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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Eddie Redmayne’s disguises in The Day of the Jackal were built with prosthetic makeup, wigs and hair styling, costume, and carefully developed movement—not by a documented change to his real body. For the most extreme silhouette, the costume team made a suit from a cast of Redmayne’s body. He said preparation for the role took three or four months and included languages, prosthetics, costumes, and gun work.
How the disguises changed Redmayne’s appearance
The transformations were designed as complete characters, not simply different faces. The production combined facial work, hair, clothing, and movement so each alias could pass in the situations the Jackal enters. Costume designer Natalie Humphries said the team rehearsed and camera-tested the looks with makeup, prosthetics, and movement coaching. She described creating 48 looks, drawing inspiration from espionage films of the 1960s and 1970s. Sky’s production feature details the approach.
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Prosthetics, facial shaping, and hair
For the German cleaner disguise, prosthetics designer Richard Martin said the team used head casts and 3D scans to develop a prosthetic. They also scanned the disguised result to create a model of the dead man shown at the beginning of the series. Makeup altered Redmayne’s apparent age and facial shape; a large moustache helped conceal his lips without restricting the mouth movement needed to perform.
Martin explained the balance between disguise and acting: “We needed to completely lose Eddie in the make up but he also needed to be able to perform so we made the decision to disguise his lips with a big hairy moustache so it didn’t limit the movement around his mouth.” The Television Academy’s January 21, 2025 feature also describes changes such as baldness or slicked-back hair, altered noses, wigs, jowls, and wrinkles.
#1 Best Overall
Costume and silhouette
For more dramatic changes in body outline, costume maker Robert Allsopp began with a full-body cast of Redmayne and sculpted a suit. Allsopp described trying versions that added weight in some areas and definition or tone in others. This was an on-screen costume effect; it is not evidence that Redmayne gained or lost weight or changed his physique for the role.
Movement completes the disguise
Movement coach Alex Reynolds worked through the characters’ physical differences in rehearsal. That work mattered alongside the makeup and clothes: a disguise has to look plausible in motion, not only in a still image. Humphries said the team rehearsed and camera-tested the combinations to create characters who would not arouse suspicion from the people the Jackal encounters.
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- Runtime: 530 minutes
What Redmayne said about preparation
In an interview published November 2, 2024, Redmayne told Sky News: “I am a sucker for process… so it was languages, it was prosthetics, different costumes… and then all the gun work as well… I had about three or four months prepping, and it was pretty fun.” That is his estimate for preparation for the role overall, not a claim that he spent three or four months exercising or changing his body. Sky News published the interview.
Redmayne also described the strange contrast between the disguise and his own body after filming. In an Associated Press interview published November 12, 2024, he said: “What’s weird about prosthetics is it’s such a long process — it’s not like you sort of blink an eyelid and you’ve changed. So you see it layered on and there are interesting moments along that process. But it was always at the end of the day when I would take my clothes off and I would sort of have this old German caretaker face and then my sort of scrawny sort of 40-year-old body underneath. That was very disjointed and odd.” The interview was edited for clarity and brevity. Read the AP interview.
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Did Redmayne physically change his body for the role?
The documented transformation is primarily the work of prosthetics, makeup, hair, costume, and performance. The sources cited here do not establish a specific weight-loss or muscle-gain program, diet, workout plan, or measured change in Redmayne’s body. The full-body suit changed his silhouette on screen; it should not be mistaken for a real physical transformation.
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