Eddie Redmayne admits he lost touch with 'pal' Prince William after school

HELLO MAGAZINE
March 3, 2015



Eddie Redmayne has previously spoken about his school days with Prince William, but in a new interview Eddie has revealed that pair never stayed in touch. The Theory of Everything star admitted that he lost contact with the future King after leaving Eton College.

"He was a pal at school, but I haven't seen him since school," Eddie told Loaded magazine. "And no – no messages."

The 33-year-old actor went on to describe how William was probably the more "intimidating" one out of the pair.

"I'm pretty sure Will was more intimidating than I was," said Eddie. "I don't think I intimidated anyone in my life. I haven't seen him since school, but he was a lovely man."



The actor and the royal were both elected to The Eton Society, a group of elite prefects that was also known as "Pop". On top of this, the accomplished schoolboys played on the same rugby team.

"We were on the same Colts B team in 1997," said Eddie. "I always felt slightly sorry for Will because everyone wanted to tackle the future King of England. He took all the hits."

Joining the pair at the prestigious boarding school in Berkshire were William's younger brother Prince Harry and The Avengers star Tom Hiddleston.

While Eddie went on to study history of art at Cambridge – opting for the same degree as William's wife the Duchess of Cambridge – William took up geography at St Andrews.

READ MORE HERE: http://us.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/2015030323770/eddie-redmayne-prince-william-school/

James McAvoy: Dominance of Rich-Kid Actors in the U.K. Is "Damaging for Society"

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
by Abid Rahman 2/10/2015 12:18am PST

James McAvoy has waded into the ongoing debate in the U.K. on the current success and dominance of privately educated actors, telling the Herald of Scotland that if the current trend continues it would be "damaging for society."

The Scottish actor, who paid his way through drama school by working in a bakery, was at pains not to criticize the success of privately educated actors, but he was worried that it wasn't representative of Britain as it is today.

"Whenever we talk about this, we have to be very very clear. There's a lot of posh actors that have been to boarding school and all that who are feeling very embattled, sort of cornered," he said, adding: "[N]obody has got anything against an actor who is posh and is doing really well."

But McAvoy was concerned that people from all walks of life are not getting the same opportunities to work in the arts, and his chief worry was about how this will become a bigger problem five or ten years from now. 

If the trends are allowed to continue, McAvoy said, "That's a frightening world to live in, because as soon as you get one tiny pocket of society creating all the arts, or culture starts to become representative not of everybody but of one tiny part, and that's not fair to begin with, but it's also damaging for society."

Private schools such as Eton and Harrow are some of the oldest and most elite in the U.K. They often produce future leaders and captains of industry, but in recent years they have begun to churn out stellar acting talent. 

The Eton-educated Eddie Redmayne (a classmate of Prince William) and Harrow-educated Benedict Cumberbatch, who are both in the running for the best actor Oscar, are perhaps the most telling examples of the dominance of "posh" actors. But there's also Dominic West (Eton, classmate of Prime Minister David Cameron), Damian Lewis (Eton), Tom Hiddleston (Eton), Henry Cavil (Stowe), Jamie Campbell Bower (Bedales), Tom Hardy (Reed), Matthew Goode (Exeter) and Dan Stevens (Tonbridge), among others.

And it's not just the guys. A whole generation of British actresses are seemingly disproportionately from so-called posh schools, including Rosamund Pike (Badminton), Alice Eve (Bedales), Juno Temple (Bedales), Carey Mulligan (Woldingham), Kate Beckinsale (Godolphin and Latymer), Imogen Poots (Latymer), Emilia Clarke (St Edward's), Emily Blunt (Hurtwood House) and Rebecca Hall (Roedean).

READ MORE HERE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-mcavoy-dominance-rich-kid-772139

5 Things You Don't Know About Tom Hiddleston

ET
August 7, 2013

We just got a first look at him in the new trailer for the upcoming sequel Thor: The Dark World, but what do you really know about this handsome star!

1. Born Thomas William Hiddleston on February 9, 1981  in London, England -- his mother worked as a stage manager and his father worked as a pharmaceutical company executive.

2. Followed a strict diet and gained 20 pounds of muscle before screen-testing for the role of Thor in 2011, but director Kenneth Branagh decided to cast him as Loki instead.

3. Attended Britain's prestigious Eton College -- the same institution that educated Prince William and Prince Harry.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.etonline.com/movies/136960_Five_Fun_Facts_About_Tom_Hiddleston/

Benedict Cumberbatch, Henry Cavill: You don't have to be posh to be an actor (but it certainly helps) (THE GUARDIAN)

Kira Cochrane
The Guardian

They're all over the screen with their floppy fringes and cut-glass accents. Are posh actors edging out working-class talent?

Eddie Redmayne, seen here in the television adaptation of Birdsong, went to Eton. 

Photograph: Giles Keytes/BBC/Working Title 

He appears in Downton Abbey, one of a wave of TV dramas centred on class, and in the Radio Times this week the actor Rob James-Collier was asked whether working-class talent was being squeezed out of the profession.

James-Collier was born in Stockport, and defines himself as working class, and his answer was direct. As with so many other jobs at the moment, he said, you have to work for no money when starting out, and "how on earth are you going to finance that" if you don't come from a wealthy background?

His comments tapped into a question that has arisen repeatedly this year. Can anyone but the exceptionally well-heeled, wealthy, connected upper classes now make it in the arts?

In acting, in particular, the question was thrown into sharp relief in January, when the shortlist for the Bafta rising star award was announced. The list was remarkable for two reasons. All five nominees were men, and two were contemporaries at one school.

Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne are both old Etonians, and their nomination led to articles highlighting just how their schoolmates are dominating our stages and screens. There's Harry Lloyd, who starred in Great Expectations and The Iron Lady; Harry Hadden-Paton, currently in She Stoops to Conquer at the National Theatre; Damian Lewis, appearing in the hit TV drama Homeland; and Dominic West, star of The Wire and The Hour.

That's not to mention Benedict Cumberbatch, who went to Harrow, and Henry Cavill, star of the latest Superman film, who went to Stowe. Their success raises these issues. Do you need family wealth in order to become an actor? And is there currently a bias towards a certain class in casting? (Are we, to put it simply, buried deep in an era of floppy-fringed costume drama?)

Read more:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/mar/07/being-posh-helps-actors?newsfeed=true