>> from our studios in new york city this is "charlie rose." >> we begin with the 114th congress. they were sworn in today. john boehner was reelected to his third term as speaker. in his opening remarks he laid out an agenda for the coming year. >> shared ritual is no passing formality. it is a frontier where words and entities begin. -- words end and deeds began. they say the division is wider than ever so gridlock will be greater. fair enough. the skepticism of government is healthy and in our time understandable. but one problem with saying, it cannot be done is that it already has been done. or at least darted. -- started. in the last congress, we passed a number of jobs bills with support from the majority and minority. we will begin work on this common ground, developing north american energy. helping small businesses hire more of our veterans. [applause] i invite the president to support & these initiatives into law. it will be a good start and more. it'll be a sign that the logjam is breaking. it'll be a foundation on which to address the bigger challenges in the pursuit of freedom and security. this will not be done in a tidy way. the eight -- battle of ideas never ends. all i ask and expect is we disagree without being disagreeable. >> despite calls for cooperation, difficult battles lie ahead in the senate. mitch mcconnell says authorization of the keystone pipeline will be a top priority. president obama says he will veto the bill if passed. joining me for a look at the 114th congress is l hunt. -- al hunt. happy new year. how do we look at this new congress? what they might accomplish, what is the mindset and the landmines? >> the mindset for john boehner and mitch mcconnell is to have some come from isa's, battles and confrontations. -- is to have some compromises titles, and confrontations. the early posturing over keystone and health care is to lay markers down. the question is whether boehner can control his caucus. whether when you get to the specifics of corporate tax reform, infrastructure, trade -- even immigration -- whether you can put together that kind of compromise and whether barack obama is willing to cover my's more than his base would like. >> -- willing to compromise more than his base would like korea >> let's talk about the opposition to john boehner. is it serious? the impression was, coming into the congress, all the weakness he had shown and his inability to negotiate things with the president because of his caucus might have changed. >> he has more of a cushion now. he has 246 members. he had 234 last time. that matters to him. the conventional wisdom has been the tea party, the movement right, has peaked. they are in the right -- decline. that is a mistake. they were sending a message to mitch mcconnell as well as john boehner. don't compromise. boehner would like to forge a middle of the road consensus on some issues. it will not be easy and his party will not make it easy. >> the issues are tax reform, infrastructure. >> trade. may little bits and pieces of health care. they are not going to repeal obama care, but they can do things obama might accept. conceivably a few other issues on jobs. not big stuff. they can put together a record that is reasonably impressive. this is not new, to have a congress controlled by the opposition. both houses. the last four presidents have faced this. some things have gotten done. >> what about the house whip/? >> the scars are not going away. he is an embarrassment because of the speech he gave 12 years ago to the white supremacist group. he has an essence apologized, trying to move on. he was a rising star in the house, number three ranking republican. this has hurt. he will have a great deal of difficulty raising money. when he goes to los angeles or chicago or wall street, there are people who will not be as receptive as they might have otherwise been. >> we remember mitch mcconnell said, when he was the minority leader, their goal was to see president obama was not reelected. they said that in 2009. now we have him saying something similar but not quite the same. their goal is to do something to create something. at the same time make sure a republican is elected president in 2016. >> what he says now is he wants to prove the republican party is a responsible, right of center governing party. that is a laudable goal. that will help in the republican race in 2016. when you get to the details, it is harder. there are members of his congress who don't want to be right of center. they want to take out the of center. there are democrats who say, i'm not going to help you on that. that's not to be a total pessimist. there are possibilities. mitch mcconnell is a consummate dealmaker. there are possibilities. boy, it is going to become. keystone, the last couple of days, that pales next to what is going to happen in the next few months. in february, the funding for homeland security expires. that is something the right cares about. can boehner and mcconnell navigate their way through that? action -- >> keystone, what will happen? >> keystone, congress will pass it alum will overwrite it. corrects4 -- no keystone >>pipeline. >>. -- >> both sides are exaggerating to read it has become a symbolic issue. it resonates less than it would've a year ago. it is hard to make a case we need more energy. we seem to be doing ok. >> how do we read of the president