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JULY 2018
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Flight Time
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Profile
There is a certain romantic wistfulness in
Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne. When
discussing his work, the 36-year-old cannot help
but drift off into a pensive, dreamy state – he is
clearly someone in love with his craft. But the
ability to elicit boundless satisfaction isn’t just
restricted to film – discuss wife of three years
Hannah Bagshawe, or the recent arrivals of
children Iris and Luke, or food or, indeed, travel,
and the actor’s imagination sparks. “I wouldn’t
say I’m a dreamer, but I love recalling beautiful
experiences,” he says. “It feels wonderful to be
able to be in a moment where you can so vividly
recall people and places and feelings – it’s like
you’re back there all over again.”
You can’t really blame the
Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them
star for wanting to veer
away from what is often a tedious, repetitive,
exhausting path of film promotion. “We all know
what the circuit entails and it’s something you
just have to get on with,” he says. “Of course,
I love talking about my work and it’s always a
thrill, but in the whole process of putting a film
together, the promo stuff is definitely the bit that
drags most, largely because you’re so painfully
close to the release date and just want to get the
thing over the line!”
The temptation to divert the actor’s mind
onto a different topic is often too great – for
interviewer and interviewee – to turn down.
Eddie has incredible powers of recall… specific,
pinpointed memories of a memorable meal,
at a particular time and place, recounting the
experience with such exact detail and language,
that one can almost taste the fresh caprese
salad, feel the warmMediterranean breeze and
breathe in the crisp aroma of the dry Chablis.
Such a capacity for remembering and retelling
these moments in vivid detail is arguably what
makes the star such a tremendous actor, though
if roles were to ever dry up for the handsome
redhead, it is almost certain that Eddie would
happily while away his days wandering the
globe and relaying the experience to a legion
of devout readers.
“Could I imagine a career in travel if I wasn’t
an actor?” he asks himself. “It’d certainly be
very tempting. I think while in my current
job I always look for artistic freedom, to get
that same freedom through travel whenever I
wanted it would be magnificent. Who wouldn’t
love that?” he beams.
Having had the privilege of experiencing
overseas cultures from a very young age, it’s
clear Eddie’s love of travel is borne from
his childhood summers spent at his family’s
Provençal farmhouse in Grimaud, France –
the St Tropez resort close to Toulon airport.
The family’s delightful six-bedroom property
(which apparently can be rented for around
£9,000 per week) is tucked into the hillside close
to St Tropez and boasts tennis courts and a
swimming pool. For the young would-be actor,
visiting provided glorious respite during school
holidays and the occasional long weekend.
Surrounded by forest, the charming
property even has its own vineyard which lazily
winds into the Prignon Valley, making it easy
to imagine the young Eddie and his brothers,
Thomas and James, rambling the trails and
climbing trees on bucolic summer days full of
adventure and possibility. “Our farmhouse near
St Tropez was undoubtedly one of the places
that shaped me as the actor I am today,” he says.
Indeed, a 17-year-old Eddie certainly looks to
be having the time of his life in a family portrait
that was taken outside the house as part of a
feature on ‘cross-continental commuters’ for
the
London Evening Standard
in 1999.
Eddie’s father Richard told the newspaper
at the time: “I work these crazy hours in the
City, which has always forced us to live in
central London. But there came a point when
we decided that we needed somewhere in the