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"We wouldn’t trust “The Jackal” to drive us anywhere… or do our accounting. Neither would The Day of the Jackal star and Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne".

🎥 Source: Gold Derby on Instagram.

Related post with the full chat here.

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**full article under the cut**

How Eddie Redmayne crafted his ‘deeply unflappable’ assassin on ‘The Day of the Jackal’

Joyce Engjoyceeng61

 TV

 May 23, 2025 8:00AM

Eddie Redmayne's dad had one request when the actor revealed he was doing a series adaptation of The Day of the Jackal: Don't f--k it up. Fred Zinnemann's 1973 film version of the Frederick Forsyth novel is Redmayne's dad's favorite movie and was such a staple in their household while the actor was growing up that it became one of his favorites, too. Fortunately, by the end of the 10-episode first season, his dad gave his seal of approval.

"Do you know what? He actually was [pleased]," Redmayne tells Gold Derby. "He saw it in real time as everyone else saw it sort of week by week. And he sort of kept me on my toes a bit, but by the end, he fortunately enjoyed it. All of us making the series had great love and respect both for the Frederick Forsyth book but also the Zimmerman film. And we tried in our own way to well sort of updating it and setting it in an hour and kind of hopefully setting it apart from that, to infuse it with that love, so that people who are fans of the original will find Easter eggs and even sort of direct quotations both from the book and the film, and some people who don't know the film will have no knowledge of that. It couldn't matter less, but my dad was appreciative of those things anyway."

His dad especially loved the big twist at the end of Peacock and Sky's modern take on the spy thriller: Redmayne's ruthless titular sniper lives. In the film, the Jackal (Edward Fox) is killed by Michel Lonsdale's pursuing deputy commissioner. The series flips it, with the Jackal killing MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) after a brief standoff in the Jackal's home, ending the season-long cat-and-mouse chase in minutes. "We try to sort of, whilst inverting it, retain that kind of — it's so shocking in the film that the abruptness of it, we've tried to give a moment that equates to that [and] the Jackal survives," says Redmayne, who also serves as an executive producer.

SEE Here are The Day of the Jackal's 7 Emmy acting submissions

While the Oscar winner had some reluctance himself about joining the show — because he loves the movie so much — he couldn't stop put the scripts down once he started reading them. A TV show also allows the creative team, which includes creator Ronan Bennett and executive producers Gareth Naeme and Nigel Marchant, to dig deeper into the enigmatic Jackal. By day, he is a quiet assassin, exacting and economical with his kills, a man of few words and a master of disguises. By night, he returns home to his other life in Spain, as Charles Calthrop, who is married to Nuria (Úrsula Corberó) and father to their son Carlito.

Redmayne approached the Jackal as if he's two different people with "this idea that you can live these sort of parallel lives within oneself," similar to how he tackled convicted serial killer Charles Cullen in The Good Nurse.

"The thing that I found most challenging was ... there's something that is incredibly kind of refined and economic and ruthless about him, but that economy, weirdly, takes quite a lot of work," he says. "I'm the most flappable person imaginable and this character is deeply unflappable. So it was weird because it meant that I had to prep. I like prep anyway, but I had to prep, like, I would say fivefold to how I would normally, just on silly things. I remember there's a moment in the opening scene [in] the opening episode when I sort of dismantle this suitcase and turn it into a sniper's rifle, and I wanted it to be like a dance. And I wanted it to have that sort of cathartic satisfaction of everything fitting exactly in its right place. It took me weeks. I would just put classical music on I was sitting in the in the bedroom at the hotel I was staying at and just go over and over, trying to make it as fluid as possible. But that economy was the hardest thing."

The "analog" nature of the show was one of the aspects that intrigued Redmayne, a fan of '70s thrillers and early Bond films who loves "watching how things are made." He loves "this idea that once you get to know the Jackal, you know that he's a chess player, so he's always thinking seven moves ahead, but that as an audience, you get lured into the to the creation of those moments, like the setting up of the dominoes, with the knowledge that you're going to get the catharsis of watching that sort of be flipped and the whole thing said unravel."

"And that was one of the things that appealed to me, whether that was watching the gun be assembled or really studying how the prosthetics are applied and and removed — craft is at the heart of it," Redmayne continues. "He is an artist in some ways. That was something that Brian Kirk, our first block director, and Ronan Bennett and I really lent into — the idea that if we're going to suspend the audience's imagination that this guy can create all this stuff himself. You've got to believe that he has the manual artistic capacity for it."