at this moment? >> he is higher than he thought he would be two months ago after the election. he had a good month. executive actions put the republicans on the defensive. the critical question about obama, and i wish i was confident of the answer, is how does he view getting something done? if it is finding common ground that is his guide, there are not many opportunities. if he is willing to give the republican something he hates, which he would do in order to get something in return, then he has possibilities. >> with respect to the economy which has been improving he is looking better and better on that how effective will that be in an argument for him? increasing his approval rating? >> it should. it has not, we have not seen that in the polls yet. the economy is doing, i think, remarkably well compared to other places. part of the problem is obama himself. he has not made the case. the economy is doing better than the case he has made. he is on the road, talking about the economy. it certainly strengthens his hand. if you take the reverse and suppose the economy was doing poorly, he would really be week. makes it easier to get a few things done on jobs. >> with respect to the president, he is going on the road to make the case that he will present in the state of the union. all of this is leading up to the state of the union, correct? >> yes. the state of the union is predictable on one hand, but on the other hand sets a marker. sometimes will tell you where we are going to go. the tone he strives, some of the specifics and priorities, will be important. he is going to give it less than two weeks from today. >> any early notion of what he wants to do? the mindset, how he uses it? >> i think he wants to draw some lines. i'm certain he is going to say we need to get things done and i am willing to compromise and accommodate. all presidents say that. how much he goes and how much red meat he throws to his base how much he avoids things that offend republicans will be instructive. the white house is still working on that right now. it is not so much the specifics, the laundry list. it is what the tone is. >> then we have the 100 day test. we look at the 100 day mark and say, what has the president done? -- after the midterm elections? >> we say that -- the onus is on what has the republican congress done in those first hundred day s? and by april 15, tax state, we will have a better sense. we will go through the homeland security fight in fair very. how that is resolved will be important. it could be we have something on the iranian youth video. -- nuclear deal. by april 15, we should have a good idea of a direction the on beyond seawell -- on beyond's -- the ambiance. >> one of the people we should look at is bob corker. somebody who seems moderate. >> he works well with democrats. >> the other hand, senator ted cruz from texas. what do we expect from him? >> ted cruz is going to try to create mischief. he is going to try to toe the line and make mitch mcconnell toe the line when it comes to -- i keep talking about the homeland security fight in february. the backdrop is the president's executive order on immigration. with the ted cruz wing of the party wants to do is make that he would issue to repeal it. they cannot. make sure fellow republicans walk the plank on that. ted cruz is one smart, tough customer. he is not going to give in early. >> l hunt, thank you so much -- al hunt, thank you so much. ♪ >> stephen hawking is the most famous living physicist. he was diagnosed with motor narrow -- narrow motor disease -- nueromotor disease. i spoke with him in 2008. >> you have said your illness has been a blessing because it allows you to focus on what you can do with your life. what to do mean? -- did you mean? >> i don't have much positive to say about my disease. it taught me not to pity myself. others were worse off. i'm happier now than before i developed the condition. >> in order to appreciate stephen hawking's place in science, i spoke to an astrophysicist. when did you meet stephen hawking? >> i met it him -- met him when i started as a graduate student. he had been here two years. at that time. it was not expected you would finish his phd. the disease had started and the prognosis was bad. few numbers are as large as those i would have given for him to still be alive and the most admired physicist for many. >> he is the subject of a new film starring eddie redmayne. it is called "the theory of everything." here is the trailer. >> come on, get up. >> are you aware you embarked on a phd in physics voluntarily? >> hello. >> hello. >> science. >> i am a cause mold just. >> -- cosmologist. >> what is that? >> i study the marriage of space and time. >> you never know where the next great leap forward is going to come from. >> what if i reversed time to see what happened at the beginning of time itself? >> wind back the clock? >> wind back the clock. i don't know how. > it is called motrin oror neuron disease. life expectancy is two years. >> you don't know what lies ahead. this will be a heavy defeat. >> but i love him and he loves me. we are going to fight this illness together. >> good luck. >> so, this black hole at the beginning of time. brilliant. well done. >> he will never speak again. >> he will. >> my name is stephen hawking. >> its american. -->> it has been a great joy to watch this man defy every