Many set reports released last week, it took me a while to read them. I'm a very slow reader with
lack of free time. This post is a taster, you can read the full interviews by clicking the title links:
Pottermore: 10 revelations from the set of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
‘I read [the script] and it has such an intricacy to it. It has so many layers. And it has so many
jaw-dropping moments if you’re a Potter fan,’ he said. ‘Basically, at the end [of reading the script]
my jaw is on the floor,’ Eddie laughed. ‘And I then have to start and read it all over again.’
David Yates, Callum Turner and Eddie Redmayne on the set of FBTCoG - Image: Warner Bros.
‘One of the things I’ve enjoyed most is working with Callum,’ Eddie said. ‘I was watching
War and Peace which he was in. My wife and I were watching and he turned up on screen and
literally, both Hannah and I [said] that’s like a taller, darker, better looking version of me.’
‘It’s probably been my favourite scene to shoot so far, the baby Nifflers,’ Eddie admitted.
‘They’re just causing havoc and it coincided with the time that I now have a 15-month-old
child and the baby Nifflers retain many of the same qualities!’
Photo: Ben Watts @wattsupphoto on IG photo via @eddie_redmayne_russia on IG
Collider: ‘Fantastic Beasts 2’: Eddie Redmayne on Leta, Baby Nifflers, and Newt’s Dark Side
"... one of the questions I said to to David, the director, and Jo, is now we’re into the next film with Newt.
Where should we take him? And they wanted to dig deeper into what David describes as naughtiness. Like
his confidence in his own capabilities, his lack of confidence with other people, his kind hard and prickly
nature. Like to stand up for what he believes in. And it doesn’t make him easy, and it’s a wonderful challenge
for me, that. And it’s been lovely for them to go no, no, no. I want you to take it more into that place...
I feel like Newt’s skillset is quite unique, and I don’t just mean with beasts, I mean with empathy. His
capacity to see broken people and to reach out to broken people is a skillset which is pretty unique. And it’s
one of the things that Dumbledore has always, since he was a kid, seen in Newt. And the complexity of …
if it is building to a showdown between these two, [Jo has] created a scenario that’s not as simple as the
two can just face off. And actually, Dumbledore needs to recruit the skillset of Newt to help."
Eddie on what's Newt's secret with the ladies: "Firstly, I think it’s his unawareness. And secondly, I think
it’s his passion. Like, I always find that when someone is passionate about anything, it’s always an
attractive quality. And particularly when it’s not in need of approval. I think that he has a very large
heart. I think he, as we were talking before, I think he has great empathy, yeah."
Click here to read this great interview in full (
also on Eddie Redmayne Web)
My earlier post about the Eddie Redmayne FBTCoG set interview video for TOHO Cinemas
Mugglenet - Eddie Redmayne Interview
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photo for EW by Ben Watts
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"...it’s an odd thing when you get involved in a film and you read an original script but you don’t know where your character’s going or what’s coming with it. And it was properly exhilarating to get to see the new script, I suppose, almost from a fan’s point of view. You’ll see where Jo has taken us.... I’ve known Jude for many years, socially, and admired his work, and when we got to play, it was really playful. And he has that sort of twinkle in his eye that was, I think, so important in the depictions of Dumbledore in the films and certainly was really important to J.K. Rowling. And I don’t know about you, but I find that thing with influential teachers at school when you then grow up and you sort of see them as human beings, it’s a bit like that parent thing, when they are fallible, but you always have that sort of odd dynamic. But I think they have quite a special relationship. So yeah. It’s been fun....
...when David was auditioning people for that part (Theseus) and then he’s like, “I want you to test with this actor” and Callum walked in, I was like, “Holy shit.” [Everyone laughs] ... And he’s been really fantastic. And talking to Jo, how Jo had written Callum’s character in this film versus how he’s mined that material, I think, has changed her opinion of where she might take him. And that’s so exciting for us, when she has a plan of what the big major arc is, but she absolutely, when she comes to set, talks about responding to different actors’ takes on different characters and how that then shifts her opinion. So it’s lovely to feel like you’re an active part of something. "
Eddie also talks about Newt-Tina, Bunty, Newt Laurel and Hardy-style relationship with Jacob, about his
first reaction, when he read the script, the code-names they used for some main characters and more...
Mugglenet: Callum Turner Interview
Callum Turner plays Newt Scamander’s older brother, Theseus, in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. ...he went into detail about the differences between the brothers, how he got into the mindset of an older brother,
and his love for the Potter books growing up. We also learned his Hogwarts House!
