Eddie Redmayne reveals how he REALLY won an Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything - and claims it wasn't just because of his acting ability

Eddie Redmayne has admitted that extreme exhaustion from anxiety was ultimately what earned him the Oscar-win for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything - not his acting talent.

The British actor, 42, wowed viewers and critics alike with his extraordinary performance as the celebrated theoretical physicist, who lived with a rare form of ALS - a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

For the role, Redmayne trained for months with zombie choreographer and movement director Alexandra Reynolds, in order to accurately embody the scientist during various stages of the disease.

But despite the training, Redmayne claimed a lack of sleep due to nerves was behind his Oscar-winning performance 10 years ago.

Speaking to a crowd at 92Y in New York City on Monday, he told host Josh Horowitz: 'When I did the Theory Of Everything... the thing that scared me the most about that film was portraying him authentically. 

Eddie Redmayne won the best actor Oscar in 2015 for his extraordinary performance as the celebrated theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything 

But the actor (pictured with Professor Hawking in 2014), 42, said extreme exhaustion from anxiety was behind the win - not just his acting abilities

'I spent months prepping it but the way that films work is you obviously can't shoot chronologically. 

'And particularly the first days of shooting, we had to shoot everything that was set in Cambridge, because the students hadn't come back yet for the term. So we had to do all of the scenes that were exterior shots.'

The star went on to explain how he had been feeling immense pressure ahead of his first day on set because he had to play the renowned physicist at four different stages during his life: when he was a young man pre-diagnosis, when the symptoms rendered him unable to walk without a stick, when the disease 'really got a grip on him' and when he was confined to a wheelchair.

'Every time I feel the anxiety before shooting, it gets so intense,' he recalled. 'The night before the shoot, it got to four in the morning, and I wasn't asleep. And I was being picked up at six!

'I got to five in the morning and I was like "Okay, I'm just not going to sleep." I had a bath, woke up and walked through the streets of Cambridge.'

He then recalled: 'I think the fatigue was so overwhelming. At the end of the day, I had to do a full breakdown scene and I was so tired and so exhausted. 

'So when it came to it, the director [James Marsh] poked me and I just fell apart... which is probably very helpful and may have won me an Oscar.'

Redmayne's best actor in a leading role Oscar was one of many during the 2014 awards season, with the star collecting a BAFTA, Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Professor Hawking alongside Felicity Jones as his wife, Jane Wilde. 

'I think the fatigue was so overwhelming,' Redmayne said. 'At the end of the day, I had to do a full breakdown scene and I was so tired and so exhausted'

Redmayne pictured with his wife Hannah Bagshawe and his Oscar statuette at the Vanity Fair party in 2015

But the ultimate accolade likely came from the eminent scientist himself, who said: 'I thought Eddie portrayed me very well. At times I thought he was me. I think Eddie’s commitment will have a big emotional impact.'

Professor Hawking died, aged 76, in March 2018. 

Redmayne paid tribute at the time, writing: 'We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.'

Redmayne, who is married to Hannah Bagshawe, threw himself into training and research for the role, previously telling The Guardian that he visited the Queen Square Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases in London to talk to MND patients and their doctors. 

He also treated the disease as if it were a dance and worked closely with choreographer and movement specialist Reynolds, who famously created the movement for the zombies in World War Z (2013).

Redmayne said he was so tired on day one of filming that the director poked him and he 'fell apart' 

'I had to train my body like a dancer but learn to shorten muscles instead of stretch them,' he told the publication.

In an interview with Nightline he said: 'I just needed to train my body, just in order to sustain the positions.

'I knew that some of the positions would be specific and contorted and not necessarily comfortable.'

The movie focuses on the love story between Professor Hawking and first wife Jane, whom he met shortly before his devastating diagnosis when he was 21 - and given just two years to live. 

Redmayne is currently starring in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway, following a transfer from London's West End, alongside The Greatest Showman's Gayle Rankin.