Eddie Redmayne had a "meltdown" when he started filming ‘The Theory of Everything’.
The 32-year-old actor – who plays physicist Stephen Hawking in the biopic – struggled with his first day filming because he had to shoot several scenes at different stags of the professor’s battle with degenerative condition motor neurone disease.
He explained: "The first scene was at the start of the film, pre-diagnosis. The second was when Stephen was using two walking sticks.
"By the third, he was in his second wheelchair. I was terrified.
"It was like I’d been asked to write a sentence in permanent ink starting with one word at the beginning, one at the middle and one at the end.
"I was having a complete meltdown – it was four in the morning, I was getting picked up at five, and I hadn’t slept. I was thinking, ‘I can’t start a job like this.’"
And Eddie had to take some time off after shooting wrapped in order to "remember" who he was again.
He told Mr. Porter magazine: "After inhabiting so many different personas, both mentally and physically, I suppose I needed to take some time off just to remember who I am."
Eddie has been nominated for Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Golden Globe awards for his role in the movie and is tipped for an Academy Award nomination but insists he didn’t accept the part for the recognition.
He said: "Please don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful compliment. I just hope it serves to get the story out to more people."
Eddie Redmayne’s movie meltdown
