Eddie Redmayne on ‘The Trial of Chicago 7’ mirroring America’s present

With Aaron Sorkin’s bone-chilling The Trial of Chicago 7 leading the Golden Globe nominations, Eddie Redmayne came forth to discuss the film.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Danish Girl actor, 39, opened up about how it was ‘disturbing’ to see the film parallel the America that exists now.

“When I read it years ago, it felt relevant. We finished this in November, the year before last. And literally from when we finished filming, it was uncanny and pretty disturbing to watch how the world began to mirror history,” he said.

“In 1968, you had Vietnam and the anti-war movement, but you also had the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement. The following year, the Stonewall riots. The flu pandemic from '68 to '69. Nixon was running for election on law and order,” he went on to say.

“The point is that human beings are cyclical creatures, and however many times we remind ourselves to look to our history, we will always keep making those mistakes.”

“I can't even remember if it was scripted or something that Mark Rylance improvised. When Yahya, playing Bobby Seale, was bound and gagged, it was quite disturbing and a horrible thing to witness. Mark [portraying defense attorney William Kunstler] said, "Can you breathe?" And when I saw [the video of] George Floyd. … It was a horrible, horrible echo,” he said.