

After filling an iPad with every scrap of visual and documentary material he collected， Redmayne then created a single， double-sided master list， which charted out the details hed need to know for every single scene. That list， he says， included “what muscles had gone， where vocally he was at， and then what glasses he was wearing， whether he was on one stick or two sticks， or which wheelchair he was in.”

Throughout this process， Redmayne was also working with Reynolds， in a rehearsal space， to teach his body how to render each stage of Hawkings decline. “Rather than just replicating positions， it was about when youre holding these positions，” Redmayne says， as he starts to shrug up his shoulders， and twist and stiffen his hands.

The role didnt just affect his body， either. Redmayne contorted his face so frequently that the films makeup artist noticed the right side of his face began to change.

However taxing depicting Hawkings illness was—and it also included everything from mastering driving Hawkings different wheelchairs， to subtly changing his wardrobe to make his body seem slighter as he grew older—it was still only half the job. To grasp the mans formidable intellectual life， Redmayne also studied Hawkings contributions to the field of general relativity and theoretical physics， especially his best-selling book A Brief History of Time.

But the hardest job， in a way， was communicating what was happening to Hawkings heart as his body was failing him. For that， he relied especially on Marsh and Jones. “I remember being in a rehearsal room with Eddie， and Eddies in the chair， and then suddenly you feel as the person playing the carer you have this enormous responsibility，” Jones says.“At a certain point， Stephen couldnt just lift up a spoon. So Janes got to be there doing it for him. So suddenly， I was like， Gosh， Ive got to be the responsible one in this situation！ She was Stephens movement in the world.”

Asked what it was like to learn that Stephen Hawking had enjoyed the film— and the profound effort that went into his performance—for the first time that afternoon he grows quiet， his words coming slowly， his body still. “It means everything， really，” he says， his voice heavy with emotion.“The weight of those high stakes had been sitting on my shoulders for an age， and—thats why were telling the story， because hes an extraordinary human being， as is Jane. They allowed us into their orbit for a few months， and that was one of the great privileges of my life. Its an experience I will never， ever forget.”

埃迪·雷德梅尼激動得无法自已。这位身形瘦削、一脸稚气又异常迷人的演员准备往他所入住的曼哈顿豪华酒店套房的长毛绒沙发坐下去，但他似乎无法安坐。无论说什么，他都会不断地腾起身子来进一步展示，就是在坐着的时候，他那深沉嘶哑的声音也冲口而出，快言快语得嘴上直打磕巴。

好笑的是，雷德梅尼这样富有感染力的热情竟然是为了解释他是如何让身体变得异常僵硬和静态的。随着电影《万物理论》的上映，凭借对理论物理学家斯蒂芬·霍金的出色演绎，32岁的雷德梅尼赢得了自己从演生涯以来最高的评价。

电影追溯到霍金早年还在剑桥读博士的那些日子，讲述他的健康如何恶化。然而，电影的主要情感集中点在于他的疾病如何影响他与简·霍金的爱情与婚姻，电影的创作以女方的回忆录作为基础。对于任何一个演员来说，扮演霍金都是极具挑战性的。忠实地呈现霍金所患疾病的肢体特征意味着要在几乎不依靠任何工具的情况下去捕捉他的内心情感世界。

但根据《万物理论》的导演詹姆斯·马什所说，两人一开始见面讨论这个角色的时候，雷德梅尼就有能力接受这个挑战。“埃迪是一名非常聪明的演员，”几周之后，马什在电话里面如此说道，“他对这个角色的内心世界的了解程度让我感到震惊，而他只需要做好身体上的准备，把情感戏分表现出来就好。”

然而，在雷德梅尼的酒店套房内，他经常说，以近乎懊悔的语气，说自己从未受过专业的演员训练（事实上，他在剑桥学习的是艺术史）。“我总是好奇，要是在表演学校，会不会学到一种套路，”他说道，“在我从事任何工作时，无论是舞台还是电影，我仍要一直去寻找个中套路。但有趣的是，当我加入《万物理论》剧组的时候，我本能地找到了合适的方法。”

和他的合作伙伴琼斯一样，雷德梅尼——他们俩都需要探索如何才能最好地演绎一个真实存在的人物——不得不游走在侦探、具有挖掘精神的记者以及动作表演者这三种身份之间。与舞编亚历山德拉·雷诺兹合作之后，雷德梅尼还探访了伦敦女王广场中心的神经肌肉疾病中心的医生、护士以及病人。“他们每周都有一个关于肌肉萎缩症的会诊，而会诊最后医生会说，‘这儿有位演员要扮演斯蒂芬·霍金，你们有兴趣和他见一下面吗？”雷德梅尼说道，“总体而言，人们异常地慷慨。……一些人还准许我触摸他们的手，抱起他们来感受他们身体的重量。”

在会诊期间，雷德梅尼还学习到失去“上部”神经元与“下部”神经元有什么差别——前者会让受损部位变得僵硬，而后者则相反，会让身体松弛并且无力。但是这些损伤造成的影响却因人而异，这就意味着雷德梅尼需要根据档案图片以及他能在YouTube上找到的视频来整理出霍金个人运动神经元疾病的表现及各个阶段的情况。他随后把这些图片拿给女王广场的医生看，让他们给出一个粗略的诊断结果。

把自己的苹果平板电脑装满所有能够收集到的图像片段和纪录材料后，雷德梅尼列出了一张双面的总清单，把每一幕他需要知道的细节以图表形式表现出来。他说，那个清单包括“什么肌肉损伤了，他的声音变化如何，戴着什么样的眼镜，他是用一根拐杖还是两根拐杖，或者是他坐着什么样的轮椅。”

在这个过程中，雷德梅尼还一直与雷诺兹合作，在排练场让雷诺兹教导他如何呈现霍金身体衰退的每个阶段。“比起复制这些动作，掌握做出这些动作的时机更为重要，”雷德梅尼边说边开始耸起肩膀，并使自己的手呈扭曲僵硬状。

这个角色不仅影响了他的身体。由于雷德梅尼频繁地扭曲自己的脸，电影的化妆师发现了他右边的脸开始发生改变。

尽管诠释霍金的疾病如此费力——包括如何驾驶霍金不同的轮椅，如何在演绎年纪大的霍金时巧妙地变换服饰使其体型显得更小，但这一切都还只是表演工作的一部分而已。为了诠释霍金的过人才智，雷德梅尼还学习了霍金在广义相对论以及理论物理学方面的贡献，特别是他最畅销的作品《时间简史》。

但是，从某种层面来说，最难的是，在霍金身体给事业拖后腿之时，如何表现出他的内心世界。这点上，雷德梅尼特别依赖导演马什和女主角琼斯。“我记得在排练室里和埃迪对戏，当时他坐在轮椅上，然后忽然我就觉得你对这个需要照顾的人有着莫大的责任，”琼斯说道，“有时，斯蒂芬连一个勺子都举不起来。因此简必须在那里帮助他。忽然，我就像，天啊，在这个场景之下，我就是那个要担当重任的人！她就是斯蒂芬行动的拐杖。”

当被问到得知斯蒂芬·霍金很喜欢这部电影——也很欣赏他为表演付出的努力，他有什么感受时，那天下午第一次，雷德梅尼变得安静起来，他的语速变得缓慢，他的身体静止不动。“这样的肯定对我来说意味着一切，真的，”他说道，他的声音富含深情。“长久以来，赌注都压在我身上，而且，这就是为什么我们要拍摄这部电影的原因，因为他是伟人，简也一样。那几个月他们准许我们进入他们的生活圈，那对于我来说是极大的特权了。这样的经历我永远都不会忘记。”