Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

It’s fitting that Eddie Redmayne’s father is a numbers guy in Finance, who not only explained the statistical odds of making a living as an actor, but added that a mere finger-count of those who make a living, actually make a mark.

Fitting because the mark his son has made is based on his portrayal of Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, a man who made his mark by numbers - the higher math of space-time, black holes, and quantum physics.

Felicity Jones, also Oscar-nominated, plays hyper-intelligent spouse Jane Wilde, so it is even more fitting that both received the Cinema Vanguard Award from the 30th Santa Barbara International Film Festival at the Arlington Theater last night.

Their names on the marquee outside the venue sum up the partnership that making this film was; “it was very much like a dance,” according to Redmayne. “We pushed each other,” Felicity adds.

Festival Director Roger Durling has already walked to the podium on stage and set the scene. The Cinema Vanguard goes to the daring, it is “a very special tribute for people who take a big risk.”

“I saw it in Toronto. The high-wire act they do in Theory of Everything is breathtaking. Their performance reminds me of Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker in ‘My Left Foot.’ Together they make a whole.”

Outside on the red carpet, minutes before the evening began, Eddie Redmayne tailored to perfection in a bespoke suit and tie, will deflect any comparisons. “I mean, he is Daniel Day-Lewis. I wouldn’t begin to consider myself in (his category). As far as a defining role…” 

Unbeknownst to Redmayne, Theory of Everything screenwriter Anthony McCarten, who walked into the theatre ahead of him, has just finished saying,“This is a defining role for Eddie.” 

“He said that?” Redmayne seems taken aback, like the enormity of all the praise, from his win last week at the SAG Awards, to the upcoming Oscar ceremony, plus everything else, sinks in for the first time because McCarten uttered it. 

A kind of Baz Luhrmann meets Arthur Miller, McCarten, who also has a producer credit on the film, once won France’s the Molière Prize for playwriting. In other words, this is no ordinary Hollywood scribe that cranked out The Theory of Everything, it was storycraft by a master with extra gears in writing dialogue. Hence, the Best Picture nod.

“Hawking’s disability did affect how he thought,” he shares. “When he could no longer use math, no longer write numbers, because of his disability, he began to think visually. This brought him to places he might not have gone.”

In essence, Stephen Hawking should be thought of as the first human to cross the Digital Divide, to harness himself to artificial intelligence. And maybe even, see A.I.’s point of view. Or at least Hawking can be deemed a digital pioneer who had his essence distilled into a machine, with an electronic voice, as an adaptation of a still-sharp intellect that needed to leave his increasingly incapacitated body behind.

“At the end of the day, I could get up from my chair,” Redmayne said, shaking off any notion that the body contortions required were an inconvenience. “I spent a lot of time with those who suffer from ALS, and they can not get up. Suffering every day.”

Felicity Jones breezes by after McCarten and Redmayne have made their rounds on the red carpet. A veteran journalist confirms that she is hard to read, has an ineffable quality. With minimal make-up, perfect skin, flawless eyes, she cracks a perfect smile. 

“I’m shaking on the inside,” Felicity jokes, meaning of the run up to the Oscars. “My whole family is coming in town.”

Just from a brief veiled encounter, you can tell Oscar voters have done their homework on this one. Felicity Jones is nominated for the best performance of the year because she is that talented. Both she and Redmayne are from the UK, and are heavy on stage credits.

From Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, where Felicity held her own against Helen Mirren, to Ralph Fiennes’ Invisible Woman (2013) about Charles Dickens’ shadowy lover (Jones) to inhabiting Jane Hawking, Felicity Jones is, for some, an unknown quantity that is about to be a household name - win or lose the race.

Moderator Scott Feinberg, who covers award season for The Hollywood Reporter, will actually read a note from the real Jane Hawking at the close of the tribute. “Because you’re too modest… I’m going to call you out on this,” he tells Jones and Redmayne, before he reads a note from Jane and Stephen Hawking.

“She captured my movements, and my body language,” the real Jane Wilde said via letter. 

“I thought he was me at times," Stephen Hawking wrote of Redmayne.

Clips flash by from their relatively short careers, he being 33, she at 31 now (looking more like 21, however).

Redmayne sheds a bitter tear whilst in full song for Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables (2012) as Marius. Russell Crowe definitely did not sing like that in Les Mis. Then there’s Redmayne’s turn in My Week With Marilyn (Michelle Williams), edited together in pieces on a stunning tribute reel with a performance opposite fellow Oscar hopeful Julianne Moore, being ferociously gifted as usual, in Tom Kalin’s Savage Grace.

Here’s what he remembers of Les Mis, “Tom Hooper is yelling ‘Redmayne, you’re a fucking liar.’” Apparently Eddie had “Horseriding” on his actor’s CV and neglected to mention that he’d only ridden a horse once. “At age four. Mostly being led around a paddock.”

In synch with her co-star, Felicity shares a great early career moment from the set.

“The Sound Guy came over. He said ‘We’re going to have to move the mike because your heart is beating so loud, it is interfering with the sound.’”

Luckily, Jones learned a little something from Helen Mirren. “I was just mesmerized by her. The way she held herself on set. Absolute professionalism. Such discipline. She could be chatting with someone (just before), but when the camera goes on, she is on the money.”

Balancing each other, story for story, they shared the harsh realities of auditioning “unsuccessfully” and “drinking many pints together,” in a friendship that goes back to their roots reading poetry together for charity in the UK.

Before steady work on big budget film roles with equally big names, Eddie Redmayne said that after landing a role in The Good Shepherd as Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon’s son, “I went back to London and worked in a pub.”

Of course he did graduate from Cambridge, once got a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor, was a BAFTA Rising Star. If you study his clips closely, you begin to see he is self-deprecating as a way to put you at ease, because he, like Julianne Moore, is ferociously talented too.

One minute he is an American roué son of an incestuous matriarch (Savage Grace), the next moment he is a French Revolutionary soldier with perfect pitch, the next moment he is the world’s most famous living theoretical physicist disabled from ALS, atrophied and bound to a wheelchair.

“Hope this isn’t too pretentious,” Felicity tries to explain for both actors, “but as an artist, something shifts inside you.”

To cap off the evening, Anthony McCarten reappears to present them with their gold-hued Cinema Vangard statues.

“These two are unfairly talented,” he concludes.

The 30th Santa Barbara International Film Festival continues tomorrow with honoree Jennifer Aniston, whose star turn in Cake is her best work on screen to date… Tanqueray Number 10, a gin that appears to have a perfect Olympic score (okay, kidding), is the major  sponsor. Stay tuned for more. 

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