LONDON -- We didn't just learn more about everyone's favourite theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in a new BBC documentary on Tuesday night, we also learned that his kids used to get creative with their dad's speech synthesizer. And his wheelchair.
Eddie Redmayne shared the anecdote in Dara O Briain Meets Stephen Hawking while explaining how he prepared for his role as Hawking in Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything.
As part of his preparation, Redmayne says he spoke to Hawking's children Lucy and Tim.
"I spent a long time going to a motor neurone disease clinic and really trying to educate myself on the disease, and met many people who are suffering from it, and wanted to be absolutely authentic," Redmanye said. "I was being quite respectful, but then Tim said: 'Yeah, but we did used to get into dad's wheelchair and use it as a go kart' or, 'We did used to put swear words into the voice machine and press play.'"
"That was such a revelation for me ... because of course, they're just a normal family – dealing with pretty extreme circumstances, but with humour and with fun."
As party of the documentary O Briain also spoke to Hawking's family and interviewed his children, during which son Tim spoke more about the relationship he had with his dad growing up.
"I didn't really actually have any communication with him for about the first five years of my life," Tim said. "It was only when he got the speech synthesizer that I was actually able to start having a conversation with him. So it was kind of ironic in a way that him losing his voice was the start of him and I being able to form a relationship, really."
He also revealed that he used to play board games with his dad, who was – unsurprisingly – not exactly a pushover when it came to chess. "There was no compassion," grinned Tim, when asked if his father ever let him win. "He was hugely, hugely competitive."
Well Tim, that'll teach for you for putting swear words into his speech synthesizer.