The Huge Lie Eddie Redmayne Told To Get A Movie Role
Eddie Redmayne might be an award-winning actor, but even he had to start somewhere as he built his career. In fact, he once revealed in a video for Vanity Fair that he learned a valuable lesson in the process, and it had to do with telling lies while auditioning — or maybe not telling lies, as he quickly found out.
Now, Redmayne isn't the only actor who has ever lied to get a role, but the fib that apparently changed his mind about the process was a little more significant than, say, being dishonest about his age. He got the role, as it turned out, and his omission of the full truth wasn't one that he was able to make up for in a hurry. According to an article from WENN (via Hollywood.com), the 40-year-old has said that his lie later came back to haunt him yet again when he worked on another more notable project with the same director as before.
Eddie Redmayne lied about knowing how to ride a horse
When asked by director Tom Hooper if he had been on a horse before, Eddie Redmayne answered that he had. According to the WENN piece on Hollywood.com, the audition in question was for the miniseries "Elizabeth I." Redmayne clarified during the interview that he had been on a horse only once as a child, explaining for context, "I had been on a horse when I was four and was mostly trying to get it to go!" He didn't tell Hooper this, however, and the director took that to mean that the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" star would have no trouble horseback riding for the role.
As Redmayne explained to Vanity Fair, "Then, about two weeks later, we were in Lithuania, and I was having spurs attached to my feet and I was on top of this gigantic stallion, and I was just like, 'At what point do I admit that I've actually ... ?'" Fortunately for the British actor, he didn't lose the role. He told the outlet, "I was sent to horse camp immediately, and I don't think I've lied in an audition since."
Another role of his also required horseback riding
Horseback riding is required for many movies and television series, particularly in period pieces, so it's not too surprising that Eddie Redmayne was cast in another role that required the same set of equestrian skills later on. Unfortunately, as he said, per Hollywood.com, it was also while working with the same director, Tom Hooper. Redmayne said of filming his role as Marius Pontmercy in the 2012 film adaptation of "Les Misérables," which was directed by Hooper, "On day one all the revolutionaries were rehearsing together and Tom announced that my character, Marius, was gonna have to leap onto a horse whilst brandishing a flag! So that was my penance — my payback for that lie to him years ago."
The London native and Hooper worked together again on the 2015 historical film "The Danish Girl," in which Redmayne, who is cisgender, starred in the lead role as the real-life transgender woman Lili Elbe (via IndieWire). However, this time, he wasn't required to ride a horse to portray the character.