Callum about his audition:
"It was the normal process of going in with Fiona Weir, who is the casting director, and then having a second meeting with David [Yates] and then having a third with Eddie, which I was really, really excited about, workshopping it with David and Eddie, because obviously, David is one of the best directors we’ve got in England, and I think Eddie is the same as an actor, and I followed his career upward, basically, and in a sense, not tried to model but have been lucky to be able to go and do American indies like Eddie has, and I was very impressed and inspired by the choices that he makes. He’s always made really good choices, so yeah, I was over the moon to just go and meet him, and actually, I did this weird thing on the first take. There’s this scene, and I just kissed him on the head. We weren’t even recording. It’s not in the movie. There’s no reason for me to have done it. But yeah, I think that’s probably why I got the part.... He’s just [a] very nice man and didn’t really say anything, but I’m sure when I left the room, they were like “Huh?” But yeah, so it was within the conventions of a casting process. Pretty normal but with really brilliant people."
On what was it like coming in with this cast that was already established for the first film:
"I’ve been watching all these people’s films since I was a kid, like Johnny Depp, I mean, Eddie I said,
even Ezra [Miller]. I’ve been a big fan of Ezra before I started acting, so yeah, it was pretty scary,
but like I say, everyone’s so nice and wonderful that it was quite a smooth boat into being there.
I’ve been here forever. I forgot there was another film before."
Mugglenet: Ezra Miller Interview
It’s a very particular feeling on this set. It’s immense. It’s also more quiet than a lot of smaller sets
I’ve ever been on. And there’s a real sense of collaboration in the process of finding each scene.
We take time to rehearse, which is a rare gift when you’re on a studio schedule making an enormous
movie. We have a lot of really considered conversations in which everyone’s voice is heard who’s
participating in the scene. We work really intimately with these various devoted departments, like the
puppeteers and the visual effects department, the props department, various people who are enabling
us to fall deeper and deeper into a world of imagination…"
More reports and interviews from Mugglenet:
David Yates Interview
"Fundamentally, it’s a love story, but it has a really interesting thriller-esque sort of vibe to it as well."
Pierre Bohanna Interview
What Brings You to Paris: Why Your Favorite Fantastic Beasts Characters Are in the City of Lights
On Leta Lestrange: "...I think she’s complex and rich and charismatic, and Zoë is bringing color and shade to the part that, I think, elevates it even further. I think that she is a wonderful character, who, like so many of Jo’s characters, is trying to come to terms with who they are."
"Leta is someone who[m] Newt had a very close relationship, way back, with. And they were at Hogwarts together, and one of the things I think we will enjoy is, just like his love of beasts, he was able to see the good in people. And Leta is someone who, I think, wrestles with that a little bit. She’s from a pure-blood family, and that whole thing of what you’re born and who you are is an element of her character. She’s a wonderful character, and so in terms of family, I think it’s a part of who she is."
On Grindelwald: "He can make people follow him because he is as persuasive as he is. He’s incredibly charismatic. And he is wonderfully amoral. Or awfully amoral, depending on which way you look at it. Wonderful for a delicious villain, awful in terms of an individual. And he’s an absolutist. He sees only one path. He believes in [the] superiority of wizardkind over Muggles and makes a very persuasive case for that. Not one that I am prepared to follow. Not one I suspect you’re prepared to follow. But you can understand why some people do, and that’s really, really scary."
EW: Zoë Kravitz reacts to her character getting dissed in Fantastic Beasts
The Leaky Cauldron: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Set Reports:
Interview with Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander)
"...discussing how Newt will develop going forwards, his relationships with other
characters (specifically Theseus, Leta, Bunty and Tina), his love of magical creatures,
and his role in Dumbledore’s plans to thwart Grindelwald! (Spoiler Warning!)
Interview with Costume Designer Colleen Atwood
“...With Newt we all sort of fell in love with the blue coat, right? So what I realized that
I wanted to do with it is take a little bit more– he’s done a little better in the world on the
outside. His clothes are a little bit nicer quality; they’re not quite as rumply; they’re a little
more urban I’d say. He’s written a book and he’s become acknowledged for who he is.
And what I did is I took a gray fabric that I found that I had woven for the film ‘cause I
found an old piece and then the mill luckily reproduced it for me and then we just wanted
a little bit of a hint of blue so I did a screen over it of little, tiny blue dots so in some of
the light you catch kinda the old blue. It’s pretty subtle but you get a little kick of it without
it being the same..."
The Magical Creatures of Crimes of Grindelwald
Bowtruckle, Niffler, Baby nifflers, Thestral, Kelpie, Zouwu, Firedrake, Augurey,
Matagot and Leucrotta
Character Profiles: Trouble in Paris
This report will disclose firsthand exclusive details about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes
of Grindelwald characters, including plot details not seen in the trailers (Spoiler alert)!
Newt Scamander: ... a brilliant Magizoologist, is a courageous and resourceful wizard
... He would prefer to carry on quietly with his life’s work: studying, rescuing and caring
for magical animals. However, his former professor and friend, Albus Dumbledore, has
another job in mind for him—a mission that will again set him directly in the path of the
dangerous, and increasingly more powerful, Grindelwald...
More characters: Tina and Queenie Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Albus Dumbledore,
Gellert Grindelwald, Credence, Maledictus, Leta Lestrange, Theseus Scamander,
Yusuf Kama, Nicholas Flamel, and Abernaty
Interview with Callum Turner (Theseus Scamander)
