埃迪·雷德梅尼：一直在路上

Eddie Redmayne can barely contain himself. The gangly， boyish， and eminently charming actor is meant to be seated on a plush couch in his inordinately posh Manhattan hotel suite， but he seems incapable of staying put. He frequently springs up to further demonstrate whatever point hes in the middle of making， and even when he is seated， his deep， throaty voice races headlong out of him， his mouth often tripping over his words.

Redmaynes infectious verve is， ironically， in service of explaining how he learned to keep his body resolutely stiff and static. With the film The Theory of Everything， the 32-year-old Redmayne has been winning the best reviews of his young career， for his performance as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

The film tracks Hawkings physical decline from his early days as a doctoral candidate at Cambridge. Its main emotional focus， however， is how the disease affected his romance with and eventual marriage to Jane Hawking， whose memoir served as the basis for the film. Playing Hawking proposed one of the most intimidating challenges imaginable for an actor： Faithfully portraying the physical specificity of Hawkings disease meant bottling up virtually every tool available to capture his emotional inner life.

But according to The Theory of Everythings director， James Marsh， it was a challenge that Redmayne was up to from the moment the two first met to discuss the role. “Eddies a very intelligent actor，” Marsh says a few weeks later on the phone. “I was struck by how much he understood the nature of the psychology of the role， and what he had to do is to physically prepare for what then would become an emotional performance.”

Back in his hotel suite， however， Redmayne often says， almost contritely， that he had not gone through formal training as an actor （Instead， he studied the history of art at Cambridge）. “Ive always wondered if at drama school you get a given process，” he says. “Every single job I do， whether its theater or film， Im still grappling to find a process. But interestingly， when I got cast in The Theory of Everything， my instinct was to make it quite a formal one.”

Redmayne—as well as his costar Jones， who also had to discover how best to play a living person—had to become something of a detective mixed with an investigative reporter mixed with a movement artist. After teaming up with dancerchoreographer Alexandra Reynolds， Redmayne met with doctors， nurses， and patients at the Queen Square Centre for Neuromuscular Disease in London. “They have an ALS clinic every week， and at the end the doctor would say， ‘Theres an actor here trying to play Stephen Hawking， would you be interested in meeting him？” says Redmayne. “And across the board， people were sensationally generous. … Some people would allow me to feel their hands， to feel the weight of their bodies.”

At the clinic， Redmayne also learned about the differences between the loss of “upper” neurons—which causes the affected areas to fix into a rigid shape—and“l(fā)ower” neurons—which causes the opposite， the body to go loose and limp. But those losses are specific to each person，which meant Redmayne had to sort out—based mostly on archival photos and whatever he could find on YouTube—how Hawkings motor neuron disease uniquely manifested itself， and when. He then showed those images to the doctors at Queen Square so they could render a loose sort of diagnosis.

After filling an iPad with every scrap of visual and documentary material he collected， Redmayne then created a single， double-sided master list， which charted out the details hed need to know for every single scene. That list， he says， included “what muscles had gone， where vocally he was at， and then what glasses he was wearing， whether he was on one stick or two sticks， or which wheelchair he was in.”

Throughout this process， Redmayne was also working with Reynolds， in a rehearsal space， to teach his body how to render each stage of Hawkings decline. “Rather than just replicating positions， it was about when youre holding these positions，” Redmayne says， as he starts to shrug up his shoulders， and twist and stiffen his hands.

The role didnt just affect his body， either. Redmayne contorted his face so frequently that the films makeup artist noticed the right side of his face began to change.

However taxing depicting Hawkings illness was—and it also included everything from mastering driving Hawkings different wheelchairs， to subtly changing his wardrobe to make his body seem slighter as he grew older—it was still only half the job. To grasp the mans formidable intellectual life， Redmayne also studied Hawkings contributions to the field of general relativity and theoretical physics， especially his best-selling book A Brief History of Time.

