Eddie Redmayne was accidentally drunk at his final audition for breakout role in Twelfth Night

Eddie Redmayne was as soused as Sir Toby Belch when he landed his career-making role.

While appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival for a retrospective conversation on his career hits, the British actor revealed that he was most of the way through a bottle of wine when he got an unexpected callback for a major part.

While still a university student, Redmayne auditioned to star as a young Viola in a 400th-anniversary production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Globe Theater. At the time, Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) was the theater's artistic director, and he had conceived of the production as an all-male show. Searching for someone to play Viola, Rylance turned to the local schools.

"So they asked around the universities, and I had no clue," Redmayne recounted. "So I went for an audition. I didn't really know Mark's work that well."

A few days after the initial audition, Redmayne got a surprising last-minute callback. "I was in a pub in Notting Hill, and I got a call saying, 'Will you come now for a last audition?'" Redmayne said. "I was three-quarters of the way through a bottle of wine, and I arrived at this audition with the great Mark Rylance, and he put on a rehearsal skirt, and I put on a rehearsal skirt, and we started playing a scene, and I was drunk, which was helpful."

Things got more complicated when Rylance decided to test Redmayne's capacity for improvisation. "He took the book out of my hand, and suddenly I was having to improvise Shakespeare," the actor remembered. "Looking back on it, it was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life, but thanks to three-quarters of a bottle of red wine, I had no inhibitions. And I was lucky enough in that moment to get cast in that."

Off of that role, Redmayne secured an agent and has since gone on to star in the Fantastic Beasts franchise and win many accolades for his dramatic acting work, including an Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

He could be a contender again this year for his portrayal of serial killer Charlie Cullen in The Good Nurse, which made its world premiere at TIFF.

Related content:

• Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne star in chilling trailer for true crime drama The Good Nurse
• Eddie Redmayne compares his Fantastic Beasts role to Brad Pitt in Ocean's Eleven
• Eddie Redmayne says he'd turn down Danish Girl role today: 'I think it was a mistake'