Eddie Redmayne has accomplished a lot over the last several years but nothing could’ve prepared him for his next big moment in the spotlight.

In 2011, viagra Redmayne starred opposite the exquisite Michelle Williams in the beautiful drama My Week with Marilyn. The following year, he played an important supporting role in the Oscar-winning musical Les Miserables. But now, a mere two years later, Redmayne has taken on one of the most complicated roles an actor could take on.

The new drama The Theory of Everything stars Redmayne as the brilliant Stephen Hawking, a scientist whose disabilities have altered his life dramatically over the past several decades.  Hawking suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease and in The Theory of Everything, Redmayne is tasked with showing Hawking’s slow-but-obvious physical decline. He has succeeded admirably.

Now, in an Oscar race that features several great dramatic performances, Redmayne’s performance as Hawking is considered one of the frontrunners for a nomination.

With that in mind, Redmayne has clearly earned his place in the Monday spotlight. Fellow film critics Lauren Bradshaw and Lauren Veneziani and I recently conducted an interview with Redmayne so the following three fun facts about the actor were all gleaned from that interview (which will be posted, in full, later this week).

1.) Redmayne was originally nervous to play a genius but found an easy way to overcome that fear. When Redmayne was at Cambridge, he met a lot of uber-bright people and noticed that  “what was extraordinary about them is they had such confidence. Their confidence and their intellect meant that they didn’t feel the need to demonstrate [their intelligence]… It’s only people who are slightly more intellectually insecure who will feel the need to show– be ostentatious– so I basically used that as my get out of jail free card.” He added, “If I can just pretend to know what I’m really talking about, maybe it will look like [I do].”

2.) Scarlett Johansson helped turn Redmayne into a movie fan. Redmayne originally got into acting through the theater and was hesitant to spend his time watching an endless array of DVDs. However, while he was working with Scarlett Johansson, she found out that he hadn’t seen movies like The Big Lebowski or The Godfather. “[Johansson] went around the crew of this film,” Redmayne said. “They all wrote a list [of films I should watch]. I said to her. ‘I feel like I can’t watch DVDs.’ She said, ‘That’s your job…’ Now I love going to the cinema. I’ve seen some amazing things…”

3.) When asked what he was nerdy about, Redmayne mentioned his love for playing the piano. “I’m still like that kid that goes and does piano practice when I’m at home. I find it takes me out of my head,” he said before adding “I’m not very good.”

Redmayne is great at acting though so make sure you check out him in action as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. The film’s trailer can be found below and the movie can be seen this Friday in theaters nationwide.