Eddie Redmayne Interview – “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”

“Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them” introduced a whole new perspective on the world of Harry Potter and his wizarding ways, with the 1920’s New York setting and with our two new protagonists, Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein.

This year’s sequel, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”, sees the gang chasing down Johnny Depp’s evil Muggle-hater Grindelwald all across Paris, …and in the lead-up to the release of the new movie, The Hollywood Examiner was lucky enough to sit down with its star, Eddie Redmayne, to talk about the new magical blockbuster and one of the most highly anticipated films of the upcoming holiday season.

EXAMINER:  Can you talk about the surprises of Part 2?

Eddie Redmayne: As we found out two days ago when we all got off a plane to find that Jo (Author, J.K. Rowling) had tweeted the next film is something that is going to be set in Rio de Janeiro. We were like, oh, that’s cool!

EXAMINER:  Have you been given a questionable line?

ER: I actually can’t think of one, but I always know I was never really one for the cheesy lines. I was always picked. “Salamander” line is not a cheesy line and what I love about that weird line is that Tina (Tina Goldstein, played by Katherine Waterston) gets it. Everyone’s like, don’t say that and we secretly knew that she’s going to love it. It’s like primitive flirtation.

EXAMINER:  When you signed onto this, did David (David Yates, Director) or Jo give you at least an outline of where you were going to start and where you going to end before you would say yes?

ER: No, I mean I’ve read the script for the first one before I signed up and with all of these, whenever you do a film that’s more than one film, you’re sort of committing your life to it and potentially 10, 15 years of your life to it and your family’s life. So, it’s a big step I think. But for me, the person in charge of that step is one of the great imaginations of the 21st century and that is why I just threw myself into it. As far as new changes to this, what I love is that he has always been an outsider. He’s created this cocoon of safety for himself and he’s a good person and he has great quality with these creatures. But is that enough? Is it enough to be like a good morally upstanding person? When the stakes of the world are so extreme, and I feel like in this film he realizes not only does he have to engage, but he’s got to get Dumbledore (Albus Dumbledore, played by Jude Law) engaged.

EXAMINER:  What makes it so special to Dumbledore because he talks about you having a strong skill set and we’re talking about the strongest wizard in the wizarding world, not having a skill set that Newt (Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne) has?

ER: Well, because I think that what I love about Newt is that he’s not the greatest wizard in the world, but his skill set is so specific. I mean Tina and you caught Grindelwald (Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp) at the end of the last film using like Newt has a distraction technique courtesy of this one. And they thought that was a magical lasso thing. But also, in this film by Dumbledore physically can’t move against. And because he keeps physically can’t because to protect the secrets.

EXAMINER:  Now that Dumbledore has that will he still need Newt?

ER: For me, at the end of this film and the way it’s inter cut between Johnny sort of enticing Ezra (Ezra Miller, played Credence Barebone) in and Jude and me sort of quite confronting Jude’s character, Dumbledore, gain weight that if you’re going to send me out into the field, no more lies. That we have to be in this together and you need to act. It feels like an engagement of, you know, that group who are on the bridge outside of Hogwarts and this darker side.

EXAMINER:  Tell us about Jude Law and his character.

ER: He managed, in that first look when it was his first day on set, was when Newt and he see each other, in that first time we looked over his shoulder, he managed to capture all of that gravitas and the CGI twinkle, it was amazing.

EXAMINER:  How has your life changed and where have you been recognized by kids, or whoever, where it’s like, wow?

ER: Well, I think the interesting thing is we make these films in a vacuum basically. We make them shrouded in secrecy next to the wizarding world outside of London in Watford. And it’s so weird because you’ve got the museum there and so as we drive to work every morning you pass, Voldemort and Harry [laughs] and we passed the bus and the things and then you’d go into work and right next to it we’re making these movies. But they feel, and David, our director, creates this very intimate environment so that you feel quite protected. It’s only really when you go out to these foreign countries, when you go to Beijing and there are people dressed up as Newt and Tina. When you go to like Japan or when we went to Alabama a couple of days ago to this extraordinary school where these teachers, and some of the students have enjoyed reading Harry Potter… these teachers  decided to change their classrooms to the various houses from Hogwarts and had decorated the corridors out of their own pockets. This is a low-income school where seventy-five percent of the kids were having their lunch paid for and watching these kids was kind of dumbfounding and some of them were dressed up as Harry and Newt and Tina and then it was really amazing.

EXAMINER:  The kids lose their minds when you walked in?

ER: They did. They did lose their minds. But we also lost our minds. It was kind of formidable thing. Mutual flip out, exactly.

EXAMINER:  Can you offer changes? Say I like to get this explained better or we need another scene about this?

ER: That’s been really interesting question because in the script is, Jo always writes it with great rigor, extraordinary detail. But there are moments like, for example, I remember originally in the script we thought we were introduced to that character. But we wanted to sort of come up with the need to be one more moment of connection we felt between Zoey (played Leta Lestrange) and Newt. So we put in that tiny little scene when he’s down in the case. So, I had this idea that like with cats, when there’s the thing of wool or like a mouse, they go, they can play with it, you know what I mean? And then they sort of pick it up and they play with it again and then they sort of begin to fiddle with it. So, we sort of came up with an idea collectively to show Newt’s relationship as he takes the thing. So, she just has this amazing thing by which, yes, she writes it and she writes it fully and thoroughly, but she allows us the freedom to play within that.

EXAMINER:  With acting and life experience and now you’re a father. What do you tell your kids?

ER: Well, at the moment, because my kids are like two and a half and eight months, people keep asking what’s enough? You could do real magic. What could it do? And I would just love the capacity just to just quick sleep spell. Just something, like encourage Luke my youngest, just to sleep through the night. Please. Or a nappy changing spell or something. But…., I think at the moment really, it’s not about what we teach them. But a bit about what they’ve taught me. Like it’s just every day you learn something new and you have to sort of try and navigate a new path. But also, it’s that old actor’s cliché, when you started out acting, you never think you’re going to work again and it’s all about the next job and can you get the next job until you retain employment and all that sort of thing. And suddenly when you have a family, it’s like, do I really want to go to this part of the world? How good is the script, you know, am I willing to up-heave my wife and my children’s life? And is my wife willing to read the script and her opinion? In order that we all shift together and move together. So that’s been quite sort of life changing.

EXAMINER:  What have your children taught you?

ER: They teach me about how to be patient because I’m like the least and it’s really interesting. I realize I’m the least patient, but also, they just open up like a part of your heart that perhaps you hadn’t had access before.

EXAMINER:   What was your reaction when you heard the first time John’s character speech about good and bad and right and wrong, good and evil? It’s pretty striking parallels you can imagine and if so, what was your reaction?

ER:  It’s a mixture, that it’s not as simple as black and white. That the use of charm, the use of seemingly rational arguments to manipulate. Yeah, it is extraordinary.

– END

Slated for release on November 16, 2018, the film will be distributed worldwide in 2D and 3D in select theatres and IMAX by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Additional Reporting by HNW