"I think that everything about the Jackal is about putting the work in beforehand [so] that failure isn't an option and a plan is foolproof. And, of course, what happens is someone that is deeply controlled, there is a sort of tightly wound-ness to him that is at the core of who he is," Redmayne says. "I really enjoyed working on those last two episodes as the character began to spin out and his moral code was sort of questioned. This moment when [Nuria] makes him call himself out like that, tells him, 'You kill people for money,' and makes him repeat it, but then says to him, 'Listen that you're not listening.' Like to connect those two parts of himself, because I believe that he sort of hasn't."

The Jackal had planned to retire, with tech billionaire UDC (Khalid Abdalla) being his last assignment, but you know what happens to best laid plans. As he arrives home in the finale, where Bianca is waiting, Nuria has already left him, and Redmayne believes the Jackal knew his family was gone before he even pulled up.

"But then when he gets there and it's happened, I think you you see this darker side of him, which is it's not just about controlling himself. It's about controlling other people," he says. "And that bit in the car when he's leaving [Nuria] a message, there's something pretty monstrous there, as if he's not a monster generally ... but I think this is a man who had believed that that he was going to have one life, and that was one of complete solitude. And then, of course, the Achilles' heel was meeting her and having the arrogance to believe that he could have both."

While Redmayne is tight-lipped about Season 2, for which he has read the first script, the Jackal is on a mission to find his wife and son. He also needs to be paid for his UDC kill. For someone so cold-blooded, the Jackal can't seem to get paid for his jobs or stop getting into car accidents. Perhaps he should look into a business manager and chauffeur in Season 2?

"I think both of those are wonderful suggestions," Redmayne says with a laugh. "There was a moment with the driving when I was like, 'Yeah, this guy, this guy.' But to be fair, you know, there was a kid walking across the street. What was he to do?" As for the unpaid debt, it's not about the actual cash but the principle. "I do think one of the things we end as a challenge was, 'Is this really his last job? I think lots of actors are the same in that it's not just a job, it's an addiction, you know? ... However much money he's got paid, it's the idea of people letting him down. I think that drives him."

Season 1 of The Day of the Jackal is streaming on Peacock.

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New video: "How Eddie Redmayne crafted his 'deeply unflappable' assassin on 'The Day of the Jackal.'

The Oscar winner discusses the first season of the Peacock spy thriller and what to expect in Season 2. Gold Derby editor Joyce Eng hosts this webchat". (May 23, 2025)

📸 my screenshots

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Amanruya Hotel, Turkey, May 2025.

📸 Source: @amanessentials IG Stories

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"The Day of the Jackal is a taut, edge-of-your-seat thriller with a masterful cast, delivering suspense, precision and unmatched tension".#FYC #FYCUSG #UIS #UniversalInternationalStudios

📸 #Repost @universalintlstudios on Instagram.

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New post: A new The Hollywood Reporter Roundtable is coming!

"Your faves stunting their way to the table—Coming soon this #Emmys #THRRoundtable season ✨

#OffScript debuts Friday on IFC and AMC+ and Sunday on THR.com and YouTube . Editing by: Erin Davis @erinmariephotographyLA

#Repost The Hollywood Reporter IG.

* My Gif from the video of THR on Instagram.

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Amanruya Hotel, Turkey, May 2025.

📸 Source: @amanessentials Instagram Stories.

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Selfie time with friends 🤳🏻

📸 Eddie Redmayne with Lara Worthington and Kristina Romanova, Amanruya Hotel, Turkey. Source: Lara Worthington on Instagram.

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New photo: Eddie Redmayne with Novak Djokovic and Kristina Romanova at Amanruya, Turkey.

📸 Source: The Official Aman Shop @amanessentials IG stories

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‘The Day of the Jackal’ Star Eddie Redmayne on Tackling Iconic Characters, Loving ‘The White Lotus’ and the How Acting Is the Perfect Front for a Spy

May 16, 2025.

By Jenelle Riley, for Variety.

Though Eddie Redmayne currently stars in “The Day of the Jackal,” one of the most acclaimed new shows of the year, he still has time to check out other television programs – including the buzzy HBO hit “The White Lotus.”  But the Oscar winner isn’t throwing his hat into the casting ring for an upcoming season.

