Eddie Redmayne: 'I pay strangers' rent'

Eddie Redmayne occasionally pays for the room and board of struggling young actors.

The 33-year-old understands the plight of aspiring thespians who are attempting to land parts with no money to pay their rent, so he is happy to help ease the struggle with some financial backing.

"The greatest privilege that I had was that my parents lived in London," he told the UK edition of GQ magazine. "So when I was out of university and out of work for a year, working in a pub, I didn't pay rent. And I get letters from people trying to go to drama school and needing to pay their rent. And so that's something I occasionally do. It's impossibly expensive to live in London."

Redmayne has already picked up an Academy Award for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and many critics are praising him for his performance as transgender character Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl.

Although Redmayne is extremely grateful for having the opportunity to play such rich personas onscreen, the star insists he doesn't go out looking for these sorts of parts, noting roles like these come to him organically every time.

"I think people look at it and go, urgh, you want to try and do something transformational," he noted. "And it's not true - just, if you're lucky enough in your lifetime to get two parts that are interesting and challenging to play, then it's a privilege really."

Redmayne's forthcoming moving Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a Harry Potter spinoff, is currently in post-production and the fantasy picture will reach screens in November (16).