It was nothing short of a daunting prospect when Eddie Redmayne was faced with the task of recreating the most intelligent human being on the planet for the forthcoming Stephen Hawking biopic 'The Theory Of Everything', but he got there.

Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne in 'The Theory of Everything'
Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in his new biopic

Stephen Hawking, while widely known for his work on theoretical physics and penning the best-selling 'A Brief History Of Time', is probably also the most recognisable scientist on the face of the Earth. This is thanks to an over 50 year struggle with the debilitating motor neuron disease, contributing to his wheelchair confinement, almost total paralysis and lack of speech; though the latter is not strictly true. Anyone with half a brain would be able to identify his robotic speech-generating device which, contrary to his Oxford roots, possessed a certain nasal twang.

More: See pictures from 'The Theory Of Everything' filming

'It had never occurred to me when I got this part 'Why has Stephen Hawking got an American voice?'' Said Eddie Redmayne, who is set to play the scientist in James Marsh's 'The Theory Of Everything'. 'That was the first technology that came, and then, because his icon became so related to that voice he's never wanted to change it. Because that's what we know as his new identity and, my God, is his identity important.'

Watch the trailer for 'The Theory of Everything' here:


Meanwhile, Redmayne was left pondering how to recreate the British voice Hawking previously possessed, which quickly began to deteriorate by his mid-30s. But it wasn't just the speech the 'Les Miserables' actor had to master. 'The process started with me thinking, 'Okay, how am I going to go about this? How am I even going to begin to understand this?'' He said. '[I hired] a vocal coach and, probably most importantly, a movement coach called Alex Reynolds. About 3 months before we started filming, she and I got in touch with a woman called Dr Kate Sidle who's a motor neuron specialist and we met maybe 30 or 40 people suffering from motor neuron disease and watched, learnt and saw all the manifestations of it.'

'The Theory Of Everything' explores Hawking's life from a young, promising Oxford student, through his diagnosis and to the early stages of MND. It also stars Felicity Jones as his first wife Jane, with whom he possessed a rather extraordinary relationship.

The film is set to be released in the US on November 7th 2014.