expectation of scientific and personal. >> there should be no boundaries to human endeavor. however bad life may seem, while there is life, there is hope. >> thank you. >> joining me now is eddie redmayne who plays stephen hawking. i'm pleased to have him at this table. >> thank you. >> happy birthday, by the way. >> thank you, yes. yesterday was my birthday. >> january 8 is stevens. >> it is also the anniversary of some famous scientist. >> go a layer. i told him when i met him the first time it was embarrassing. i had spent months researching him and reading everything about him. i finally got to meet him. as we can see from your bit of tape, now he just uses a muscle. it was just a muscle underneath the ra. he has a screen with the over that and a cursor going across. when he moves the muscle, it stops on a letter. when his feet with him live, there is a unique rhythm. long pauses. i was so nervous. i started spewing forth information about him to him for about 45 minutes. one of which was the fact that i was born on getting micex and he was born on -- born on january 6 and he was january 8. he took a while and reminded me he was an astronomer, not astrologist. i still have sleepless nights about it. [laughter] >> tell me about your feeling when you met him. after doing all the preparation. i was petrified. first of all, i was a little late. i was a late in getting questions to him, what you have to do because he can take time to transcribe them. he selects them a letter at a time. >> he is a busy man and he was also promoting his documentary. we could only meet him a few days before he started filming. i had spent four months preparing, because you want -- not shooting the film chronologically. i had had to chart out a sense of what the character's progression would be. from all the research of documentaries meeting people who knew him, ultimately you are making an educated guess. the fear was, what if i realize the choices were wrong.? there was a great drum roll of anticipation to read when i did not send the questions and. i had -- questions in. i had a live conversation. in the three or four hours, he said maybe eight or nine sentences. >> that is why they wanted me to fill them in. we had a long conversation to fill one hour of conversation. >> he gave me some specific things that were important to him. what i really took away was the strength of his character. even though he can move very few muscles it is like all of the facilities we have of gesture voice, all of that energy goes into those few minutes -- muscles he can move. he has the most charismatic of phases -- faces. there was the sort of wit and humor. i describe as a lord of miss rule quality. >> this is about the physics of love i am quoting to be else. this is a great love story. between jane his wife, then nurse -- >> when i read the script, i thought it was going to be a biopic of his life. when i read it, incredibly passionate and extraordinary love story -- jane and stephen -- what i loved about the script was it was almost a scrutiny or analysis of love in all its guises. this love, vibrant, passionate love. also family love. love of subject matter. ultimately, the boundaries of love. the physics of love element of it is interesting to read stephen is in search of the. of everything. -- stephen is in search of the theory of everything. >> the interesting thing about him is how he defied the odds of survival. i do not know how he has done it medically. >> in the preparation, the day after i was cast, i went to a clinic in london. i spent four months going there working with a specialist. and her clinical nurse. people suffering from als would meet them for the appointments. they would say, there are actors here. would you meet them? across the more it, -- board people were generous. some people invited us into their homes and educated us to read has been around for more than 100 years read they are getting -- 100 years. they are struggling to get closer to a cure. the diagnosis is normally 2, 5, 10 years. that is what stephen was given. no one knows if it is the specific strain of the disease, or he has had extraordinary care and help. nobody knows how he has managed to -- >> he said to me, he has always been able to put it is side can read in some ways, it has given him a freedom he would not have had otherwise. >> that is what i found amazing. his optimism. that extraordinary humor. what i find amazing for researching him, he was lazy. when he was at oxford, he did his undergraduate degree. to get the top degree, he had to persuade the examiners and said to them, if you give me a 21, i will stay in oxford. if you give me first, i will go to cambridge and you will never have to see me again. i love that, knowing one of the great minds of our lifetime was lazy. it was the sense of those two years that made him go, made him value time. ask how much of the physics to jeweler and -- >> how much of the physics did you learn? i want to talk a few minutes about quantum physics. but you had to understand a bit of it, have some sense of why this was so important. what he was looking for and what he hoped to prove has not been proven. >> one of the things i love about my job is you get cast in parts, different periods in history, and you get to immerse yourself. i gave up science when i was 14 or 15. i remember starting reading on day one after being