It's been a long and winding road for Eddie Redmayne since “The Theory of Everything” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. He's won a Golden Globe, a SAG Award and could be your next Oscar winner in the Lead Actor category. Somehow, he also managed to find time to get married and begin filming “The Danish Girl” while still trekking back and forth between New York and Los Angeles for numerous awards season events including today's prestigious Oscar luncheon.
One of those events happened to be a private screening of “Theory” hosted by none other than Robert De Niro right before the holidays. As you may know, Redmayne's big Hollywood break came in De Niro's 2006 drama “The Good Shepherd” alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. In an incredibly competitive year where many have noted Michael Keaton's numerous Academy friends and Ben Affleck publicly supporting Bradley Cooper that Redmayne has his own share of supporters as well such as De Niro and Anne Hathaway.
Of course, Redmayne is also incredibly deserving of his honor. It's worth noting that considering that “Theory” and “Birdman” have made about the same at the box office and “Imitation Game” has made as much as those two dramas combined that Redmayne still took the Best Actor prize at the SAG Awards. Redmayne's transformation into Stephen Hawking in “Theory” is remarkable and his ability to share the details of his performance (having to jump between different stages of Hawking's condition on the same day of shooting) has only impressed his peers even more.
[And as a commenter noted before I could finish editing this post, we haven't even begun to talk about his expected BAFTA support]
It's going to come down to one of the closest best actor races since Adrien Brody's upset win in 2002. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a little well-deserved love from your friends.