swoon/トム・ケイリンコミュのEddie Redmayne

Eddie Redmayne
10 Actors to Watch: Film Class
By MICHAEL VENTREIf Eddie Redmayne isn't one of the finest young actors whom few have ever heard of, he's already on the short list. "I've done all this work now, but none of it has come out," says the 24-year-old Brit.
Indeed, his resume lists several film credits that any thesp, regardless of experience level, would love to call his own. The most notable might be Robert De Niro's second directorial effort, "The Good Shepherd," Universal's CIA-themed thriller starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, due out in December. But Redmayne also will soon appear in Julianne Moore starrer "Savage Grace," about a murder in London in 1972, and "The Golden Age," with Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen.

For Redmayne, it started on the boards. While a student at Cambridge, he scored a part in the 400th-anniversary all-male production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" in 2002, which was staged in Middle Temple Hall, part of London's Inns of Court, where a group of lawyers first presented Shakespeare's comedy.

"There was a kind of pressure, but I was naive to it," Redmayne recalls. "Rather than be terrified, I tried not to let the situation overwhelm me. That's where I signed with my first British agent."

Not long after, Redmayne performed in a London production of Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" and was spotted by an agent from CAA, which led to auditions for film work. He earned his first role opposite Toni Collette in the independent thriller "Like Minds" before he came to the attention of De Niro's people, who were casting for two English characters. Redmayne read the script and asked through his agent if he could audition to play an American.

After about seven months of flying back and forth for auditions, and reading with De Niro and Damon, Redmayne suddenly went from relative obscurity on the stage to budding prominence in Hollywood.

He also has landed a role in "The Other Boleyn Girl," opposite Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.

"To be honest, I got into acting because I loved theater," he says. "It's embarrassing how little I know (about film).

"It's such a thrill for me not to have massive aspirations. I'm so lucky to have done the projects I've done, and if it ended tomorrow I will have had an extraordinary career experience that someone of my age doesn't have a right to have done."

THREE QUESTIONS

An actor should never: "Release a pop record. Period."

Five years from now I'll be: "A tad better at dealing with the perpetual job-hunting aspect of this career. Or not."

I want to work with: "Pawel Pawlikowski."