Eddie Redmayne reveals his father told him not to ‘screw up’ his role in ‘Day of the Jackal’

Eddie Redmayne says he is under strict instructions from his father not to “screw up” his Day of the Jackal TV reboot.

At the London premiere of his new Sky Atlantic show, the actor told Sky News how the film version of Frederick Forsyth’s 1973 cat-and-mouse thriller “is one of my family’s favorite films”, which he has been watching “since maybe rather inappropriately young age’.

“We watched it over and over again,” he explained. “So when these scripts arrived in my inbox, I had some fear that I didn’t want to kill this character.”

While the target of Redmayne’s killer is being kept under wraps, the 10-part drama tackles contemporary themes including right-wing radicalism and megalomaniacal social media gurus.

Speaking on the red carpet, Redmayne said that when he read the contemporary episodes, it was “basically the kind of television I wanted to see”.

In the first episode, his character has very few lines, but it’s a role that required a huge amount of preparation from the Oscar winner, who had to have weapons training and the help of dialect and movement instructors to seamlessly assume different identities.

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“Chakala is an actor, he’s shape-shifting and he’s always taking on these different characters, and I love those things,” he said.

Jokingly, he said he needed “all the coaches”, adding: “You know me, I need a lot of help!”

While he was annoyed that his dad told him “don’t screw it up”, he admitted that he wasn’t sure if he would show it to his own kids.

“My kids have seen the trailer,” he said. “They’re eight and six and they’re determined that I’ve got to play well next time.”

“The jackal is a bit, well, morally ambiguous,” he laughed.

The Day of the Jackal is also on Sky Atlantic now from 7 November.