The Battle of Britain Bafta serves up tasty dish in Best Actor battle.
The great and the good of the British film industry will be putting on their glad rags tonight for the Baftas.
Hosted by Stephen Fry, the gala evening will be held at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and broadcast on BBC1 from 9pm.
This year’s ceremony throws up an intriguing battle in the Best
Actor category between Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch.
The two actors, friends off screen, come from similar backgrounds and have embarked on comparable career paths.
They have both been nominated for playing real-life scientists Benedict as Second World War hero Alan Turing in The Imitation Game and Eddie as motor neurone disease suffering Stephen Hawking (a role Benedict also portrayed in a BBC film a decade ago) in The Theory of Everything.
Although a Bafta award would be given pride of place on the mantelpiece of both men, tonight’s award is really being seen as a dress rehearsal for the Oscars in two weeks’ time, in which they’ll be competing against each other once more.
Here, our film editor Darryl Smith gives his rundown on the two Best Actor front-runners and, on the facing page, the favourites in the other main categories.
EDDIE REDMAYNE, 33
Early life: The son of a successful businessman, London-born Eddie is one of five children. His great-grandfather was noted civil and mining engineer Sir Richard Redmayne. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he studied History of Art.
Marital status: He married Hannah Bagshawe, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, in a private ceremony at Somerset’s Babington House last December.
Best known for: My Week with Marilyn, BBC’s First World War mini-series Birdsong, Les Miserables and as the villain in sci-fi action adventure Jupiter Ascending (which opened at cinemas on Friday).
A little-known fact: He always wanted to be a theatre actor and admits to knowing precious little about films. Staggered by his lack of film knowledge while working together on The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johansson compiled a list of movies he should get acquainted with.
Why has he been nominated? Gives a brilliant depiction of Stephen Hawking’s gradual deterioration from motor neurone disease.
What he says of his Bafta and Oscar nominations: Describes his Bafta nomination as “a wonderful thing” and subsequent Oscar nod as “like a cherry being placed on top of the most beautiful cake”.
The future: Playing 19th Century painter Einar Wegener in The Danish Girl, one of the first people to undergo a sex change operation.
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, 38
Early life: The son of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, Benedict grew up in Chelsea. From a well-to-do background he attended boarding schools from the age of eight and was an arts scholar at Harrow. He then studied drama at the University of Manchester.
Marital status: Notoriously reticent about his private life, Benedict announced his engagement to theatre director Sophie Hunter in November. Last month he announced the couple are expecting their first child.
Best known for: Sherlock, BBC’s First World War mini-series Parade’s End, the voice of Smaug in The Hobbit and Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness.
A little-known fact: A subscriber to Buddhism, Benedict underwent a life changing incident in 2005 when he and two friends were abducted in South Africa and held at gunpoint overnight. In the end, their abductors set them free without explanation.
Why has he been nominated? Superb as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, a codebreaker whose work led to the invention of the computer, and a man who Sir Winston Churchill credits with doing more than any other for winning the Second World War. He died in disgrace within a decade of the war’s end, his role unknown to most of the people he saved because of the Official Secrets Act.
What he says of his Bafta and Oscar nominations: “I don’t like thinking of films being in competition with each other, it’s absurd. But if it gets people to see the film, frankly, that’s all I care about.”
The future: As well as becoming a father this year, he’s due to play Doctor Strange in the latest Marvel Comics superhero adaptation.
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