Movies AND TRAILER: Eddie Redmayne talks Early Man

Eddie Redmayne might be an Oscar winner but that did not mean it was any less terrifying joining the voice cast of the Aardman Animations film Early Man. He talks to Laura Harding about the embarrassing difficulties of working on an animated film and how Thomas The Tank Engine provided some unexpected inspiration.

Eddie Redmayne is sweaty. But please don't draw attention to it or it will make him feel even hotter.

He is having second thoughts about the chic but toasty shearling jacket (worn over a lumberjack shirt, over a white t-shirt) now he's sitting under glowing lights in a London hotel.

"I've got to the point where I'm so sweaty that I can't actually take it off," he confides.

Eddie Redmayne, Maisie Williams and Nick Park lark about.

If anyone could pull off a glistening brow though, it would be Oscar-winning Redmayne, who is as affable and charming as he is model-handsome (he appeared in a Burberry campaign with Cara Delevingne).

It might be a little surprising then to lay eyes on his character from his latest film.

The star of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, The Theory Of Everything and The Danish Girl is now voicing a toothy caveman called Dug in Aardman Animation's new movie Early Man.

The company that brought the world Wallace And Gromit, Shaun The Sheep and Chicken Run is now turning its attention to the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures roamed the earth.

"Dug has a massive mouth, I have a massive mouth so we related there," Redmayne laughs.

"I definitely did spend a lot of my time with really wide-open eyes."

While some actors have extensive experience of voice work, lending their dulcet tones to countless animations, adverts and documentaries, Redmayne's previous experience was rather more limited.

"The only other thing I've ever done was voice the train Ryan in an episode of Thomas The Tank Engine.

"I was told they get everyone to open their eyes incredibly widely and talk with great enthusiasm.

"That is what I did back then and I took a little bit of that into Dug because he had a similar optimism."

Some of that optimism might have come in handy for the 36-year-old, who says he was a bundle of nerves about joining an Aardman project and working with famous animator Nick Park, the creator of so many beloved characters.