Eddie Redmayne has defended playing sexually ambiguous Cabaret character Emcee during a shoot and interview for British Vogue.
The talented actor, 39, who is set to play the role of the Emcee in Cabaret, said: ‘If I don’t do it, then perhaps I’ll just live with regret’.
Redmanye’s casting in the role of the Emcee has caused disquiet in some quarters due to its history as one of queer portrayal.
‘I hope the interpretation will justify the casting’: Shirtless Eddie Redmayne defends playing sexually ambiguous Cabaret character Emcee as he poses in costume for Vogue shoot
However he was quick to defend his role: ‘I hope when people see the performance, the interpretation will justify the casting.
‘The way I see the character is as Mercury, as shape-shifting and a survivor.’
As British theatre continues to make a comeback, the Oscar winner opened up to British Vogue about starring at the Kit Kat Club with Jessie Buckley.
Exciting: The talented actor, 39, who is set to play the role of the Emcee in Cabaret, said: ‘If I don’t do it, then perhaps I’ll just live with regret’
The actor also revealed that the Playhouse Theatre’s revival of the Kander and Ebb classic is different from the original.
He said: ‘The only point in us doing it would be if we could do something different from those other productions, something new.’
The actor first performed the role at 19 in a student production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – and Eddie revealed he is nervous to return to London theatre after a 10 year break.
Oscar winner: The star picked up the Best Actor gong in 2015 for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything
Changing it up: He also played Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, in 2015’s The Danish Girl
The show will be designed by Tom Scutt, choreographed by Julia Cheng and directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
The show – which charts the friendship between Sally, an American performer at the riotous Kit Kat, and a shy Brit, Brian – is set against the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Berlin and unflinchingly depicts antisemitism and persecution.
Frecknall said it was an important musical and that its revival comes ‘at a time when its themes and atmosphere feel so contemporary and resonant’.
The Theory of Everything actor’s luxury £2 million family holiday home was recently devastated in a wildfire around the French Riviera.
The blaze destroyed the upper floor of the property, which his parents have owned for nearly 35 years. Eddie spent childhood holidays and weekends at the six-bedroom villa.
The idyllic hillside house overlooks a vineyard, is surrounded by forests, has its own swimming pool, tennis court and a boules pitch – and is rented out in high summer for £7,800 a week.
Devastating: The idyllic hillside house overlooks a vineyard, is surrounded by forests, has its own swimming pool, tennis court and a boules pitch
But it has been ravaged by France’s largest wildfire of the year.
It tore across 20,000 acres of the region of Var near Saint-Tropez, a popular holiday spot for well-heeled Britons, destroying dozens of houses before it was brought under control.
The Golden Globe recipient’s parents Richard and Patricia, who live in Chelsea, were due to fly out to France this weekend to inspect the damage to their villa.
Burning: The area has been ravaged by France’s largest wildfire of the year
Investment banker Richard Redmayne, 83, said the house was occupied at the time of the blaze by friends who were forced to flee.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The whole upper floor and the roof – was burned up. The heat was clearly intense. The hill at the back of the house now looks like a scene from the First World War.
‘We have had fires before there. We had one 15 or 16 years ago. But my gardener said to me that this last fire moved so fast that it covered the same distance in an hour that it took the earlier one to travel in three days.’
The November issue of British Vogue is available for digital download and on newsstands now.
Disaster: It tore across 20,000 acres of the region of Var near Saint-Tropez, a popular holiday spot for well-heeled Britons, destroying dozens of houses before it was brought under control