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Eddie Redmayne admits to 'a pretty bad performance' in one of his biggest movies

Eddie Redmayne (Credit: Getty)
Eddie Redmayne (Credit: Getty)

Eddie Redmayne has admitted some regrets over how he performed in one of his most high profile movies.

The bonkers sci-fi Jupiter Ascending, made in 2015 by Matrix directors the Wachowskis, found him playing space villain Balem Abrasax.

It was noted for its whispery vocal delivery, like a galactic James Mason, and came in for not a little ridicule at the time.

Now in an interview with GQ, the Fantastic Beasts star has accepted that his delivery might actually have been flat-out weird.

(Credit: Warner Bros)
(Credit: Warner Bros)

“My character had had his larynx ripped out by this wolf man, and so I made the slightly bold choice – which I thought was right – of talking like this for the whole film,” he says in the interview, resurrecting his breathy performance.

“In retrospect… it may have been too much.

“I won a prize for it for the worst performance of the year (the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor). So, yeah, it was a pretty bad performance by all accounts.”

He goes on: “We have this spread in England for toast which is called Marmite. The ad slogan is that you either like it or you hate it, and I’ve always thought that I was a bit of a Marmite actor. People seem to either enjoy what I do or loathe what I do.

“And those people that loathe what I do, Jupiter Ascending tends to be their favourite performance.”

Some thought at the time that he could even have scuppered his chances at Oscar glory for his other film that year, The Theory of Everything, in which he played Professor Stephen Hawking.

But in the end, he did scoop the hallowed statue, and there were even plus points to making the movie.

“I love the Wachowskis, and I’ve never felt so free on set,” he added.

The movie tanked, and badly, however, costing Warner Bros a stunning amount of money by costing $176 million to make, but only bringing in $184 million at the worldwide box office.

But it did feature Channing Tatum as a half-man, half-dog and Sean Bean as a half-man, half bee, so perhaps one day it might achieve cult classic status.

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