But the hardest job， in a way， was communicating what was happening to Hawkings heart as his body was failing him. For that， he relied especially on Marsh and Jones. “I remember being in a rehearsal room with Eddie， and Eddies in the chair， and then suddenly you feel as the person playing the carer you have this enormous responsibility，” Jones says.“At a certain point， Stephen couldnt just lift up a spoon. So Janes got to be there doing it for him. So suddenly， I was like， Gosh， Ive got to be the responsible one in this situation！ She was Stephens movement in the world.”

Asked what it was like to learn that Stephen Hawking had enjoyed the film— and the profound effort that went into his performance—for the first time that afternoon he grows quiet， his words coming slowly， his body still. “It means everything， really，” he says， his voice heavy with emotion.“The weight of those high stakes had been sitting on my shoulders for an age， and—thats why were telling the story， because hes an extraordinary human being， as is Jane. They allowed us into their orbit for a few months， and that was one of the great privileges of my life. Its an experience I will never， ever forget.”

埃迪·雷德梅尼激動得無法自已。這位身形瘦削、一臉稚氣又異常迷人的演員準(zhǔn)備往他所入住的曼哈頓豪華酒店套房的長毛絨沙發(fā)坐下去，但他似乎無法安坐。無論說什么，他都會不斷地騰起身子來進(jìn)一步展示，就是在坐著的時候，他那深沉嘶啞的聲音也沖口而出，快言快語得嘴上直打磕巴。

好笑的是，雷德梅尼這樣富有感染力的熱情竟然是為了解釋他是如何讓身體變得異常僵硬和靜態(tài)的。隨著電影《萬物理論》的上映，憑借對理論物理學(xué)家斯蒂芬·霍金的出色演繹，32歲的雷德梅尼贏得了自己從演生涯以來最高的評價。

電影追溯到霍金早年還在劍橋讀博士的那些日子，講述他的健康如何惡化。然而，電影的主要情感集中點(diǎn)在于他的疾病如何影響他與簡·霍金的愛情與婚姻，電影的創(chuàng)作以女方的回憶錄作為基礎(chǔ)。對于任何一個演員來說，扮演霍金都是極具挑戰(zhàn)性的。忠實(shí)地呈現(xiàn)霍金所患疾病的肢體特征意味著要在幾乎不依靠任何工具的情況下去捕捉他的內(nèi)心情感世界。

但根據(jù)《萬物理論》的導(dǎo)演詹姆斯·馬什所說，兩人一開始見面討論這個角色的時候，雷德梅尼就有能力接受這個挑戰(zhàn)?！鞍５鲜且幻浅Ｂ斆鞯难輪T，”幾周之后，馬什在電話里面如此說道，“他對這個角色的內(nèi)心世界的了解程度讓我感到震驚，而他只需要做好身體上的準(zhǔn)備，把情感戲分表現(xiàn)出來就好?！?/p>

然而，在雷德梅尼的酒店套房內(nèi)，他經(jīng)常說，以近乎懊悔的語氣，說自己從未受過專業(yè)的演員訓(xùn)練（事實(shí)上，他在劍橋?qū)W習(xí)的是藝術(shù)史）?！拔铱偸呛闷?，要是在表演學(xué)校，會不會學(xué)到一種套路，”他說道，“在我從事任何工作時，無論是舞臺還是電影，我仍要一直去尋找個中套路。但有趣的是，當(dāng)我加入《萬物理論》劇組的時候，我本能地找到了合適的方法?！?/p>

和他的合作伙伴瓊斯一樣，雷德梅尼——他們倆都需要探索如何才能最好地演繹一個真實(shí)存在的人物——不得不游走在偵探、具有挖掘精神的記者以及動作表演者這三種身份之間。與舞編亞歷山德拉·雷諾茲合作之后，雷德梅尼還探訪了倫敦女王廣場中心的神經(jīng)肌肉疾病中心的醫(yī)生、護(hù)士以及病人?！八麄兠恐芏加幸粋€關(guān)于肌肉萎縮癥的會診，而會診最后醫(yī)生會說，‘這兒有位演員要扮演斯蒂芬·霍金，你們有興趣和他見一下面嗎？”雷德梅尼說道，“總體而言，人們異常地慷慨?！恍┤诉€準(zhǔn)許我觸摸他們的手，抱起他們來感受他們身體的重量?！?/p>

