Hawking breaks down after biopic premiere

A new Stephen Hawking film is so moving that the man himself is reduced to tears.

The forthcoming film The Theory of Everything, which charts Hawking’s life from his time at the Other Place ALS diagnosis, is premiering in the US in a week’s time and has already attracted possibly the loudest Oscar buzz so far.

Hawking’s endorsement is likely to crank up the excitement to an even greater pitch of intensity, as he made the striking confession in Tuesday’s Variety cover story that not only was the film “broadly true”, but also that “there were certain points when he thought he was watching himself.”

This was undoubtedly aided by the fact that Hawking was so won over by the project that he allowed filmmakers to use his own trademarked synthetic voice.

Of even greater importance than this, perhaps, is the position of Cambridge at the heart of the film.

For the town has more than just a central place in the plot—with the story both set and filmed predominantly in Cambridge.

Moved to tears

It also has strong links to the star of the film, Eddie Redmayne, who studied History of Art at Trinity, graduating with a 2:1 in 2003.

Redmayne told Variety that, with only a few days until shooting began, Hawking agreed to see him in Cambridge.

He described the meeting as “complicated” because of “the trepidation of not only meeting someone with an extraordinary brain and iconic status, but also—what if I got it wrong?”

Fortunately for Redmayne, the film has been largely lavished with praise.

And none more so than from Professor Hawking himself, who even celebrated with the film’s director James Marsh and screenwriter Anthony McCarten at a bar where he apparently sipped champagne from a teaspoon.

Sadly us Brits—unless you fancy a flight to the States—will have to hold our breath until the New Year for the film to be released.