Eddie Redmayne Snubbed Smartphone In Favour Of Retro Mobile

Eddie Redmayne Got Rid Of Smartphone To Feel 'More Alive'

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by Edwina Langley |
Published on

The smartphone. It's had rather a difficult time of it recently, hasn't it? First, Jennifer Lawrence calls out a reporter for using one when asking her a question (was she right to do so?) and now Oscar-winning actor, Eddie Redmayne, says he recently tried to get rid of his altogether...

What does this mean, you ask? That there was no way anyone on earth could get in touch with him – not even his beautiful wife, Hannah Bagshawe, who is currently expecting their first child? Nah, course not. Sure, Eddie had a phone... it was just an old-fashioned, retro version.

At the Wallpaper Design Awards yesterday, Redmayne told The Independent: 'I tried switching back to a simple, old-fashioned handset in place of a smartphone. It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours. The deluge of emails was constant and I found myself trying to keep up in real time, at the expense of living in the moment.'

'I love the idea of a more analogue phone in theory,' he continued. 'During the day, I felt far more alive.'

Imagine this on a daily basis... Is it any wonder Eddie got rid of it? July 2013 [Rex]
Imagine this on a daily basis... Is it any wonder Eddie got rid of it? July 2013 [Rex]

He went on to say, however, that his decision to snub the smartphone actually ended up causing him more grief. 'I was tied to my laptop answering emails for two hours first thing every morning and last thing at night instead, which was a different kind of intrusion,' he admitted. 'I wasn't very popular with Hannah, so today I'm back on my iPhone and trying to master a healthier relationship with it.'

Redmayne was in attendance at the awards as one of the judges, and mentioned his smartphone-free experiment whilst lauding the work of British designer, Jasper Morrison, whose stripped-down handset, Punkt MP01, won the 'Life Enhancer of the Year' award.

The actor may have gone back to using the popular iPhone, but still, a question remains: what old-fashioned handset did Eddie Redmayne favour? There are a number he could have gone for, though we're willing to place a bet, that it was that perfectly-sized, retro-of-retro, everyone's first, inventor of SNAKE, the indestructable Nokia 3210...

Tell us it was Eddie, do, for then we'll have an excuse to bring ours back. It's still under our bed where we left it... in 2005.

READ MORE: Debate: Was Jennifer Lawrence right to call out the reporter for using his phone?

READ MORE: How your phone is impacting on your physical health...

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