PS: You really perfected Hawking's mannerisms. What was your transformation process, as far as learning to speak like him and walk like him?
ER: Thank you. What's weird about filmmaking is that no one tells you how to do it. I wish they did! Like in theater, you have a director, but in film, until you arrive on set, you are kind of up to your own devices. James [Marsh, the director] was wonderful at helping me go back to this old-school model of having a team. I worked with an amazing makeup designer, costume designer, a voice coach, and a choreographer, a movement coach. [Movement director] Alex Reynolds, who is a dancer, and I went to the motor neuron clinic for four months and met with Dr. Katie Sidel, who was a specialist in MND and ALS. We would meet some of her patients who would allow us to talk to them, and then it was a lot of filming and hearing about their lives. Some of them would allow us to go to their homes. At the same time, we looked at photos of Stephen when he was younger — because there is no documentary footage — and showed them to Dr. Sidel, who would say, "Oh, by the look of that hand, that probably went around this way," and trying to track what the physical decline would be and feeding that back into the script. I found all of the footage I could; I had this iPad full of stuff, and I know it sounds silly, but I would literally sit in front of the mirror with the iPad and try and find these muscles. What's amazing is that Jan [Sewell], the makeup artist, said that by the end of the film, these muscles in the side of my face had grown!
![PS: You really perfected Hawking's mannerisms. What was your transformation process, as far as learning to speak like him and walk like him?
ER: Thank you. What's weird about filmmaking is that no one tells you how to do it. I wish they did! Like in theater, you have a director, but in film, until you arrive on set, you are kind of up to your own devices. James [Marsh, the director] was wonderful at helping me go back to this old-school model of having a team. I worked with an amazing makeup designer, costume designer, a voice coach, and a choreographer, a movement coach. [Movement director] Alex Reynolds, who is a dancer, and I went to the motor neuron clinic for four months and met with Dr. Katie Sidel, who was a specialist in MND and ALS. We would meet some of her patients who would allow us to talk to them, and then it was a lot of filming and hearing about their lives. Some of them would allow us to go to their homes. At the same time, we looked at photos of Stephen when he was younger — because there is no documentary footage — and showed them to Dr. Sidel, who would say, "Oh, by the look of that hand, that probably went around this way," and trying to track what the physical decline would be and feeding that back into the script. I found all of the footage I could; I had this iPad full of stuff, and I know it sounds silly, but I would literally sit in front of the mirror with the iPad and try and find these muscles. What's amazing is that Jan [Sewell], the makeup artist, said that by the end of the film, these muscles in the side of my face had grown!](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/bENxPXpUY8GzreZdPUK1XAtAqzQ/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2014/10/14/900/n/1922283/e1904f6f6b9dcf9f_the-theory-of-everything-image-eddie-redmayne/i/PS-You-really-perfected-Hawking-mannerisms.jpg "PS: You really perfected Hawking's mannerisms. What was your transformation process, as far as learning to speak like him and walk like him?
ER: Thank you. What's weird about filmmaking is that no one tells you how to do it. I wish they did! Like in theater, you have a director, but in film, until you arrive on set, you are kind of up to your own devices. James [Marsh, the director] was wonderful at helping me go back to this old-school model of having a team. I worked with an amazing makeup designer, costume designer, a voice coach, and a choreographer, a movement coach. [Movement director] Alex Reynolds, who is a dancer, and I went to the motor neuron clinic for four months and met with Dr. Katie Sidel, who was a specialist in MND and ALS. We would meet some of her patients who would allow us to talk to them, and then it was a lot of filming and hearing about their lives. Some of them would allow us to go to their homes. At the same time, we looked at photos of Stephen when he was younger — because there is no documentary footage — and showed them to Dr. Sidel, who would say, \"Oh, by the look of that hand, that probably went around this way,\" and trying to track what the physical decline would be and feeding that back into the script. I found all of the footage I could; I had this iPad full of stuff, and I know it sounds silly, but I would literally sit in front of the mirror with the iPad and try and find these muscles. What's amazing is that Jan [Sewell], the makeup artist, said that by the end of the film, these muscles in the side of my face had grown!")