cast reading a brief history of time. i was really getting it to read going, wow, i'm about to understand how the universe works. somewhere between page 17 and 20, i realized i was not quite there. there were specialists and brilliant people who helped educate me. the idea of one big theory. what i also loved was the whole world of academia. steven would present a paper in cambridge and it would then be responded to in russia, the idea of a huge chess game. wages being played internationally. for somebody who struggles to understand the intricacies, i found the fascinating. >> we saw a little bits of this and the cliff. he is receiving the assessment of his doctoral thesis. >> and that of course we have chapter four, the black hole at the beginning of time. >> space-time singularity. >> it is brilliant. superb. well done is the own thing to say. or perhaps i should say, well done dr.. and extraordinary theory. -- and extraordinary theory. >> thank you>>. >> so what next? >> prove it. prove with a single equation that time had a beginning. wouldn't that be nice? one simple elemental equation that would explain everything. >> yes, it would. it would indeed. >> thank you. >> one the met is noticeable in the performance, the smile -- one thing that is noticeable in the performance, the smile. tell me about entering his present. i.e., who he is. what you had to get. what did you see in terms of how he was as a human being and how he communicated? >> the thing about the smile when i met him the first time, i was so nervous i will never forget the moment he first smiled. it was overwhelming, the sense of warmth. it is a very specific smile. and all i had read about him the documentary material and then when i finally met him this mischief, this humor, the fact that he has been on the simpsons and big bang. . theory. that humor was something that has driven him. in incredibly comp located circumstances. there was one als patient, the night before i met him, he had almost choked to death. i met him the next morning. he described how he had literally been on the's door. -- death's door. the next day, he said, i wonder what that defying act i can do -- death defying act i can do. he is a funny man. >> i had to win him over. i knew i had won him over when he began to smile. he began to be more interested. he you could tell in terms of how he looked at you, the smile. the other thing you had to do was the eyes. really, the eyes. you had to tell a story. >> one of the great things about film as a medium is it sees everything. i thought the specific story being told in film, if it was a play, it would be very different. the idea the camera could really see into the my new shot of the muscles in the expression -- into the minuteta of the muscles and the expression. often you think of film acting as being about reducing things less is more. the compensation -- complication was, as he is unable to move, in theory that should be relaxing. you are distorting your body and extreme ways. there was a was a thing going on in your brain having educated yourslef, wanted to be true to it. that stillness at the moment in which i am most still, they are almost the most energized. >> at the same time, you are shooting this out of sequence. you must have some numbering system in your mind to remember exactly, where was i at this stage in terms of matching what he is like physically in this scene. >> the exploration the great gift that our director gave us was four months. you never get that in film. it was about exploring. there is a lot of documentary material from the 1980's. before that, it was photographs. if the upper narrow runs -- n eurons, stop working it is a different manifestation. how it manifests itself as different in each person to read the early stage is about taking as many for showing it to the specialist. there is a wedding photo of jane holding his hand. you see his hand is on top of hers. there is a softness and he is leaning his weight. the specialists would say, by that year, he has lower neuron in his hand. i would chart when each muscle stopped working. then i worked with a dancer who taught me to find that securely in my own body. when we came to shooting, the physicality -- the illness could not be less important to him. he is passionately and fully that this is not a story about a disease or illness. we wanted to make sure when we filmed, we could be free to play the truth. >> what does she mean to him? what's what does jane mean? -- >> what does jane mean? >> they meet in college and they are very different. >> i have to be careful answering questions. one of the convocations has been promoting it and talking on behalf of stephen. i would never want to do that. >> but it is central to the film. >> the idea of people with different ways of living but complementing each other. jane has a phd herself, albeit in arts. she has a bigger -- rigor. she does not suffer fools. it was a great meeting of minds to request they are friends today? what's they are related >> did she accompany him? lets a live in cambridge. -- they live in cambridge. as does stephen with his carers. >> -- no longer married to his nurse. >> no, but they are friends. an amazing part has been the children. when i was trying to be appended to the illness, making sure i did not get it wrong. i remember tim saying, we did get in the wheelchair and use it as