Eddie Redmayne says he and Felicity Jones 'genuinely' nearly died in a hot air balloon accident

• Eddie Redmayne said he and Felicity Jones nearly died filming "The Aeronauts."
• They were filming aerial scenes in a hot air balloon when they crashed.

Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones charmed the world in the Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything," and they later teamed up again in the historical drama "The Aeronauts," which follows two scientists in the 1860s as they embark on an expedition in a gas balloon.

But the stars had a brush with death while shooting the 2019 movie, as the hot air balloon crashed when they were descending after filming.

Redmayne spoke to Deadline about his latest movie, "The Good Nurse," as well as his impressive career so far when he recalled the dangerous incident in which he said he "genuinely very nearly died."

The actor explained that after filming some aerial scenes, he and Jones descended in the balloon, and the pilot flying it told them to "throw out the ballast, throw out the bags."

Redmayne and Jones thought the pilot meant all of the bags, which meant they "had lost any capacity now to rise again," and they crashed from a height of 30 meters.

Redmayne explained: "And so, what happens is, we're now totally held to the life of the gods, and we come down and we hit these trees, and this gigantic basket comes crashing down to the ground from about 30 meters in the air."

The actor said that when they crashed to the ground, Jones hit her head on a bar in the balloon, and she was worried that she couldn't move her neck. Thankfully, the star was okay after the accident and wasn't seriously injured.

Redmayne added: "We smash to the ground. We're in our 19th-century costumes. Felicity's head smacks and hits this bar, and there's this silence. I just remember total shock and hearing Felicity go, 'I'm not sure I can move my neck.' Horrifying moment. Turned out she was totally fine."

The "Les Misérables" and "Fantastic Beasts" actor went on to say that both he and Jones were shocked that they even agreed to get in the balloon, considering how potentially dangerous it was.

"We got in the cars afterwards and we both looked at ourselves and we're like, 'The whole film was about the fear of this technology.' Even in the 19th century, when they were doing it all the time, people died a lot. We're like, 'How on earth did we allow them to let us go in that thing?'"