Stephen Hawking Screens Actors for His New Voice

After more than thirty years of a computerized voice, physicist Stephen Hawking is looking for a new one, and the list of talent vying for the roll isn’t short. From Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel to Eddie Redmayne who performed as Hawking in The Theory of Everything, watch the auditions benefitting Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day below:

Hawking set off on the search proclaiming, “time to find my new voice.”

Stephen Fry continues his audition video, “you’d be able to use long words and stuff,” after losing his ear piece to which Hawking replies, “are you kidding me?”

No one ever said the search for a new voice would be easy, Stephen.

After Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson blunder through their thoughts on the role, the take cuts from the oh-so grueling process to the announcement of who has won this “once-in-a-lifetime” role. In the end Hawking bypasses his candidates and selects the familiar Michael Caine.

Video by Comic Relief

The clip promotes Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day, an annual fundraising campaign that benefits both the U.K. and Africa by focusing on five issues: immunization, mental health, education, domestic violence and fighting malaria. Though the U.K. celebrated Red Nose Day on March 24th, the U.S. will celebrate May 25th.

Photo by Lwp Kommunikáció, CC BY 2.0