a go kart. puts swear words into his machine. >> are you interested it in his reaction? >> i'm not going to lie to you. from the second i was cast, you knew these people -- i believe in the power of film and i believe what i see on the screen. it was important that we got their approval. we had many sleepless nights before they saw it. >> are we getting it right? >> you do care. the film felt like the most sensational privilege, but also a great responsibility. >> this is the young hocking and also jane. before the diagnosis -- stephen hawking and also jane before the diagnosis. >> you see the shirts? you know why? >> my? -- why? >> the fluorescence is cut by the uv light. >> why do you know that? >> this is the night they came to the set? >> we shot in cambridge. that night, after that scene the most beautiful romantic rings. there was a huge fireworks display. we had three sets of fireworks budgeted. we were nervous enough as is. on cue, stephen arrived flanked by his nurses. the famous silhouette. on-q, the first of the fireworks went off. the most formidable, rockstar entrance i have ever seen. jane and jonathan were also there. it was early on in the shoot. felicity and i became very bonded because we were here during the scenes. we stuck together that evening. >> let me talk about you. >>educated and then went to oxford. >> cambridge. >> 20 to be an actor -- wanting to be an actor? >> always having loved it -- >> before etton? when i was 11, i was a >>in a production of oliver. i was watching bird man recently. the ruins of the behind-the-scenes stuff, i was a complete sucker. i studied history at a university. >> you got a job early. >> while i was at cambridge, it was the 400 anniversary of 12 night. -- "12th night." 400 years later they commissioned the globe theater to put on a production. they were looking for a young guy to play viola. >> you go on the stage -- >> i think it was be about ignorant enough not to know how brilliant mark was at that point. that was my education, learning from him. >> is there is something about british actors? there is a british invasion here. there is that event and others. -- benedict and others. they have enormous appeal to young women to you just got married a month ago. i talked to benedict about this. there is -- young women, teenagers are just fascinated with young british actors. this is not a new idea to you. don't they call them maniacs or something? >> i remember -- he has this true of fans -- toop of fans name toed the cumberbitches. i do not think they are maniacs. they are lovely, kind, generous people. i had no idea. it is insane. we have been working, both benedict and i for over 10 years. you do work in england. if you are lucky enough to get a break and come over here having worked in america extraordinary filmmakers -- >> do you feel a sense that things are changing? there is something about your life because of the enormous attention for this film, even though you have been working for a while? and you have gotten recognition before? there is something in the air now. people talk about you, they write more about you. >> what is interesting there's something about filmmaking that involves up. that stage, you can always go -- whenever i choose a play, i think, in the worst case scenario, if this is a nightmare , if we get horrific reviews, is there enough on the page to keep me going to an empty theater for three months? with film, there is an alchemic thing that happens. i have done scripts that i thought were great that ended up in awful. the amazing thing about film is become a nation of art and science. >> who is the alchemist? >> i think it is every partner read all the ingredients. if there was a recipe that was always successful everybody would be using it. >> take a look at this. this is stephen hawking talking about black holes. here it is. you said recently that black holes are not the eternal prisons they were once thought to be. how would you describe, today the present notion of a black hole? >> when something fell into a black hole that was it. nothing could get out of a black hole not even light. that is why they were called black holes. but then i discovered the uncertainty principle and quantum theory would allow particles to leave slowly out of a black hole. so things can get out of a black hole. they are not eternal prisons. >> or for human beings as well. >> maybe. [laughter] >> depends on the human being. >> you wouldn't look good when you came out. [laughter] >> you once said that the work of physics after the discovery of the grand unification theory the theory of everything would be like mountaineering, climbing a mountain or climbing everest. >> i would have thought it was fairly obvious what i meant. if we ever do find the complete theory of the universe it would be a great triumph of human reason but it would not leave much for us to do. we need an intellectual challenge. >> this is a yes or no? it would be the greatest achievement of science since einstein's three of relativity? -- theory of relativity? >> yes. >> well, i have not seen that interview and a long time. it is stunning. to hear him compare finding the theory of everything to climbing mount everest. once you get there, there is no place to go. that is the highest place you can go. >> that is what i took away from the film. the idea of what is the theory of everything? that