“I’m too paranoid about butchering the things I love,” he tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “There are some things you don’t want to see yourself in because you don’t want to ruin it.” Even the fact that the show shoots in beautiful locations isn’t enough to convince the actor. “You say that, but also you have to be topless for the entire thing. And if you’re pasty and moley like me…I just don’t think the world needs to see my pallid body.”

On this episode, Redmayne discusses what drew him to that Peacock series.

Listen below 👇🏻

"Jackal” has already netted Redmayne nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice and SAG Awards. The spy thriller based on the Frederick Forsyth novel was previously adapted into a 1973 film starring Edward Fox as the titular assassin. Redmayne had grown up watching the film and, as previously noted, was hesitant to take on something he loved. But when he was sent the first three scripts by showrunner Ronan Bennett, he was quickly convinced.

The actor notes that having come up in the theater, he was somewhat accustomed to taking on roles previously played by others – such as in the film adaptation of “Les Misérables” or his recent, Olivier Award-winning, Tony-nominated turn as the Emcee in “Cabaret,” which he cites as the role that “got me into acting.”

In fact, recreating a role is part of a long tradition in the theater. “But that’s the same whenever you play Shakespeare part, you know?” he notes. “I did ‘Richard II’ at the Donmar Warehouse and there was literally the Richard II seat where all the other actors who had played Richard – Ian McKellan, Derek Jacobi, Ben Whishaw – would come and sit in the seat. It was always, ‘Oh Christ, there’s another icon!’”

Redmayne finds himself in that position now as a producer on “Cabaret,” which is continuing runs both on Broadway and the West End. He often returns to see the other actors, from Billy Porter to Mason Alexander Park.

“I’ve taken such joy going back and watching them all,” he said. “Seeing how every different Emcee and Sally brings their own individuality and own kind of charisma to the part.”

Redmayne himself garnered quite the response when he performed the opening number on last year’s Tony Awards, as viewers got the see the sinister, marionette-like Emcee in close-up. One comment referred to him as “my sleep paralysis demon,” which is a testament to how unsettling the character is supposed to be.

“I don’t know if that was meant to be taken as a positive, but I took it as a positive,” Redmayne reveals. “I saw him as a grotesque, and he’s meant to make you feel uncanny and uncomfortable. There was a sort of puppeteering quality to him – was he the puppet or was he the puppeteer?”

It was actually when Redmayne was doing “Cabaret” in London that “Jackal” came to him – and the timing was impeccable, as the actor had been toying with an idea for a series.

“One of the weird things about doing theater is every night, someone extraordinary would come and see the show – politicians or the Royal Family or actors – and you���d meet them,” he recalls. “And I thought, Wouldn’t it be interesting if you had a sort of actor who was sort of a spy, but living in plain sight? And had access to all these people. It was an idea that was germinating. And then this arrived.” Redmayne calls the role ‘an actor’s dream,” noting “all the stuff that we all love -getting to change your voice and do accents and do languages and change the way you look – it had everything.”

Of all the people who visited Redmayne backstage, he was most caught off guard by Janet Jackson coming to his dressing room, noting that he and the cast were “completely obsessed.”  He adds, “I think she’s such an inspiring performer, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that she loved the show and kept coming back.”

Source:

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THE AERONAUTS (2019) 🇬🇧 100 min.

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"The Day of the Jackal is a masterfully crafted thriller that delivers tension, sophistication and a relentless game of cat and mouse"

📸 Source: Universal International Studios on X

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Took ages 💔💔 and it will flop on tt

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MND Association PATRON

Eddie partners with Omaze UK to help the MND Association.

He said: "Ten years ago I became patron of the MND Association having learnt about the devastation of motor neurone disease while researching and filming the Theory of Everything. I was struck by the brutality of MND, and how it robs so many people of a future with their families in the cruellest of ways.

Every day in the UK, six people are diagnosed with MND and six people die from it. As the biggest charitable funder of MND research in the UK, the MND Association is working tirelessly to change this, investing in research to take us closer to effective treatments and a cure.

This exciting partnership with Omaze will further the MND Association’s vital work while shining a spotlight on MND, and the needs of those affected by it".

Source:

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The Day of the Jackal - NBC Universal Events - Season 2025, May 5, 2025, in Los Angeles.

📸 Source: Universal International Studios

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Eddie's been nominated in this year's Astra Awards!

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‘The Theory of Everything’ Set (October 2013)

📸 Just Jared