Six things Newt Scamander (aka Eddie Redmayne) wants you to know about Fantastic Beasts and where to find them
Newt Scamander wrote a famous textbook that Harry Potter and his classmates would use while at Hogwarts. With his peacock-blue coat, bow tie and battered suitcase, Eddie Redmayne stars as
J. K. Rowling’s latest magical hero in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Redmayne spoke about his favourite beasts and his hopes for his character, Newt Scamander.
How much of Newt came from you and how much from J. K. Rowling?
Newt was wonderfully well defined on the page and then it was about hearing where Newt came from in her imagination. She wrote that Newt walks his own walk and that he has a Buster Keaton-eseque quality. [Keaton was an American actor famous for his physical comedy.]
So I met a man who tracks animals for a living, and he said that if you are trying to be absolutely silent, you turn your feet out. So I brought in that open-toed stance, which was great until I had to do stunts running like that and I kept pulling muscles.
Do you know if you’re going to be in all five of the Beasts movies?
No, I don’t. The whole production is so top-secret that at nights our scripts would get locked up and put in a safe. Jo [Rowling] has kept the story very close to her.
How do you feel about becoming a young adult icon, like Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter?
I don’t really know. How does one prepare for that? There’s nothing you can do really. A few more people ask for selfies and that’s about it. I think?
What was it like acting against the computer-generated beasts?
With the erumpent, we had some of the guys who worked on War Horse make a huge puppet that I rehearsed with for a few weeks. Then when it came to shooting, it would go away and I would have the sense memory.
Did you have a favourite beast?
I think Pickett was my favourite. He has got attachment issues and he just wants a bit of a hug. He is bullied by the other bowtruckles.
Where would you like Newt’s character to go in the second film?
You get a sense when you see Leda Lestrange’s photograph that this girl has clearly had an effect on him, so that would be interesting to see. Also you hear that Newt has spent a year out in the field in Equatorial Guinea. I would love to see him out with his sleeves rolled up, wrangling some of these extraordinary creatures.