perfect thing to read it is actually about aspiring to find that ring with the knowledge you will not necessarily find it. i was reading, when i was doing "red" i read something beautiful about art. being an artist is about aspiring to perfection with the knowledge that you will never get there. it is interesting to hear him talk about things in similar terms. >> the only kind of challenge you would enjoy. one that is so overwhelming you wonder what is after that. the interesting thing about being an actor seems to be -- from rough go to hawking -- r othko to hawking. there is something that brings them together. some sense of excellence, perfection. >> totally. i was talking to a friend who is doing a play on broadway. you were talking about the difference between film and theater. the wonderful thing about theater is you never get it right. when people say, how can you do it for six months? the answer is, you can never get close to get it right but you can try and sort it out the next night. with film, i have never felt it more than in les miserables but with film you can do hundreds of takes to realistically, you only get an hour or two. the knowledge you have built up all this time waiting for this one moment, and then you have those few takes. if you wake up with a sore voice or something is not quite right, you go home knowing you have to wait eight months to see yourself not having nailed it. interesting notion, perfection and so scrutiny. >> -- self's route knee. >> did you have a great singing voice in les miserables or did you have to learn a lot? >> i had someone i was a kid but it had been on the back burner. i had a brilliant scene teacher who helped me. >> did they seek you out? >> i pursued that. i had seen it when i was about eight or nine to read the little kid in it, give roche -- i wanted to be him. when i heard that tom cooper was directing it -- hooper was directing it -- >> you were getting ready to work with him again. >> i was shooting a film in north carolina. i found myself singing and sentenced to the producer. -- sent it to the producer. backs it is said about this role you become him but it is not imitation. you become him in spirit. i would assume you would a ccpet that is a compliment. it is not imitation to read are trying to find the essence of how he moves because it reflects who he is. >> i hope so. what was interesting about stephen was there was a certain amount -- one of the things he said to me when i set him, one of the specific and she said was, are you plainly before the voice machine? i said, yes. >> he said, my voice was very slurred. there was a piece of documentary footage where you could hear him speak. he was completely encumber hensel -- in comprehensible. if he wanted to be won his students, you had to spend a few weeks trying to understand him. everything before that was educated guesses. to have something to re-create and work on, because it would have involved subtitles, the producers were wary. he said, could you not have somebody translate me? that was his one note. could you have someone translate? >> he wanted someone -- >> he wanted us to be authentic to what the disease was. with that note, i went to the james and our writer who will win the scenes. in which jane half translates what some of he is saying. it was a weird mixture of a lot of sitting with an ipad all the documentary footage, waiting for my wife to leave. and then trying to create some of the facial muscles. then it was about connecting that to what i thought he must have been going through emotionally. rex tillerson about the role you saw early on. the direct -- there was something about the role you saw early on. the director said you pursued it with a passion. >> i was sent these great. as i said, when i read it, it subverted my expectations. it was about these two extraordinary people. it was also be directed by james marsh perm. he directed "man on wire." . i thought the idea of that subject matter and director was too good to be true. i hunted it down in the way you do any job interview. you try to persuade people you are from italy confident. -- formidably confident. >> is this the story where you came in and met him at a pub. you ordered a beer. he ordered coffee. >> what proceeded to happen is he had about five coffees. he got wired and i got drunk. somewhere along the way, it happened. >> congratulations. it is a remarkable achievement. >> thank you so much. >> what ever went into the performance, it is so clear, anybody who has been close to stephen hawking, even if you have not, you know you are watching -- is not just walking in front of a camera and performing. you had to have thought clearly an long and a deep about how you are going to capture this man who was such a fascinating human being. i thank you for that and thank you for coming.see you next time ♪ >> our country will never be the same. that is the sentiment throughout france today. it is like france's version of mad magazine. a far left publication that regularly satirizes organized religions of the world. today, that newspaper and the world have been darkened by the terror attacks that killed a dozen people. he hope and suspect the paper's commitment to freedom of speech is stronger than ever. the weekly publication is 45 years old. it has a circulation of 30,000.

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