Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne has revealed how Sir Ian McKellen inspired him to become an actor, as he was named the new ambassador of the film education charity Into Film.
The 33-year-old star, who won the best actor Oscar for his performance as astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything, said watching McKellen's portrayal of King Richard III in the 1995 big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's play sparked his passion for stage and movies.
Redmayne, who studied at Eton College in the same year as Prince William, said: "When I heard about Into Film, one of the things that I thought was so extraordinary was how little of that I had when I went to school."
The Cambridge graduate explained: "I went to probably the most privileged school in the country, and there, somehow because our country - because of Shakespeare - we have this extraordinary theatre legacy and we all feel like it's very important and wonderful - and it is - but what I found is that I got into Shakespeare when I saw a film version of it with Gandalf playing Richard III, and that was when I first got really interested in theatre and in film."
The London-born star made his major stage debut in 2002 as Viola in the Shakespeare's Globe production of Twelfth Night. He has also played King Richard II in the Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare's play, Richard II, as well as roles in films such as Les Miserables, My Week With Marilyn and Jupiter Ascending.
Redmayne, who next plays transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl and is set to play "magizoologist" Newt Scamander in the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, admitted he did not watch many films when he was growing up.
"My life is film, but it wasn't when I was a kid. My family weren't massively into film, I didn't see a huge amount myself when I was at school - theatre was the thing," he said.
"I always thought that film was entertainment, it wasn't something you could learn from and my God, I was mistaken.
"So since then I've been trying to up my film literacy and it's been an extraordinary adventure and it continues to be. Often with film we love watching it because it's immersive and it's entertaining ... but if you look a bit harder and you ask the questions after, it can be so inspiring. It's an amazing time to be supporting Into Film."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here