Eddie Redmayne recounts his scary gas balloon crash with Felicity Jones

Eddie Redmayne —Ruben V. Nepales

LOS ANGELES—Eddie Redmayne’s bold red and white jacket definitely woke me up one recent morning in Toronto after all the screenings and interviews.

Eddie combined the bright colored, vintage-style jacket with a white, black-striped turtleneck, black jeans and white sneakers. The eye-catching, not-staid-at-all look—all by Celine—goes with the pioneering, daring and brave spirit of James Glaisher, whom he plays in “The Aeronauts.”

James was a British meteorologist, astronomer and a pioneering balloonist who made many ascents to measure the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere at its highest levels. In one such ascent in September 1862, James broke the record for reaching the highest altitude.

In director Tom Harper’s dramatization of the unprecedented balloon flight up, up in the air of James, the scientist is paired with Amelia (Felicity Jones), a pilot.

Amelia is a fictional character. In real life, James often copiloted the balloon with Henry Tracey Coxwell.

But in the action-adventure “The Aeronauts,” it’s James and Amelia who end up in an epic struggle for survival while trying to make discoveries in a hot air balloon.

Excerpts from our chat:

In this film, your pioneering real-life character, balloonist James Glaisher, is constantly being told “No, you can’t do this or that.” What is your relationship to the word “No”? Acting is one of those professions where, from the start—I started at age 5—you were told no.

I remember my first-ever professional audition when I was 9 years old. I had just signed with this children’s acting group in High Wycombe (UK) of which James Corden and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were members.

It was for a production in the West End of “Annie Get Your Gun.” I had to learn this song for it and I had never been to an audition. I arrived at the theater and there were literally 700 boys who looked identical to me. I lined up like in “The X Factor” or “American Idol” auditions, holding a number.

I was allowed to sing one line of the song, was ushered off the stage and promptly told no.

I remember thinking, wow, this is brutal. They were brutal to people at a young age. It was intense.

But weirdly, in that clichéd way, it does instill an ambition and a rigor in you that you can’t ever leave because even now, when I’ve been lucky enough to have some, well, employment and interesting work, you’re still being told no.

James Glaisher broke the world record for altitude, but passed out at one point in his ascent to the highest levels while on a balloon. How did his spirit of pushing himself to the limit resonate with you? The thing that I shared with James Glaisher was a passion. I feel like so few people in life are lucky enough to get to work in a world that they’re deeply passionate about. But what comes with that is consistently being told no, having to lick your wounds and start all over again.

The most obvious way is work. I’ll never forget my first ever TV job. It was this show called “Doctors” that was so popular in the UK. I had only ever done theater and I didn’t know what I was doing. The guy who was playing my dad was pretty brutal to me. He was like, “It’s not going to work.”

It was one of those kicks in the back, and he was right. Because when I watched our scene, it was horrendous.

Eddie Redmayne (left) and Felicity Jones in “The Aeronauts” —AMAZON STUDIOS

Speaking of fire, what was the most daunting thing about being up there in the air in a balloon propelled by heat?  I can tell you the story of Day 1 of filming. They built a gas balloon rather than a hot air balloon. They built a replica of the Mammoth.

We did our first scene day of shooting in this gas balloon. We shot outside Oxford and there were these people holding down the balloon. There was a pilot hiding in the basket.

Felicity and I were there in costume. They let the balloon go and we just started rising. It was the most breathtaking thing because what’s extraordinary about gas balloons is silence.

As we went over Oxford, before the helicopters and drones came in to start shooting, people were walking their dogs and you’re flying at 30 meters. It’s silent and so they go, “Good morning” and you go, “Morning.” It’s this amazing interaction. Anyway, as helicopters and drones started coming, it was totally peaceful and weirdly unscary even though you’re basically in a log basket.

[When] we slowly started descending, again all very calm and just before when we were coming down, we were heading toward some trees. So the slightly nervous pilot shouted, “You need to throw out the sandbags!” So Felicity and I started throwing out the sandbags. We lifted again and missed the trees. We were like, “Phew!”

Then, the pilot went, “Oh my God! You’ve thrown out all of the sandbags (laughs)!”

What this meant is when we came to land, we careered into the trees like 20 meters in the air. We smashed into these trees in this basket. We went hurtling down to the ground.

The basket crunched to the floor. Our heads got thrown back. Felicity’s head smacked against the cap of my character James’ chest.

So, from the total serenity in the air, there was suddenly total chaos and noise. We came smashing down. Felicity went, “I don’t think I can move my neck.”

I started thinking over the fact that the insurance medical test that I’d taken for this film was the most intense thing I have ever done in my life. It involved me having to run with things attached all over me for like hours to check that I wasn’t going to have a heart attack on this film.

As you can see from the film, people die in these balloons. It was an extraordinary experience.

You are about to play Tom Hayden in director Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” What are you excited about in this next project? Aaron Sorkin also wrote the script. But the one thing I’ve always had on my bucket list is Aaron Sorkin.

It’s an ensemble piece with the most beautiful words. Also, what’s lovely for me is Mark Rylance is in it. He plays William Kunstler.

Mark gave me my first-ever job playing Viola with him in “Twelfth Night” back at the Globe like when I was starting out.

And Sacha Baron Cohen who was in “Les Misérables” with me. There are lots of old friends in it, so I’m really excited.

You have all these films and you have family with two kids. How do you balance that? I like quite a lot of prep time. Prep time is wonderful because you can immerse yourself in the character, but you can also be at home. It’s the closest to a 9-to-5 life you’ll have. Then, when I was doing “The Aeronauts,” it was shot in the studios in the UK, which is a 10-minute drive from my flat.

When I first got together with Hannah (Bagshawe), I had spent years working in Budapest, the Carolinas and all over. I said to Hannah, “Our life is going to be nomadic.” She’s much more free-spirited than I am. She was like, “Great, let’s do it! Let’s travel the world.”

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