Eddie Redmayne says he almost got into hot water while filming new Sky Atlantic show The Day of the Jackal.

Speaking to Sky News about the challenges of modernizing Frederick Forsyth’s acclaimed novel, the Oscar-winning actor said it took months of intensive training to portray a character spanning a range of ages and nationalities.

“What’s interesting about the jackal is, in a way, he’s an actor, and this whole series has been kind of an actor’s playground,” he explained.

“I’m a process lover … so there was languages, there were prosthetics, different costumes … and then all the gun work … I had about three or four months of preparation and it was quite fun. “

From the very first episode, the actor was asked to be able to build a weapon from the inner workings of a wheeled case. Although he had already received advanced weapons training, his eagerness to take props home to practice almost could have ended in his arrest.

“There’s a moment where the Jackal builds this rifle… it’s a beautiful prop design… and I’m a really bad prop actor, so in Budapest, I asked the prop master if I could take this case with me at home. to work on it at the hotel,” he said.

“I was in the middle of eating some goulash and I suddenly went ‘Argh’ when I realized I’d left this giant sniper rifle – and the hotel was basically the equivalent of Trafalgar Square – pointing out a window and it was about to be turndown service .

“I remember running down the hall and the person working at the hotel pushed the towels (trolley) and some extra toiletries and I walked in the door and deconstructed this thing…otherwise it could have been a moment because it looked pretty convincing.”

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Keeping the action mostly contained to the screen, the star admits it’s a risky bet to attempt a modern reboot of a much-loved classic.

He explained: “I’ve loved it since I was a kid, so when the scripts arrived in my inbox, it was definitely a thrill.”

Forsyth’s acclaimed novel has had many lives since it came out in the early 70s, but the 1973 film version is how most people will remember the cat-and-mouse thriller, including its leading man.

“The original film was a binary sense of good and evil.” Redmayne said.

“We live in a world now, certainly in social media, where things dictate that there’s good and bad, and the gray territory is harder to navigate, I suppose … the show kind of gestures toward that.”

In the 10-part Sky Atlantic TV series, viewers will see the Jackal as yet another elite assassin who pulls off a seemingly impossible hit. But in this version, James Bond star Lashana Lynch plays an intelligence officer hunting him down.

The show features the rise of right-wing extremism, tech megalomaniacs and assassination themes.

With the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and a terrifying cycle of violence and assassination in the Middle East, there is something that seems strangely foreboding about the timing of the modern reboot.

“What the show does (shows) is that there’s ambiguity throughout the world, and I feel like that’s where we’re at in the world a little bit,” Redmayne said.

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For the actor, the ultimate heart-pumping moment will be to find out what his fans and family think about the drama, not that he’ll tune in personally.

“Truth be told, nothing would pain me more than watching myself on screen, so I won’t do that…but I will encourage my family to watch it…it was my dad’s favorite movie” , he said. .

Day of the Jackal is out on Sky Atlantic and NOW on November 7.