Eddie Redmayne won the Oscar for Best Actor during last night's Academy Awards ceremony. The British actor looked positively giddy on stage during his acceptance speech, which you obviously can't blame him for. But you know who may be even happier about the award? Stephen Hawking himself.
The legendary astrophysicist took to his official Facebook page last night to praise Redmayne for portraying him in The Theory of Everything. The movie follows the love story of Hawking and his ex-wife Jane from when they first met as college students at Cambridge to Hawking's ALS diagnosis to Hawking achieving worldwide fame. Naturally, Hawking was very congratulatory in his post.
This isn't the first time Hawking has expressed his reverence for Redmayne's performance in The Theory of Everything. "I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed me very well.... At times, I thought he was me," Hawking wrote in a Facebook post back in November of last year.
Of course, Redmayne gave a few shoutouts to Hawking and his family during his acceptance speech at the Oscars too. He does kind of owe his career to them now, doesn't he?
"This belongs to all of those people around the world battling ALS. It belongs to one exceptional family, Stephen, Jane, Jonathan and the Hawking children," Redmayne said. "And I will be its custodian, and I will promise you I will look after him. I will polish him. I will answer his beck and call. I will wait on him hand and foot."
The only thing sweeter than Hawking's message of congratulations to Redmayne is how genuinely grateful Redmayne seems to have gotten this role of a lifetime.