在會診期間，雷德梅尼還學(xué)習(xí)到失去“上部”神經(jīng)元與“下部”神經(jīng)元有什么差別——前者會讓受損部位變得僵硬，而后者則相反，會讓身體松弛并且無力。但是這些損傷造成的影響卻因人而異，這就意味著雷德梅尼需要根據(jù)檔案圖片以及他能在YouTube上找到的視頻來整理出霍金個人運(yùn)動神經(jīng)元疾病的表現(xiàn)及各個階段的情況。他隨后把這些圖片拿給女王廣場的醫(yī)生看，讓他們給出一個粗略的診斷結(jié)果。

把自己的蘋果平板電腦裝滿所有能夠收集到的圖像片段和紀(jì)錄材料后，雷德梅尼列出了一張雙面的總清單，把每一幕他需要知道的細(xì)節(jié)以圖表形式表現(xiàn)出來。他說，那個清單包括“什么肌肉損傷了，他的聲音變化如何，戴著什么樣的眼鏡，他是用一根拐杖還是兩根拐杖，或者是他坐著什么樣的輪椅。”

在這個過程中，雷德梅尼還一直與雷諾茲合作，在排練場讓雷諾茲教導(dǎo)他如何呈現(xiàn)霍金身體衰退的每個階段?！氨绕饛?fù)制這些動作，掌握做出這些動作的時機(jī)更為重要，”雷德梅尼邊說邊開始聳起肩膀，并使自己的手呈扭曲僵硬狀。

這個角色不僅影響了他的身體。由于雷德梅尼頻繁地扭曲自己的臉，電影的化妝師發(fā)現(xiàn)了他右邊的臉開始發(fā)生改變。

盡管詮釋霍金的疾病如此費(fèi)力——包括如何駕駛霍金不同的輪椅，如何在演繹年紀(jì)大的霍金時巧妙地變換服飾使其體型顯得更小，但這一切都還只是表演工作的一部分而已。為了詮釋霍金的過人才智，雷德梅尼還學(xué)習(xí)了霍金在廣義相對論以及理論物理學(xué)方面的貢獻(xiàn)，特別是他最暢銷的作品《時間簡史》。

但是，從某種層面來說，最難的是，在霍金身體給事業(yè)拖后腿之時，如何表現(xiàn)出他的內(nèi)心世界。這點(diǎn)上，雷德梅尼特別依賴導(dǎo)演馬什和女主角瓊斯?！拔矣浀迷谂啪毷依锖桶５蠈?，當(dāng)時他坐在輪椅上，然后忽然我就覺得你對這個需要照顧的人有著莫大的責(zé)任，”瓊斯說道，“有時，斯蒂芬連一個勺子都舉不起來。因此簡必須在那里幫助他。忽然，我就像，天啊，在這個場景之下，我就是那個要擔(dān)當(dāng)重任的人！她就是斯蒂芬行動的拐杖?！?/p>

當(dāng)被問到得知斯蒂芬·霍金很喜歡這部電影——也很欣賞他為表演付出的努力，他有什么感受時，那天下午第一次，雷德梅尼變得安靜起來，他的語速變得緩慢，他的身體靜止不動?！斑@樣的肯定對我來說意味著一切，真的，”他說道，他的聲音富含深情?！伴L久以來，賭注都壓在我身上，而且，這就是為什么我們要拍攝這部電影的原因，因?yàn)樗莻ト?，簡也一樣。那幾個月他們準(zhǔn)許我們進(jìn)入他們的生活圈，那對于我來說是極大的特權(quán)了。這樣的經(jīng)歷我永遠(yuǎn)都不會忘記?！?/p>