The Day of the Jackal's Eddie Redmayne trained with horse whisperer after near death experience

The Day of the Jackal's Eddie Redmayne trained for a fortnight with a horse whisperer for filming after a 'catastrophic' horse bolting incident 'nearly killed' him - but was still not allowed near a real horse

Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne spent two weeks training how to horse ride with a “horse whisperer” in Budapest for his new series The Day of the Jackal, after he almost died during a “catastrophic” incident when a horse bolted on set of Elizabeth I.

However, he believes he was either “too s***” at riding or “uninsurable” to film on a live horse - as at the last minute, producers abandoned the idea, and forced him to suffer the “deep humiliation riding on a broken bucking bronco” instead.

The actor, 42, has recalled how his attempts to film on horseback while filming the 2005 mini-series alongside Helen Mirren saw the horse bolt at 100mph, when he “almost killed myself - and almost killed half of the crew”.

So ahead of a scene in the Day of the Jackal, which earned the actor £1million per episode, he spent a fortnight on a farm with a stunt coordinator in Budapest, having intensive horse-riding training with a “horse whisperer” who gives Reiki to the animals. “I arrived on set on the day, ready and stretched, bolstered - good to go," says Eddie. "And this truck comes around the corner with half a fake wooden horse attached to it. It was basically a bucking bronco.”

He is still unsure “whether my riding was just that s*** that I wasn’t allowed, or I was un-insurable”, but adds: “I had to deal with all the prep and the deep humiliation riding on a bucking bronco, going ‘ha!’ ‘ha!’” The horse was replaced with CGI, which also had its drawbacks. Eddie produced on the series, and admits he halted post-effects because “the horse’s CGI mane was a bit too Pantene”. Laughing, he says: “There was a bit too much gloss. It looked a bit conditioned.”

The actor also trained with “a military espionage expert” for his role in the 10-part adaptation of the novel by Frederick Forsyth, which was made into the 1973 thriller starring Edward Fox. This time it is Eddie who plays the Jackal, while The Woman King actress Lashana Lynch stars as British intelligence officer Bianca - who starts to track him down.

Speaking at the premiere at London’s Southbank Centre, Eddie said: “Lashana and I, well we were sent to this gentleman... who is a military espionage expert. And to show his versatility, he was also working on Gladiator at the same time. And he was amazing." He taught us to track people, he gave us all these tips, like, if you want to hide in a public place you put on a hi-vis jacket and suddenly you kind of disappear because no-one sees people in hi-vis jackets, which I thought was paradoxical and weird.”

He added: “I just adored working with these two. I think Lashana and Ursula (Corbero), the cast in this were just formidable, and it was a real treat. We also got to travel, I’m one of those people, when I watch TV I love what I call kind of armchair tourism, when you’re sitting and you are dreaming of being somewhere else. And we got to shoot in Croatia, in Budapest, in London, in Vienna.”

The 36-year-old said at the premiere: “I wanted to approach Bianca’s take on weaponry and stunts in a different way. Characters I played before had it all together, very slick, very together, and Bianca just doesn’t, although she’s an expert, she doesn’t know what to do. She’s a bit complex and messy.”

The series stars Money Heist actress Corbero as Nuria, a character who is close to the Jackal’s personal life, and Game Of Thrones actor Charles Dance as Timothy Winthrop. The cast also includes The Crown’s Khalid Abdalla, The Capture star Lia Williams, The Walking Dead’s Eleanor Matsuura, and Slow Horses actor Nick Blood.

The Day Of The Jackal premieres on Sky, November 7.

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