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Old 11-04-2018, 10:32 PM
masterofmystery masterofmystery is offline
 
Post Eddie Redmayne & Katherine Waterston talk 'Fantastic Beasts' 2 creatures, Newt, more

SnitchSeeker had the chance to sit down with the cast of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald over the weekend for press junkets, and while they did of course chat about some of the big spoilers and bombshells in the sequel, those won't be reported on, yet.

The first set of interviews was with stars Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston in Los Angeles, who spoke about Newt's innate nature, working with Callum Turner (Theseus Scamander), thoughts of Dumbledore's sexuality, the Chinese creature the Zouwu and working with it on set, and much more.

Again, do note this is a portion of the interview, and the other questions related to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald spoilers will be posted after the movie's out on November 16th, so as to not ruin surprises for fans.


In preparing your role for Newt, did you do a lot of research. It seems he has a lot of autistic characteristics. Quite the opposite of his brother.
Eddie Redmayne:
It was really about finding Newt’s character in the first film. Jo was really specific in the script about the way he moved. He walked a certain walk. He had this Buster Keaton-esque quality. He wouldn’t look people in the eye. Some of the things he said and the way he talked reminded me of friends who have mild Asperger’s on the spectrum.

So I did do a bit of research into that world, but I haven’t been told by Jo that this is who Newt was. And Asperger’s and autism hadn’t been, especially in the 1940s, the term wasn’t in use. SO there was a little element of that. The other thing was, I met trackers – people who follow creatures for a living. The way they move, the way they walk and the way they talk, so that was interesting. Because the amazing thing about JK Rowling does, is she creates these fantastical worlds and fantastical characters, but there always so grounded in something real.

And the work with Callum [Turner; Theseus Scamander]?
Eddie:
The weird thing is, Callum was born about a hundred meters from where I was born. There was a very scary moment on set which I looked across and saw him talking to my older brother, who was really good at sports at school, was a bit of a schoolboy hero. I didn’t have to do much acting. But I felt great love for Callum. He’s a wonderful human being. Actually there wasn’t a huge amount of acting required in my relationship with Callum.

Katherine Waterston: I saw this little bit of a scene that they did together early in the shooting of the film with no sound, someone was running through it for playback on set, and they did a mannerism – one after the other – totally unaware the other had done it. It was amazing, like they had some inherent, symbiotic vibes going.

Eddie: He’s such a good man.

Katherine: Yeah, he’s easy to like.

With the controversy between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, in your opinion, why is there so much noise about the relationship of gays in the movie? Is the world not ready to see these kinds of characters?
Eddie:
I think the progress within the LGBTQ internationally has been at different stages in different countries. In different parts of the world there is still great prejudice against many people within that community all over the world and in this country and in my country. But I don’t think that, certainly not for J.K. Rowling, she has said that Dumbledore is gay that was controversy because David said that it wasn’t explicitly shown. You don’t see them kiss in this film.

It’s very clear that he sees Grindelwald in the Mirror of Erised. You see extraordinary intimacy and love even in the brief moments that it’s exposed. I think that she’s just telling a story over five films, and we will see more of their relationship. I think film is a way in which stories and people’s lives are communicated. I think it’s a really important art form, in that sense, because it’s a way in which people can connect stories they wouldn’t necessarily otherwise.

Katherine: I think for however many people have a problem with it, there are thousands who are thrilled about it, and very happy to see not exclusively heterosexual relationships described in cinema. They don’t get the headlines as much as the haters do.

Before you started filming, when you were working with the script, did you get together to discuss how you were going to approach the difference in the relationships between the two films? How you were going to work opposite each other?
Eddie:
That’s a good question.

Katherine. Yeah. No. (laughter) That’s a good idea.

Eddie: I thought we did.

Katherine: I mean, when the script’s so good, that helps a lot.

Eddie: I was going to say, there’s this amazing feeling of coming back to the characters. Katherine was describing yesterday, I’d never had it before. That’s why actors love doing plays, because if you do a play and you screw it up, you can try and fix it the next night. With film, you can’t do that. You have half a day to do a scene and then you drive home in the car an flippin’ come up with a brilliant idea halfway home and you’re like, “Bugger, I can’t do anything about it!” Just gotta wait six months to see myself be sh--. Whereas what’s lovely about this, is we get to jump back into it. But also you had the time between the first film and the second film to let those characters sit in you and marinate in you. Both of our characters are … the relationship has suddenly gone rrrahh through communications, but they stick to their guns and they get pushed to the edge of themselves, which I like.

Katherine: Also with J.K. Rowling we’re never going over the same ground twice. She’s always pushing these characters and challenging them in new ways. Right when Tina gets her old job back and that bit of her life gets sorted out, her love life starts to unravel. So she’s always challenging us in new ways, and that takes care of the question in the sense of how are we going to differentiate this film from the last. She’s differentiated it, and we just have to follow her lead. So thank god that’s not essentially our problem. (laughter)

How much do you know about the future of the movies? It’s well known that JK Rowling told Alan Rickman about his character three to four movies in.
Katherine:
Maybe you earn your stripes with Jo, and if you do a certain number of these films, she starts to reveal more. But we don’t know much more than you.
Eddie: Genuinely, we got off a plane two days ago and we found out that a lot of the next film is going to be set in Rio de Janeiro when she announced it on Twitter. When we signed up for the film, we thought it was going to be four films, and then at a fan event she announced it was going to be five films. But, she does come on set and she’ll whisper into our ears.

