Here's how Stephen Hawking reacted to Eddie Redmayne's Oscar win

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Eddie Redmayne oscars

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On Sunday, Eddie Redmayne took home the best actor Oscar for his role as famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything."

The Theory of Everything stephen hawking

Focus Features/"The Theory of Everything"

stephen hawking

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The real-life Stephen Hawking, 73, didn't attend the awards show but made it known that he approved of Redmayne's portrayal of himself:

"The Theory of Everything" focuses on Hawking's relationship with his first wife, Jane Wilde Hawking, and how the couple deal with his motor neurone disease, ALS.

Redmayne acknowledged Hawking and his family during his acceptance speech:

Thank you. I don't think I'm capable of articulating quite how I feel right now. I'm fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man. This Oscar belongs to all of those people around the world battling ALS. It belongs to one exceptional family - Stephen, Jane and the Hawking children. I will be his custodian. I will be at his beck and call. I wait on him hand and foot.

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When Hawking first saw the film about his life during a London screening last year, he was moved to tears, reports Variety:

"After the lights came up, a nurse wiped a tear from Hawking's eye. He called the film 'broadly true,' and even celebrated with the film's director James Marsh and screenwriter Anthony McCarten at a bar where he sipped champagne from a teaspoon. 'He emailed us,' Marsh says, "and said there were certain points when he thought he was watching himself."

"The Theory of Everything," which was made for $15 million, has raked in over $104 million at the worldwide box office since its November release.

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