Monday, October 31, 2016

Eddie in Rhapsody Magazine 2016 November - This Charming Man

Story by Lizzy Goodman • Photography by Jason Bell • For United Airlines’ Rhapsody Magazine (excerpts)


Calling from his house in the British countryside, Redmayne speaks with solemnity about
the duty he feels to get it right. “When you’re given the opportunity to play someone 
as amazing as Stephen or Lili, the pressure makes you really buckle down,” he says. 


Redmayne brought the same reverence to his role as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts, 
though, of course, playing a socially awkward, stealthily rebellious wizard toting a tattered 
suitcase filled with magical creatures presented a new and different challenge. “The first time 
Newt is introduced in the script, J.K. Rowling had written in the stage directions that he has 
a Buster Keaton–esque quality to his walk,” Redmayne recalls. “And I was like, Oh my god, 
what a thing to write! Now I have to go and work out what that is!”


For Redmayne’s first meeting with director David Yates, the actor arrived looking the part —
unbeknownst to him. “I came with my briefcase—this little case where I keep my research and 
my script to whatever I’m doing,” he explains. “David started to tell me the story, and then 
revealed that Newt had this case in which he kept these creatures. So I slightly embarrassingly 
pushed my case under the chair to make it not look like I had come prepared with my own props.”


“I really do think J.K. Rowling is a genius. She creates this world that is so real and 
has such an intricacy and delicacy and authenticity to it. There are these magical, 
extraordinary elements to it, but it’s about trying to ground it in something truthful.”


“There was this amazing shop called Davenports—the kind of shop where real magicians 
buy their tricks, the sort of place where you could buy the equipment to saw someone in half,”
he says gleefully. “It had a very Potter vibe, actually—it was in this slightly grotty subway 
beneath Charing Cross station in London.” When he was 7 or 8 years old, little Redmayne 
would just hang out there, riveted. “When I got cast in this film, my grandma was like, 
‘I always knew you could play a wizard,’” he says. “She was thrilled.”


“I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but he’s an unusual-looking man,” Yates says. 
“He’s actually very beautiful, but not in a traditional way, so the camera really loves him.”


“He truly is a gentleman,” says Katherine Waterston, his Fantastic Beasts co-star. “But being polite 
doesn’t really get you very far in this world. You’re not going to win an Oscar because you write a 
thank-you note.” What Redmayne offers, she says, is more than “fancy English boarding school” 
gentility. “His kindness is not something he simply practices—it is him. That’s what’s so disarming 
about it. It’s not that we never meet a gentleman or we’re never around polite people; it’s just how 
genuine it is and how true it is, how soulful he is. It’s almost skimming the surface to call him polite.”


That radiant goodness allows Redmayne to more deeply explore “the edges” of people, as he puts it, in his work. “I’m a relatively straightforward human being,” he says, joking that he’s nowhere near as complex as the people 
he plays. “But I love being able to investigate those parts of characters that you don’t relate to at all, that you 
have to find a way to. As an actor, you’re given the freedom to explore those things in a safe environment.”


EW Popfest in LA 30th October 2016



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“Extra’s” Renee Bargh caught up with the new dad, who gushed about his 4-month-old daughter, Iris Mary, with
wife Hannah Bagshawe while doing press at Entertainment Weekly’s PopFest. When asked if he is getting any
sleep he responded, “Not so much of that. The amazing thing about it with babies is that you have one night
where you sleep through and my wife and I high-five ourselves, and the next night she punishes you!” - video

Video: Eddie Redmayne & Katherine Waterston Bring 'Fantastic Beasts' to EW PopFest (photos)


Magic came to EW PopFest on Sunday via sneak peeks at Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them, presented by stars Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston. 

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Four clips were shown in total, and the first saw Redmayne’s magizoologist Newt Scamander arriving to New York; the second introduced one of Newt’s many beasts to the screen; the third offered a look inside his mysterious case; and the fourth had Ezra Miller – who plays Credence Barebone in the film and was, according to Redmayne, the biggest Harry Potter fan on set – discussing a potential connection between the film and Gellert Grindelwald, a dangerous wizard of the 20th century whom Albus Dumbledore fought with in a duel that made him the master of 
the Elder Wand....

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...“One of the things I loved about this script when I first read it is, I think J.K. Rowling had always seen it as
telling a larger story, but the film is it’s own thing,” Redmayne said. “And actually the relationships that you see
arrive in the film, they stand together as one sort of whole piece. But what I love is the relationship starts kind of –”
“Combative,” Waterston chimed in. 
“It’s not love at first sight, put it that way – maybe there’s a bit of chemistry at first sight, but it’s quite combative,” Redmayne continued. “But what was lovely was to play a slow build, to be able to play this kind of — these characters are thrown into a world, this quartet together [Newt, Tina, her sister Queenie, and No-Maj Jacob Kowalski]. They’re all outsiders in some ways, and yet they have really heroic qualities within them. So it’s kind of lovely for us to not rush that and be able to play it slow.” 
Plus, Waterston added, the audience can see their chemistry build. “You know that eventually you know these two people end up together. So you can see and look for when they start to notice each other, you know what I mean? Because you’re in on it in a way that I think is really fun,” she said.


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Eddie Redmayne about the franchise's future:
“The thing is that it’s [Rowling’s] imagination,” Redmayne added. “She has such a passion for it and a specific story that she wants to tell and we get glimpses into that, and as Katherine said, it’s insanely exhilarating when that happens. I think Fantastic Beasts the title and Newt and his creatures are a way into this world, but there’s a much bigger story here about good versus evil that she wants to tell, and you haven’t seen much of it in the trailers and the clips of the film. But it’s really a core of the story that she’s telling and it has an epic, epic quality to it. … So I do see that [Fantastic Beasts] is a macro story that could take more time.” - full EW article and video 
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Eddie Redmayne Web Gallery links: Press Line - Panel
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with the latest updates and sources

Updated on Nov.1, 2016

Sunday, October 30, 2016

CBS Sunday Morning interview



Eddie Redmayne on being called nice: "Nice is boring. 
But I'd rather be nice than reprehensible, toxic." (x)



Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne: "I've never been someone that was
sort of blessed with innate talent...I had to work at it." (x)

 

Never before seen baby Eddie photos



Globe Theatre visit







Walk in London


Eddie Redmayne on fame: "you still live your own way and you carve
your own path. And the rest is noise, really." (x)

 

"I find that what doubt does, or fear, is it makes you come up with as many 
ideas as you possibly can. And on film that works 'cause you're then handing 
over that fear to the director, who has to make sense of all those options"

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Related tumblr posts
including my gifset

They made recordings on Sunday October 9, 2016 in London
My post: Eddie at the Tate Modern on Sunday
my earlier post includes Maddie's selfie

maddie_rolfe: Okay Eddie, if you insist... #papped 📸 #eddieredmayne @cbstv