He may be heavily tipped for an Oscar for his performance as Doctor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, but British actor Eddie Redmayne is looking to stretch his acting muscles in the superhero genre. But does he want to play one of the Inhumans for Marvel or Green Lantern for DC? Nope. He wants to play Bananaman.
“Please, I’m desperate to do Bananaman,” he told Yahoo! News. “Bananaman is this great guy who eats a banana, and he becomes Bananaman. He’s the one that I’ve always wanted to play, to the extent that Andrew Garfield — an old pal — was asked in an interview, ‘If you could play any superhero other than Spider-Man, who would you play?’ And he was thinking about it, and the interviewer was like, ‘Bananaman?’ And Andrew was like, ‘No, Eddie’s playing that.'”
However, Redmayne was unsure if he could pull off the role – given the physique of Bananaman. “I’d have to do some serious working out,” he continued. “Shit. Maybe I’m not destined to be Bananaman.”
Sadly for Redmayne, there already is an animated Bananaman movie in production, although no director or cast have been announced. With that role out of the question, Redmayne turned to another 80s cartoon – Thundercats.
“I’d like to play Snarf,” he said.
The Theory of Everything is released in the UK on January 1st 2015.
Originally published November 17, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