Katherine: She’ll say, “I shouldn’t tell you this, but …”

Eddie: Exactly. You see it happening to other actors across while you’re trying to do your scene.

Katherine:
“Oh God! What is she telling them?!?”

Eddie: But also what’s wonderful, and what was amazing on this film, for example, Bunty – who is my assistant in the film – is so lovely played by an actress Victoria Yeates, she only has one scene in this film, but Newt and she clearly have a relationship and it’s a well-established relationship, and so we asked Jo at the time, “What’s their history?” The next day, three pages of original JK Rowling text, now kept in my safe, written about the depths of their friendship, where it had come from, how Bunty had come to the book signing and had been absolutely obsessed with Newt, and they met there – all of this stuff, which was amazing.

Katherine: It would be an amazing party trick if you could ever get JK Rowling to go to one of your parties because you could say, “What was third grade like for Tina?” And she’d be like, “Oh, well, that was a tough year because she was behind in math.” She knows everything. There’s not even a pause. It’s there (snaps fingers) at her fingertips. It’s uncanny. The world is so alive for her, and so expansive. I really think that’s part of why fans love it so much. It just feels all encompassing and as complex as the world we live in. But she’s just got that up there in that big noggin’ of hers.

What’s your favorite beast?
Katherine:
I hate them all. (laughs) I feel nothing.

Eddie: Ezra says the lethifold. (laughs)

Katherine: Pickett. The first cut is the deepest. He was my first love.

Eddie, what’s the line that got cut off in Chinese?
Eddie:
I forgotten what the actual word in Chinese, like how it was said in Chinese. It was, “You’re all right. Calm down,” and it was to the Zouwu when basically he was thrashing around because of being manacled up. Part of the camera team, who is Chinese, she was teaching me how to say it and I was like, “David, I’ve got this great idea! I think he should speak in Mandarin to him.” And he was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, fabby. Cut.”

What were you looking at while filming?
Eddie:
With the Zouwu, there was actually a gigantic green bucking bronco that I was on. There was a hilarious moment where we all jump out of the case and I’m on the back of the Zouwu and I’ve got the two girls in the case with me, but the case is on the floor so I have to get it so I go, “Accio” and the case comes flying up to my hand really hard. So I’m on this green bucking bronco going, “Accio” and they had to throw it up and I had to catch it. It took about four days to shoot that because I could never flipping catch it.

Katherine: That’s what’s so amazing about this series, I think, that people don’t always realize is that a lot of this is practical and we’re actually just working out how awkwardly, physically how to move these characters.

It’s really amazing that your character had to have that suitcase at all times with him.
Eddie:
I feel bereft. There are occasional scenes where it’s not there, I don’t know what to do. In the first scene, when I’m walking down the corridor with Lisa, I don’t have my case. “What do I do with my hands?” One’s shoved in the pocket.

Katherine: And it’s not light. I’ve had to carry that case every now and then and it wrecks me.

Are you still training to use your wand correctly?
Eddie:
We have a wonderful wand movement expert who gives wand classes. Particularly for Newt in that scene when he’s tracking the creatures, Newt’s not an extraordinary wizard, but he’s really inventive in his world with creatures. So, using it in different … putting it to the ground, things come out. I like that idea.

Tell us about licking the sidewalk.
Eddie:
Licking the sidewalk? It was great. I wanted it to be like tasting a wine. You know when you taste wine you (sniffs). So he starts by touching it and then he goes (mimics licking).

What is fantastical magic for you?
Eddie:
I know it’s really glib and cliché but my wife and children. I think children are magical things. The fact that somehow they come out into the world, created and robust often, and this combination of humans, I still can’t get head around.

Katherine: I think all the people that are coming up with brilliant ways to try to save our planet are pretty magical. There’s like this 20-year-old kid who invented this thing that sucks the plastic up out of the ocean instead of like playing a video game. That’s pretty incredible to me.
Again, do note this is the edited version of the discussion, and the spoiler-filled interview will be up after the release of the movie. Coming up shortly will be SnitchSeeker's interviews with Alison Sudol, Dan Folger, Ezra Miller, Claudia Kim, Callum Turner, and producer David Heyman.


Pre-order tickets here for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald through Fandango.

Read SnitchSeeker's set visit breakdown of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, including the return to Hogwarts and London, and entering Paris's Wizarding world.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is the second of five all new adventures in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World™.

At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

The film features an ensemble cast led by Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Poppy Corby-Tuech, with Jude Law and Johnny Depp.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling. The film is produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Tim Lewis, Neil Blair, Rick Senat and Danny Cohen serve as executive producers.

The film reunites the behind-the-scenes creative team from the first “Fantastic Beasts” film, including Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot (“A River Runs Through It”), three-time Oscar-winning production designer Stuart Craig (“The English Patient,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Gandhi,” the “Harry Potter” films), four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood (“Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”), and Yates’ longtime editor Mark Day (the last four “Harry Potter” films). The music is by eight-time Oscar nominee James Newton Howard (“Defiance,” “Michael Clayton,” “The Hunger Games” films).

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.

This film is rated PG-13 for some sequences of fantasy action.
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