By Katie Bellman
While promoting
The Danish Girl's release this month, Eddie Redmayne gave a few hints here and there about the current production of
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, including working with his human and non-human costars.
Redmayne, who plays lead Newt Scamander in the series, told the Wall Street Journal about a scene he shot earlier this month with costar Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) and some large snakes.
Quote:
Is “Fantastic Beasts” easier to play, without all the physical changes?
Eddie Redmayne: I think it may just be my personality, but I always find a reason to worry. So with Stephen Hawking it was about letting down Stephen. With Lili’s story it’s about letting down the trans community. And with “Fantastic Beasts” it’s wanting to do justice to an extraordinary world that J.K. Rowling has created.
Do you have to deal with any live animals or just imaginary creatures?
Redmayne: There are some live animals. Dan Fogler [who plays Newt’s nonwizard friend] and I had to negotiate quite some epically-sized snakes the other day. We went, “Wait a second, can’t we CGI those in?”
Redmayne also proclaimed his love of his wizard alter-ego during The Danish Girl premiere last weekend to Reuters. Redmayne noted that he does keep an eye on the Harry Potter and online fan base, and especially did so when the first images from Fantastic Beasts were released in early November.
Quote:
Redmayne: I feel so lucky to be a part of it. J.K. Rowling has written and created such extraordinary characters and I love the world she creates. I love her imagination and to get to be a part of it is kind of wonderful but it's interesting because whenever you make a film you do it in a kind of vacuum and you don't really think about judgement - and we're making the film at the moment. But the first images came out and only then did I feel the weight of the fan base and the scrutiny but I love the character of Newt so I'm enjoying playing him.
Finally, Redmayne compared the shorter film shoots for
The Danisl Girl and how it compared to the lengthy shoot of
Fantastic Beasts, which is still in the middle of production, and completes at the end of January. That and much more can be read in Details magazine's
profile of the actor; a behind-the-scenes of his photo shoot is below.
Quote:
"My last two films were eight-week shoots," he says. "We've done nine on this one and have barely scratched the surface. It's about pacing yourself in a different way."
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's first installment, written by J.K. Rowling, hits theaters in November 2016, while
The Danish Girl opens in limited release this Friday.