You probably knew that Eddie Redmayne was one of the great young actors working today (his talent was recognized at the Oscars last year, when he won Best Actor for "The Theory of Everything" ), but did you realize he was a total mensch, as well?
Redmayne spoke to British GQ for their February cover story and revealed that he's gotten into the habit of paying the rent of struggling actors he's never even met.
"The greatest privilege that I had was that my parents lived in London. So when I was out of university and out of work for a year, working in a pub, I didn't pay rent," Redmayne explained.
"And I get letters from people trying to go to drama school and needing to pay their rent," he said. "And so that's something I occasionally do. It's impossibly expensive to live in London."
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So many questions spring to mind. How many requests for rent money does Redmayne pay? When he says "occasionally," does that mean he doesn't get requests very often? Or that he only grants a small fraction of the requests? Is there an application process? Does he demand proof that the supplicant is an actual drama student? Would he be open to paying rent for drama students in other "impossibly expensive" cities, like New York or San Francisco? How about cities that are just "very expensive," like Los Angeles?
Basically, if we sent him a letter today, how long would it take for him to reply with a check? There are still a few weeks until the first of the month, so ...
For more from Redmayne, check out the February issue of British GQ , which hits newsstands on Jan. 7.
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